By indulging in these reflections based upon the supposition of the success of Stephen A. Douglas in the election of 1860, I have wandered from the line of direct argument. I have nothing further to do with the career of Mr. Douglas than to point out in it the remarkable fulfillment of a prophecy which demonstrates the divine inspiration of the man who uttered it. Footnotes 1. _Mill. Star,_ Vol. xxi, No. 9. 2. See Cooper's American Politics, Bk. I, p. 86. 3. See tables in "American Politics," Bk. vii, pp. 22, 26; also, History U. S. (by Alexander H. Stephens), p. 559. 4. Shortly after the result of the election of 1860 was known in Utah, Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve Apostles, then residing in Sanpete County, Utah, wrote to the _Deseret News_ the following letter: "Ephraim, Utah Ter., Nov. 27, 1860. "Will the Judge now acknowledge that Joseph Smith was a true prophet? If he will not, does he recollect a certain conversation had with Mr. Smith at the house of Sheriff Backenstos, in Carthage, Illinois, in the year 1843, in which Mr. Smith said to him: 'You will yet aspire to the Presidency of the United States. But if you ever raise your hand or your voice against the Latter-day Saints, you shall never be President of the United States.' "Does Judge Douglas recollect that in a public speech delivered by him in the year 1857, at Springfield, Illinois, of comparing the Mormon community, then constituting the inhabitants of Utah Territory, to a 'loathsome ulcer on the body politic,' and of recommending the knife to be applied to cut it out? "Among other things, the Judge will doubtless recollect that I was present and heard the conversation between him and Joseph Smith at Mr. Backenstos' residence in Carthage, before alluded to. "Now, Judge, what do you think about Joseph Smith and Mormonism? "ORSON HYDE." 5. Joseph Smith's "Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States," _Mill. Star,_ Vol. XXII, p. 743. 6. "Figures of the Past--Joseph Smith at Nauvoo," p. 398. CHAPTER XXIII. THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY--CONCLUDED. On the 25th of December, 1832, the following revelation and prophecy in relation to the great American civil war, and war among all nations, was given through Joseph Smith: "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. "The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place. "For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations.