Friday, 19.—I borrowed of Orson Hyde fifty dollars, which I paid to Mr. Eric Rhodes, and which he is either to repay in cash or let me have lumber.
I rode out with Mr. Jackson in the afternoon.
Told Brother Phelps a dream that the history must go ahead before anything else.
Elder George P. Dykes writes:
The Work Among the Scandinavians of Illinois.
One year since, I visited a settlement of Norwegians in La Salle county, Illinois, and baptized five, and ordained one elder, when I left them for about one month; then returned and organized the branch, and called it the La Salle Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and ordained Brother Gudmund Haugaas an elder—a man of strong mind and well skilled in the scriptures. He can preach in Norway, Sweden and Demark, having an understanding of their languages.
I returned to Nauvoo, and in a few days I was appointed by the special conference in August to labor in Illinois. I traveled through eighteen different counties, baptized six in Perry county, and returned home in December.
In January I left again and went to St. Clair county, where I was joined by Brother Henry B. Jacobs, who baptized twelve; and I baptized a German after he left.
I preached in Chester, Sparta and Bellville. From thence returned home, and again visited Ottawa, La Salle county. Spent two weeks, and baptized seven. I found the Church there in good spirits and in the enjoyment of the spiritual gifts.
The La Salle branch now numbers fifty-eight in good standing. Elder Ole Hoier was chosen to preside over them. He is well worthy of the office.
Elder Gudmund Haugaas and Brother J. R. Anderson visited the Norwegian settlement in Lee county, Iowa, in January last. Spent three weeks, baptized ten, ordained one priest, and left them and went home to La Salle county.
From thence Brothers Haugaas and Hoier visited a large body from Norway in Wisconsin Territory, and have laid the foundation of a great work, to all appearance. There are now fifty-seven members of the Church from Norway; and the time is not far distant when the saying of Micah 4:2 will be fulfilled.
NOTE.
The Prophet Joseph's Prediction Respecting Stephen A. Douglas.
The prediction concerning Stephen A. Douglas in this chapter, is one of the most remarkable prophecies either in ancient or modern times. It was impossible for any merely human sagacity to foresee the events predicted. Stephen A. Douglas was a bright, but comparatively an unknown man, nationally, at the time of the interview, May, 1843, and but thirty years of age. It is a matter of history that Stephen A. Douglas did, however, aspire to the presidency of the United States, and was nominated for that office by the Democratic convention held in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 23rd of June 1860.
When in the convention he was declared the regular nominee of the Democratic party, "the whole body rose to its feet, hats were waved in the air, and many tossed aloft; shouts, screams and yells. and every boisterous mode of expressing approbation and unanimity, were resorted to."
When Mr. Douglas aspired to the presidency, no man in the history of American politics had more reason to hope for success. The political party of which he was the recognized leader, in the preceding presidential election had polled one hundred and seventy-four electoral votes as against one hundred and twenty-two cast for the other two parties which opposed it; and a popular vote of 1,838,169 as against 1,215,789 votes for the two parties opposing. It is a matter of history, however, that the Democratic party in the election of 1860 was badly divided: and factions of it put candidate into the field with the following results, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, candidate for the Republican party, was triumphantly elected. He received 72 electoral votes; Mr. Bell 39; and Mr. Douglas 12. "By a plurality count of the popular vote, Mr. Lincoln carried 18 states; Mr. Breckinridge 11; Mr. Bell 3; and Mr. Douglas but one!" Twenty days less than one rear after his nomination by the Charleston convention, while yet in the prime of manhood—forty-eight years of age—Mr. Douglas died at his home in Chicago, a disappointed, not to say heart-broken man.
Let us now search out the cause of his failure. Fourteen years after the interview containing the prophecy recorded in this chapter, and about one year after the prophecy had been published in the Deseret News, Mr. Douglas was called upon to deliver a speech in Springfield, the capital of Illinois. His speech was delivered on the 12th of June, 1857, and published in the Missouri Republican of June 18, 1857. It was a time of excitement throughout the country concerning the Mormon church in Utah. Falsehoods upon the posting winds seemed to have filled the air with the most outrageous calumny. Crimes, the most repulsive—murders, robberies, rebellion and high treason—were falsely charged against its leaders. It was well known that Mr. Douglas had been on terms of intimate friendship with the Prophet Joseph Smith; and was well acquainted with the other Church leaders. He was therefore looked upon as one competent to speak upon the "Mormon question," and was invited to do so in the speech to which reference is here made. Mr. Douglas responded to the request. He grouped the charges against the Mormons, then passing current, in the following manner:
"First, that nine-tenths of the inhabitants are aliens by birth who have refused to become naturalized, or to take the oath of allegiance, or do any other act recognizing the government of the United states as the paramount authority in that territory [Utah];
"Second, that the inhabitants, whether native or alien born, known as Mormons (and they constitute the whole people of the territory) are bound by horrible oaths and terrible penalties, to recognize and maintain the authority of Brigham Young, and the government of which he is head, as paramount to that of the United States, in civil as well as religious affairs; and they will in due time, and under the direction of their leaders, use all the means in their power to subvert the government of the United States, and resist its authority.
"Third, that the Mormon government, with Brigham Young at its head, is now forming alliance with Indian tribes in Utah and adjoining territories—stimulating the Indians to acts of hostility and organizing bands of his own followers under the name of Danites or destroying angels, to prosecute a system of robbery and murders upon American citizens who support the authority of the United States, and denounce the infamous and disgusting practices and institutions of the Mormon government."
