The pioneer West : $b Narratives of the westward march of empire
History
The pioneer West : $b Narratives of the westward march of empire
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)
the most terrible crimes; for mankind mostly believes that
“Il est avec le ciel des accommodements.”
He has been called hypocrite, swindler, forger, murderer. No one looks
it less. The best authorities--from those who accuse Mr. Joseph Smith
of the most heartless deception, to those who believe that he began
as an impostor and ended as a prophet--find in Mr. Brigham Young “an
earnest, obstinate egotistic enthusiasm, fanned by persecution and
inflamed by bloodshed.” He is the St. Paul of the new Dispensation:
true and sincere, he gave point, and energy, and consistency to the
somewhat disjointed turbulent, and unforeseeing fanaticism of Mr.
Joseph Smith; and if he has not been able to create, he has shown
himself great in controlling circumstances. Finally, there is a total
absence of pretension in his manner, and he has been so long used to
power that he cares nothing for its display. The arts by which he
rules the heterogeneous mass of conflicting elements are indomitable
will, profound secrecy, and uncommon astuteness.
Such is His Excellency President Brigham Young, “painter and
glazier”--his earliest craft--prophet, revelator, translator, and seer;
the man who is revered as king or kaiser, pope or pontiff never was;
who, like the Old Man of the Mountain, by holding up his hand could
cause the death of any one within his reach; who, governing as well as
reigning, long stood up to fight with the sword of the Lord, and with
his few hundred guerrillas, against the then mighty power of the United
States; who has outwitted all diplomacy opposed to him; and, finally,
who made a treaty of peace with the President of the Great Republic as
though he had wielded the combined power of France, Russia, and England.
Remembering the frequent query, “What shall be done with the Mormons?”
I often asked the Saints, Who will or can succeed Mr. Brigham Young? No
one knows, and no one cares. They reply, with a singular disdain for
the usual course of history, with a perfect faith that their Cromwell
will know no Richard as his successor, that, as when the crisis came
the Lord raised up in him, then unknown and little valued, a fitting
successor to Mr. Joseph Smith--of whom, by-the-by, they now speak with
a respectful reverential _sotto voce_, as Christians name the Founder
of their faith--so, when the time for deciding the succession shall
arrive, the chosen Saints will not be left without a suitable leader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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