Apostle Franklin D. Richards followed Apostle Snow:
"Beloved fellow-mourners: On occasions of this kind, when the great men whom God has raised up for our guidance, are released from their labors in this low estate and called to another of a higher and more glorious character, it appears to me suitable that we should spend a little time and dwell upon their virtues, their excellent examples, and those high, dignified traits of character which they have shown forth unto us as the exemplars of that which is right and proper before all good people, and which is most acceptable to God and the angels of heaven. We are called upon to part with one of God's noblemen—a brother, a father, a husband and a true friend to all that is praiseworthy among mankind. Many of the points of his character and of the transactions of this great and good man have already been noticed in the prints, and it is to be hoped that a correct, competent and creditable biography of his life may be given to the Saints and to the world, that his true character as a man of God may be known as a standing and abiding testimony to the whole human family. I, therefore, cannot—neither can any of us today—enter largely into a consideration even of the most important features of the busy and very profitable life which he has spent. But I wish to notice two or three of the prominent traits of his character, which as a fellow-laborer in the gospel, I have come personally to know.
"President Taylor was a man who could not get down to grovel with the low-lived, the vicious, the ribald, nor any who indulged in the follies and vanities of mortal life. When the gospel found him, he was aspiring from the measure of grace that existed among the most devout religious worshipers, and hungering and thirsting for something nobler and better; and the testimony of the glorious truths again revealed came to his ears by the Elders of the Church, and soon by the blessed testimony of the Prophet Joseph.
"Brother Parley P. Pratt had the distinguished honor to sound the gospel of Jesus Christ in his ears. He was the instrument to lead him into the Church of Christ. Brother Pratt found in him that right heart, and that open hand by which he was led to go right forward in the truth, and the new wine in the old vessel did no harm. President Taylor was a man bold and daring for the truth. He knew no fear. I recollect well when he and I were on our missions in Europe together, he labored in France—on the coast of infidel France—if I mistaken not in Havre.[[1]] He labored in that vicinity diligently; and at one time a number of religious divines combined together to put down this heresy, as they term it. President Taylor, with that boldness which ever characterized him, consented to meet a whole pack of them, all that were willing to conspire together to silence and turn away the testimonies from reaching the hearts of the people. I recollect well my feelings when in Liverpool at the time. Morally speaking it was like Paul when he writes about fighting wild beasts at Ephesus. He withstood them and he brought forth the truth, and souls were given him as the fruit of his labors; an interest was awakened, and some were gathered out. His labors were continued and incessant until he obtained a translation of the Book of Mormon in the French language.
"President Taylor was a man who in his bearing and nature was onward and upward. Who that is before me ever heard him indulge in ribaldry or light and trifling and vain conversation? He was always looking forward, from the moment he embraced the gospel, for a higher platform upon which he could climb, and raise until he could go back, a son of God, and associate as he did here upon the earth, with the prophets of the Most High. There were but very few men that attained the warm, personal relation that he attained to and maintained most successfully with the Prophet Joseph Smith till he died, and the story of that personal affection was consummated by the bullets he received in Carthage jail with the Prophet when he was slain. President Taylor was himself disabled. In the scene that he then passed through he experienced all that pertains to martyrdom. He never suffered greater pain, or more severe pain than he experienced in the jail with the Prophet Joseph. But it was not appropriate for him to give up the ghost then. He had to wait another forty years, that he might show forth his magnanimity, his Priesthood and his fervor, and be a blessing to God's people in these valleys of the mountains.
"At another time when President Taylor was laboring in New York, he went to work and with faith, and the co-operation of such brethren as he could find, established a paper, and published it in New York—one of the most successful enterprises of the kind that was ever undertaken in the last days. Some of the papers of New York undertook to run him out, thinking New York belonged to them. They dared President Taylor to an investigation. He proposed to meet as many of them as pleased to attend; but he was ready with so magnanimous a heart and so full a hand, that they declined the opportunity to meet him. I cite these instances of the high moral bravery that President Taylor possessed anywhere, everywhere and at all times in behalf of the truth while traveling and laboring in various countries. This has been his spirit and feeling. And while he has been of this magnanimous character, he has always entertained a most profound regard for legitimate authority. No man delighted more to receive and obey the counsel of those over him. This he did with the Prophet Joseph although some of the counsels given him, tested him and many of his brethren to the innermost soul and to the veritable life itself. President Taylor always delighted to serve the people. It was a notable trait in his character that he was not addicted to hankering after money. Many men could discover a sovereign or a half eagle a long way farther off than he could. He sought for the riches of eternal life. Blessed be God, he is rich in the possession of the knowledge he attained, and the skill and integrity which he exercised, and the authority with which he was entrusted until he has taken his departure and gone hence.
"President Taylor entertained the most profound regard for the superiority of the principles of the American government as embodied in the holy constitution, and the just laws of the land. I recollect well when the news arrived of the passage of those laws which have lately engaged the attention of the people, how with what consideration he sat down and conversed with myself and others upon that subject, and how he carefully and prayerfully adjusted the affairs of his household in a way that, in the honesty of his heart and the magnanimity of his soul, he felt that no man nor no government could take exceptions to. He felt to place himself in conformity with the law. He would rather do that than that any issue should arise. He therefore gladly bade family, kindred and friends adieu and went into retirement, went where, under certain circumstances he could still serve his brethren, still counsel them in the ways of life, still advise them as a man who was entrusted with the keys of eternal life to the human family, and this he did, blessed be God! until the day of his death. And it will be pleasant to some who are present to know that President Taylor has not died of organic disease. He has died from the legitimate consequences of confinement, of limitation from exercise, just as everybody else would do if they were limited and could not get exercise. Their candle would go out from want of oil; the fires of their life would go out for want of fuel. He has attained to the age of four score, and the Lord has permitted him to finish his days in this, and to a great degree, happy manner, notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances which surrounded him.
"When we recount the activity of his life, when we contemplate the dignity of his character and of his course, and how exceptional it has been, what an example it is for us! Should we not be tending upward too and continually so?
"But President Taylor, by the blessing of God was placed in a position in which he was not only a father and protector to his family, but God made him a great benefactor to many of the human race. There are numbers here today before me, who have been brought from distant lands—lands where poverty and want looked them in the face—and they have been brought to this land where there is room for enterprise and industry, whereby multitudes of the poor have come to have homes and the comforts of life around them. President Taylor has exercised this discretion and this authority with a liberality that was becoming a saint of God, and there are few in the Church more intimately acquainted with these facts than myself, and I wish to testify to them. A great man and a good man has fallen—fallen not from grace, not from any virtue, or any adornment of mortal life, but his mortal body is laid down that his spirit may go hence.
"And we are together in meeting, we are in his presence, though we may not discern it. God is bringing to light many wonderful developments of science, so much so that men are constructing eyes that they can look at the distant planets and tell their surface, and tell their distances, and comprehend those things that lie at very remote distances in space.