Mr. Douglas based his remarks upon these rumors against the saints, in the course of which he said:
"Let us have these facts in an official shape before the president and Congress, and the country will learn that in the performance of the high and solemn duty devolving upon the executive and Congress, there will be no vacillating or hesitating policy. It will be as prompt as the peal that follows the flash—as stern and unyielding as death. Should such a state of things actually exist as we are led to infer from the reports—and such information comes in an official shape—the knife must be applied to this pestiferous, disgusting cancer which is gnawing into the very vitals of the body politic. It must be cut out by the roots. and seared over by the red hot iron of stern, unflinching law. * * * Should all efforts fail to bring them (the Mormons) to a sense of their duty, there is but one remedy left. Repeal the organic law of the territory, on the ground that they are alien enemies and outlaws, unfit to be citizens of a territory, much less ever to become citizens of one of the free and independent states of this confederacy. To protect them further in their treasonable, disgusting and bestial practices would be a disgrace to the country—a disgrace to humanity—a disgrace to civilization, and a disgrace to the spirit of the age. Blot it out of the organized territories of the United States. What then? It will be regulated by the law of 1790, which has exclusive and sole jurisdiction over all the territory not incorporated under any organic or special law. By provisions of this law, all crimes and misdemeanors, committed on its soil can be tried before the legal authorities of any state or territory to which the offenders shall first be brought to trial and punished. Under that law persons have been arrested in Kansas, Nebraska and other territories, prior to their organization as territories, and hanged for their crimes. The law of 1790 has sole and exclusive jurisdiction where no other law of a local character exists, and by repealing the organic law of Utah, you give to the general government of the United States the whole and sole jurisdiction over the territory."
The speech of Mr. Douglas was of great interest and importance to the people or Utah at that juncture. Mr. Douglas had it in his power to do them great good. Because of his personal acquaintance with Joseph Smith and the great body of the Mormon people then in Utah, as well as their leaders (for he had known both leaders and people in Illinois, and those whom he had known in Illinois constituted the great bulk of the people in Utah, when he delivered the Springfield speech), he knew that the reports carried to the East by vicious and corrupt men were not true. He knew that these reports in the main were but a rehash of the old exploded charges made against Joseph Smith and his followers in Missouri; and he knew them to be false by many evidences furnished him by Joseph Smith in the interview of the 18th of May, 1843, and by the Mormon people at sundry times during his association with them at Nauvoo. He had an opportunity to befriend the innocent, to refute the calumny cast upon a virtuous community; to speak a word in behalf of the oppressed; but the demagogue triumphed over the statesman, the politician, over the humanitarian; and to avoid the popular censure which he feared befriending the Mormon people would bring to him, he turned his hand against them with the result that he did not destroy them but scaled his own doom—in fulfillment of the words of the prophet, he felt the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him.
There is, and can be no question about the prophecy preceding the event. The prophecy was first published in the Desert News of September 24, 1856. It was afterwards published in England in the Millennial Star, February, 1859. The publication in the Deseret News preceding Douglas' Springfield speech, mentioned above, (June, 1857) by about one year, and about four years before Douglas was nominated for the presidency by the Charleston Democratic convention.
Moreover, a lengthy review of Mr. Douglas' speech was published in the editorial columns of the Deseret News in the issue of that paper for September 2nd, 1857, of which the following is the closing paragraph addressed directly to Mr. Douglas:
"In your last paragraph [of the Springfield speech] you say, 'I have thus presented to you plainly and fairly my views of the Utah question;' with at least equal plainness and with far more fairness have your views now been commented upon. And inasmuch as you were well acquainted with Joseph Smith, and this people, also with the character of our maligners, and did know their allegations were false, but must bark with the dogs who were snapping at our heels, to let them know that you were a dog with them; and also that you may have a testimony of the truth of the assertion that you did know Joseph and his people and the character of their enemies (and neither class have changed, only as the saints have grown better and their enemies worse); and also that you may thoroughly understand that you have voluntarily, knowingly and of choice sealed your damnation, and by your own chosen course have closed your chance for the presidential chair, through disobeying the counsel of Joseph which you formerly fought and prospered by following, and that you in common with us, may testify to all the world that Joseph was a true prophet, the following extract from the History of Joseph Smith is again printed for your benefit, and is kindly recommended to your careful perusal and most candid consideration."
Then follows the interview between Joseph Smith and Mr. Douglas as recorded in the journal of William Clayton, as published in the News a year before Mr. Douglas' Springfield speech, and as now given in this chapter of the HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
This News editorial boldly accepted the challenge of Mr. Douglas. He raised his hand against the followers of Joseph Smith, despite the warning of the prophet; and they in the chief organ of the Church, reproduced the prophecy and told Mr. Douglas that he had "sealed his damnation and closed his chance for the presidential chair" through disobeying the counsel of the prophet. The presidential election of 1860, and the death of Mr. Douglas in the prime of life, the year following, tells the rest.
CHAPTER XXI.
DEFINITION OF THE WORD "MORMON"—DISCOURSE ON MAKING "CALLING" AND "ELECTION" SURE—MISSION TO THE SOCIETY ISLANDS OPENED—CHARACTER SKETCH OF THE PROPHET, "BOSTON BEE"—TRIAL OF BENJAMIN WINCHESTER.