D&C/CHURCH HISTORY - LESSON 42
THE LAST DAYS IN NAUVOO

1. Introductory Comments.
1. The Beginning of The End.
1. September 1844: The Hancock County "Wolf Hunt".
1. After a relatively peaceful summer, forces began to move against the Saints.
2. An extensive military movement by the people of Hancock County was planned against the Saints at Nauvoo.
1. Militias and military companies from surrounding counties in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri were invited to participate in what was called a "peaceful military display".
2. Governor Ford called it a "great wolf hunt" and the "wolves" to be hunted were Mormons and Jack-Mormons.
3. Fortunately, Governor Ford was able to put together a force of 500 volunteers which was marched into Hancock County, which was sufficient to have the leaders of the "wolf hunt" abandon their plans. The leaders of the movement fled to Missouri.
2. Trial of the Accused Murders of Joseph & Hyrum.
1. October 1844: A grand jury was impaneled to investigate the Carthage incident.
1. Within a few days, the jury issued bill of indictment against nine individuals.
2. The defendants appeared and demanded an immediate trial.
3. The prosecutor said that they were not ready. Their trial was held over until the next session of court.
2. May 1845: New session of court begins.
1. More than a thousand men took up arms to keep the Mormons away from the trial, thus no Mormons were impaneled on the jury.
2. The trial for the murderers of Joseph Smith lasted from May 19 to May 30, 1845.
3. Three of the chief witnesses for the prosecution had their testimonies discredited.
4. The testimony of those who were witnesses for the defense, could be summed up in one word, "perjury".
5. After deliberating for several hours, the jury handed down a verdict of not guilty.
6. A trial for the murderers of Hyrum was dismissed for want of prosecution and the defendants were discharged.
3. John Hay, in his account of the trial, wrote: "There was not a man on the jury, in the court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict of `not guilty' was right in law. And you cannot find in this generation [he wrote in December, 1869] an original inhabitant of Hancock county who will not stoutly sustain the verdict." (CHC 2:327)
2. The Leadership of Brigham Young.
1. On August 9, 1844, the day after the vote to sustain the Twelve, Brigham Young met with Church leaders and proceeded to tighten up Church organization.
1. Prior to this time the organization had been rather loose. Said Brigham, "I remarked that Joseph's presence had measurably superseded the necessity of carrying out a perfect organization of the several quorums." (Mormon Experience, p85)
2. Brigham Young was the leader who led the Church through a phase of consolidation, organizational strengthening, doctrinal clarification, and dealing with practical problems.
2. Important tasks taken on by the Twelve under the leadership of Brigham Young.
1. The missionary work.
1. In the October 1844 conference Brigham reaffirmed the importance of this work, "It is necessary that the Saints should also be instructed relative to . . . spreading the principles of truth from sea to sea, and from land to land until is shall have been preached to all nations." (Mormon Experience, p93)
2. Parley Pratt was sent to the East to reassert apostolic control over those missions. There was some rivalry there between William Smith, George Adams, and Samuel Brannan.
3. Wilford Woodruff and Dan Jones continued to lead the work in the British Isles.
1. In three years, Dan Jones was responsible for 3,600 baptisms in Wales.
2. Complete the Nauvoo Temple and endow as many members as possible.
1. The work continued at an accelerated pace. As much was done in the next 18 months as had been accomplished in the previous three years.
2. October 1845 General Conference was held in the temple even though it would not be completed until the following spring. The attic of the temple was completed and dedicated in November. The temple was not dedicated in its entirety until May 1846 when most of the Saints were gone.
3. WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE THE TWELVE WERE SO ANXIOUS TO COMPLETE THE TEMPLE EVEN THOUGH THEY WOULD SHORTLY ABANDON IT?
1. It was necessary to strengthen the Saints for the trials that lay ahead in moving west and building a new Zion.
2. Many would die on the trek west or in the early days of Utah. This is an important ordinance to further our eternal progression.
3. Endowment work began on December 10 and sessions continued steadily during the day and into the night and on Saturdays. By February 7, 1846, more than 5000 ordinances (endowments, sealings, & marriages) had been performed.
