And now Joseph's blessing:
"Joseph, my son, you are called to a high and holy calling. You are even called to do the work of the Lord. Hold out faithful and you shall be blessed and your children after you. You shall even live to finish your work. At this Joseph cried out, weeping, 'Oh! my father, shall I?' 'Yes,' said his father, 'you shall live to lay out the plan of all the work which God has given you to do. This is my dying blessing on your head, in the name of Jesus. I also confirm your former blessing upon your head; for it shall be fulfilled. Even so. Amen."
On first thought it is a little strange that the children of Joseph the Prophet are to be blessed after him, while that promise is not in the blessing of Hyrum Smith. However, let us examine the blessing given to Hyrum Smith a little more closely. The first sentence reads: "My son Hyrum, I seal upon your head your patriarchal blessing, which I placed upon your head before, for that shall be verified. And what followed was in addition to that former blessing so there was no need of repeating what that former blessing contained; but it was to be verified. I have before me that former blessing. This is a patriarchal blessing given by Patriarch Joseph Smith on the head of his son Hyrum, December 9, 1834, in Kirtland, Ohio, and is recorded in Patriarch Joseph Smith's book of blessings on pages 1 and 2, and is in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. Here is a portion of it:
"Hyrum, thou art my oldest son whom the Lord has spared unto me. * * * * Behold thou art Hyrum, the Lord hath called thee by that name, and by that name He has blessed thee. Thou hast borne the burden and the heat of the day, thou hast toiled hard and labored much for the good of thy father's family; thou hast been a stay many times to them, and by thy diligence they have often been sustained. Thou hast loved thy father's family with a pure love, and hast greatly desired their salvation. Thou hast always stood by thy father, and reached forth the helping hand to lift him up when he was in affliction, and though he has been out of the way, thou hast never forsaken him nor laughed him to scorn; for all these kindnesses the Lord my God will bless thee."
I promised that I would prove to you that when the Patriarch blessed Joseph, his son, with the blessing of his progenitors, that it was not the birthright, but that that blessing was reserved for Hyrum. Here is the proof, or at least a portion of it. The blessing continues:
"I now ask my Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, to BLESS THEE with the SAME BLESSING with which Jacob blessed his son Joseph, for thou art his true descendant, and thy posterity shall be numbered with the house of Ephraim, and with them thou shalt stand up to crown the tribes of Israel; when they come shouting to Zion. * * * *
"The Lord will multiply his choice blessings upon thee and thy seed after thee and thou with them shall have an inheritance in Zion, and they shall possess it from generation to generation, and thy name shall never be blotted out from among the just, for the righteous shall rise up, and also thy children after thee, and say thy memory is just, that thou wert a just man and perfect in thy day."
We see that Hyrum was blessed with the blessing of Joseph, and we learn from the fifth chapter of I Chronicles that through the transgression of Reuben, Joseph received the birthright, and he got it from his father Jacob. In the second verse we read:
"For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's."
Before we leave this chapter in Chronicles let me state that if Joseph received the birthright, and if the birthright and the Presidency of the Church were inseparable, then it should have been through Joseph that the Messiah should have come; but we learn that Judah prevailed above his brethren in this particular.
So you see Hyrum was blessed with Joseph's blessing, and in his dying blessing his father declared that it should be verified! I maintain that the birthright therefore was not the blessing of his progenitors that was given to Joseph, neither to Samuel Smith.