3. To consolidate and strengthen the internal structure of the Church.
1. The number of Seventies were increased and charged with conducting the missionary effort throughout the world.
2. Missionary districts were established in each of the country's congressional districts.
3. This strengthened the outlying branches and minimized the possibility of further division after the Prophet's death.
3. The Last Days In Nauvoo.
1. January 1845: Nauvoo Charter repealed by the Illinois legislature.
1. The Nauvoo Charter had provided:
1. Incorporation of the city and defined boundaries.
2. Mayor & alderman given the powers of justices of the peace.
3. Municipal court.
4. A city university.
5. The Nauvoo Legion - subject to the call of the mayor & governor for public defense.
6. The city council had passed an act assuring protection for all religious groups.
2. With the repeal of the charter much of the judicial and physical protection of the Saints in Nauvoo was lost.
3. The state's attorney, Josiah Lamborn, in a letter to Brigham Young, dated at Springfield, Ill., Jan., 1845, said: "I have always considered that your enemies have been prompted by political and religious prejudices, and by a desire for plunder and blood, more than the common good. By the repeal of your charter, and by refusing all amendments and modifications, our legislature has given a kind of sanction to the barbarous manner in which you have been treated. Your two representatives exerted themselves to the extent of their ability in your behalf, but the tide of popular passion and frenzy was too strong to be resisted. It is truly a melancholy spectacle to witness the lawmakers of a sovereign state condescending to pander to the vices, ignorance and malevolence of a class of people who are at all times ready for riot, murder and rebellion." (CHC 2:468-469)
4. The repeal of the charter left the 20,000 citizens of Nauvoo without a city government and yet life went peacefully forward. The editor of the Nauvoo Neighbor wrote in April 1845: "One thing further: having no charter with municipal authority to protect the rights of an innocent people, a city of at least twenty thousand people, presented the glorious sight of being protected by the counsel of God; and watched over by the trustworthiness of bishops and deacons." (CHC 2:470)
5. One of the means of protecting the peace in Nauvoo was the institution of the Whistling and Whittling Brigade.
1. When a suspected or undesirable stranger came into the city, troops of boys armed with knives and sticks would gather round the person and whistle and whittle vigorously, following him wherever he went. They didn't speak or answer any questions. They just "whistled and whittled". Finally, exasperated and helpless, the victim would leave Nauvoo.
2. September 1845: A mass meeting was held in Quincy to take action against the Saints.
1. This meeting called for the removal of the Saints from the state.
1. The following appeared in the Quincy Whig: "It is a settled thing that the public sentiment of the State is against the 'Mormons,' and it will be in vain for them to contend against it; and to prevent bloodshed, and the sacrifice of many lives on both sides, it is their duty to obey the public will and leave the State as speedily as possible. That they will do this we have confident hope and that too, before the next extreme is resorted to--that of force."
2. Brigham Young's response:
1. Propose to leave the following spring.
2. Asked for assistance of their neighbors to sell & rent properties.
3. That men will leave the Saints alone with the lawsuits.
4. That all business be transacted honorably.
5. Requested that the public peace to be preserved.
3. Quincy citizen's committee response: Accepted the proposition but declined to make any promises regarding the rent and purchase of property.
2. September 11, 1845: An attack was made upon the Morley settlement.
1. 29 houses were burned down. Their occupants were driven into the bushes. They laid in the rain through the night.
3. Preparations For Leaving Illinois.
1. Brigham Young and the leadership of the Church saw the writing on the wall and knew that the time had come to prepare to leave their homes once again.
2. As early as March 1845, a petition was drafted by the leadership of the Church and sent to the governors of each of the states and a revised petition was sent to President Polk, requesting a place of asylum for the Saints.
1. Nothing came of any of these petitions. The only reply was received from Thomas Drew, the governor of Arkansas wherein he suggest that the Saints move west.
3. Decision to go west.
1. In August 1842, Joseph said, "I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains . . . and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains." (HC 5:85)
2. Knowing of this prophecy must caused Brigham and the Twelve to look west in their search for a place of refuge.
3. Brigham and the leadership read John C. Fremont's Report of The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. They studied other maps of the west.
4. A decision was made to send a party of 1500 men to the Great Basin the following year. The preparations for this effort became the preparations for the general exodus from Nauvoo.
4. Nauvoo soon became a place of pitched activity in preparation for the exodus.
1. Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: "...every available building in Nauvoo had been converted into a shop where wagons, harness and other necessary articles could be manufactured for the journey. The timber for the wagons was cut and brought to Nauvoo, where it was prepared and boiled in salt and water or kiln dried. Teams were sent to various parts of the country to procure iron; and blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters and other workmen were kept busy night and day. There was very little sale of property because of the opposition of the citizens of the country, who used their influence to discourage sales by making threats against the new settlers as well as harassing the Saints."
2. B.H. Roberts wrote: "Nauvoo presented a busy scene those days. Men were hurrying to and fro collecting wagons and putting them in repair; the roar of the smith's forge was well nigh perpetual, and even the stillness of the night was broken by the steady beating of the sledge and the ringing of anvils. Committees were seeking purchasers of real estate and converting both that and personal property into anything that would be of service to those just about to plunge into an unknown wilderness; and purchasers were thronging Nauvoo, intermittently, to take advantage of those bargains in houses and lands which the necessities of the saints threw in their way; and which they could purchase 'lower than the prices at a sheriff's sale'." (CHC 2:540-541)
4. The Exodus Begins.
1. February 2, 1846: Brigham Young and the Twelve decided it was time to leave Nauvoo. WHY?
1. Rising persecution.
2. Indictments charging President Young and the Apostles with counterfeiting and other crimes.
1. At the December 1845 term of the U.S. District Court for Illinois, nine of the leaders were indicted on charges of counterfeiting the current coins of the U.S.
2. There were, in fact, some counterfeiters who had set up in Nauvoo but were run out of town. It appears that is was counterfeiters themselves who made the charges against the Church leadership.
3. An interesting story about the attempted arrest of Brigham Young as told by President Young: "One-five p. m., Almon W. Babbitt came into the Temple and informed me that there were some federal officers from Springfield accompanied by several of the state troops in the city for the purpose of arresting some of the Twelve, especially Amasa Lyman and myself. "It was soon reported that they were at the door of the Temple and were intending to search it. George D. Grant, my coachman, went below and drove my carriage up to the door as if he was waiting for me to come down. "William Miller put on my cap and Brother Kimball's cloak and went downstairs meeting the marshal and his assistants at the door, as he was about getting into my carriage the marshal arrested him, on a writ from the United States court, charging him with counterfeiting the coin of the United States. Miller told him there must be some mistake about it, as he was not guilty of anything of the kind, but the marshal insisted it was right." The Marshall took Miller into custody and took him to Carthage before he discovered that he had the wrong man. (DHC 7:549-551)
4. President Young reported on another occasion: "Hans C. Hanson, the doorkeeper reported that there were two officers waiting at the foot of the stairs for me. I told the brethren that I could bear to tarry here where it was warm as long as they could stay in the cold waiting for me." (DHC 7:535)
3. Rumors of Federal military intervention to prevent the Saints movement west on grounds that they were intent on setting up an independent commonwealth.
2. February 4 1846: The first of the Saints leave Nauvoo and cross the Mississippi to Iowa.
4. Brigham Young.
1. WHO WAS BRIGHAM YOUNG?
2. Quotes And Stories.
1. The story is told "...of a woman who asked the prophet for advice. After giving it, Young, wishing to record the incident, said diplomatically: 'Let me see, sister, I forget your name.' 'My name!' the woman retorted. 'Why I am your wife.' Young asked when they had been married, consulted an account book, slapped his knee, and cried: 'Well, I believe you are right. I knew your face was familiar!'"
2. In Arthur Conan Doyle's novel (Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson) A Study In Scarlet, Brigham Young was the villain.
1. The story tells of the attempts of two unhappy Mormons, John Ferrier and his daughter, to escape from Utah. The father is murdered, and the heartbroken girl is forced to marry a leading Mormon. Soon she too dies.
2. In the story the father is commanded to have his daughter choose between two leading churchmen. Young said to Ferrier, "What is the thirteenth rule in the code of the sainted Joseph Smith? 'Let every maiden of the true faith marry one of the elect; for if she wed a Gentile, she commits a grievous sin.' This being so, it is impossible that you who profess the holy credo, should suffer your daughter to violate it."
3. Young continued: "It were better for you, John Ferrier that you and she were now lying blanched skeletons upon the Sierra Blanco than that you should put your weak wills against the orders of the Holy Four."
3. The historian Bernard DeVoto wrote that Brigham Young's leadership "marks a decisive change in Mormonism." He continued: "Whatever else Smith was, he was primarily a prophet, a religious leader.... Young was primarily an organizer of the kingdom on this earth.... Under Young [Mormonism] became a religio-economic social system, based on cooperative enterprise, subordinating religious ecstasy to practical achievement.... 'Live your religion,' was his unvarying counsel to the Saints. And by 'live your religion' he meant: take up more land, get your ditches in, make the roof of your barn tight, improve your livestock, and in so doing glorify God and advance the Kingdom."
4. One Solomon Carvalho, who traveled south with Brigham Young in 1854 wrote: "As soon as our party were descried from the observatory at Parowan, the authorities of the town, and numbers of other gentlemen, came out to welcome the arrival of his excellency, Governor Young; and I never could have imagined the deep idolatry with which he is almost worshipped. There is no aristocracy or presuming position about the governor; he is emphatically one of the people; the boys call him Brother Brigham. They place implicit confidence in him.... He must certainly possess some extraordinary qualities, which could inspire such unlimited confidence in two hundred thousand Mormons."
5. Robert B. Day wrote in They Made Mormon History: "Dynamic was the word for Brigham Young. For thirty-three tumultuous years, by force of personality, character, ability, and organizing genius, he led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Brigham Young who ascended to leadership of the Latter-day Saints in the crisis of 1844 was relatively unschooled in formal institutions. But he brought to his task rare native abilities. In him idealism and pragmatism were blended to an exceptionally fine degree.... "A mind that never tired of detail, that left nothing to chance, was one of the greatest of his gifts. Coupled to all these capacities was an iron will that had been beaten on many anvils of adversity from Kirtland to Missouri to England to Illinois, shaped by the hammer blows of mobs and apostates to a cleaving edge. Tempered in faith, it was the driving power of the man through the fire and storm of one crisis after another through which he led the Church for a third of a century."
6. George Q. Cannon wrote of his thoughts near the time of Brigham's death: "As I sat near his bed and thought of his death, if it should occur, I recoiled from the contemplation of the view. It seemed to me that he was indispensable. What could we do without him? He has been the brain, the eye, the ear, the mouth, and hand for the entire people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the greatest details connected with the organization of this church down to the smallest minutae connected with the work, he has left upon it the impress of his great mind."
3. Personal Thoughts On Brigham Young.
1. My own study of Brigham Young has left me with the impression that he was not a prophet handing down the divine will, but a practical man carrying out the divine will as he understood it.
2. Comparisons between Joseph & Brigham:
1. Joseph the architect, Brigham the builder.
2. Joseph was like Moses, a lawgiver. Brigham was like Joshua, the mighty leader who led Israel to the promised land.
4. A Brief History of Brigham Young.
1. June 1, 1801: Born in Whittingham, VT.
2. After his mother died in 1815 he was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker, painter, and glazier. By age 21 he was in business for himself.
3. 1829: Moved to Mendon, NY with his wife & 3 year old daughter. Here he met his life long associate, Heber C. Kimball.
4. Caught up in the religious ferment of the day. Brigham said: "I saw them get religion all around me. Men were rolling and bawling and thumping but it had no effect on me. I felt that if I could see the face of a Prophet, a man that had revelations, to whom the Heavens were opened, who knew God and his character, I would freely circumscribe the earth on my hands and knees."
5. 1832: After studying the Book of Mormon Brigham was baptized and ordained an elder. His wife died and he lived with Heber & Vilate Kimball for a time.
6. November 1832: Joseph Young, Heber Kimball, & Brigham Young go to Kirtland and meet the Prophet. Brigham wrote of this event: "We immediately repaired to the woods, where we found the Prophet, and two or three of his brothers, chopping and hauling wood. Here my joy was full at the privilege of shaking the hand of the Prophet of God, and receiving the sure testimony, by the spirit of prophecy, that he was all that any man could believe him to be as a true prophet."
1. That evening a few of the brethren met together where Brigham was called on to pray and delivered his prayer in tongues. Joseph commented on this and said that Brigham had spoken in the pure Adamic tongue. He said, "It is of God, and the time will come when brother Brigham Young will preside over this Church."
7. 1834: A captain in Zion's Camp.
8. 1835: Ordained to the original quorum of the 12.
9. 1839: Leaves on a mission to Great Britain.
10. 1844: Upon the death of the Prophet assumed the leadership of the Church as President of the Twelve.