Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints / History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals

by Wilford Woodruff

The year 1857 made its appearance in the midst of an unusual and extraordinary snowstorm. The ushering in of the new year in such a manner was portentous of the stormy and extraordinary experiences of the Saints. Elder Woodruff records that he passed most of the day in company with President Young and Franklin D. Richards. They were actively engaged in compiling Church history. It is remarkable how completely attached to the leaders of the Church Elder Woodruff was. His trust in them was both complete and sublime. He never found occasion to suppose for one moment that these leaders ever proved unworthy of the trust he imposed in them. In his mind, Brigham Young was a Prophet of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, as truly and perfectly as was Samuel of old, or Peter, or Paul. His reverence and respect for the living oracles were as perfect as for the dead. The words of both Joseph and Brigham, he was always careful to write down in his journal. In time when the sermons were recorded by reporters of the Church, he confined his record to sayings that were made when there was no reporter present.

On the 11th of January, in the Eighteenth ward, President Young addressed the people and from his sermon Elder Woodruff records among other things these words: "It is sometimes taught among us that we should follow Brother Joseph or Brother Brigham, or some other leader, and do as they say, and that is all that is required. Now this is in one sense a false doctrine. No man should trust solely the testimony of another. He should have a direct testimony from God for himself. Then obedience is intelligent and not blind. I might have listened to Joseph Smith testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon until I was as old as Methuselah, and in the end I would have gone away in darkness had I not received a testimony from God that he was a prophet and that he knew by revelation whereof he spoke. Men should get the spirit of God and then live by it."

In those days there was a strong sympathetic interest in the welfare of the Indians. The better ones among them were feeling constantly greater confidence in the people and in their leaders. They had a real friendship for those white men who treated them, not only kindly, but with high consideration for their rights. The Indian felt that there were reasons why he should command respect as well as receive justice. Aropene seems to have been a chief specially favored among the Indians and respected by the Saints. In the early part of that year, Elder Woodruff records that this chief delivered a strong discourse to the Saints in which he exhorted them to respect the counsel of their leaders and to abstain especially from the use of liquor, and to do right in all things.

On the 17th of February of this year, Elder Woodruff addressed a meeting of the bishops and gives in his journal a brief synopsis of his instructions to them. "No man should boast of the authority and power of the priesthood, or contend about the comparative greatness of a seventy or a high priest. Men should not boast of that power until they have received some manifestation of it, and when they receive it they will not feel like boasting about it. Its power will create humility and not pride. It is seldom that I have seen the power of the priesthood made manifest among the children of men in our day to any very great degree. There are, however, some instances. One was when the Prophet Joseph beheld the sick and the dying in his dooryard, and when they were also strewn along the banks of the river for two miles. He arose and shook himself like an old lion and commenced at his tent door and healed all the people who were not dead on both sides of the river, by the power of God, and his voice was as the voice of God and the earth almost trembled under his feet as he went along commanding the sick to arise and be made whole. It was also made manifest by Joseph while in prison and in chains in Missouri.

"Again, David Patten was taken by an armed mob under a United States warrant. When he was surrounded by about forty such men who were acting under the garb of law, and who forbade him to say one word in his own defense, he arose in the power of God and held them fast to their seats until he had addressed them for about one-half hour. He told them that they were cowards, rascals, and villains, and proved it to them and they had not the power to harm one hair of his head, and they let him and Warren Parish go free.

"This power was again made manifest by President Brigham Young on the banks of the Missouri River at Winter Quarters, when the merchants brought up goods to sell to the brethren who were going to the mountains. Old Major Miller, the Indian agent, was there, surrounded by officers. In order to show his great authority, he told the merchants who owned some alcohol not to roll a barrel off the boat or he would knock the head of the barrel in and pour the liquor upon the ground. President Young thereupon stepped up and told the men to roll it out. Miller and his officers turned pale, and the liquor was rolled out and nobody was hurt. Other instances might be named where the power of the priesthood has been strongly manifested. These men never boasted of it, and they never will."

March 1st brought Elder Woodruff to his 50th birthday. About this time he recorded in his journal instructions from President Young upon the importance of keeping a journal. The President quotes from instructions from the Prophet Joseph on the subject. He shows that the written testimony of the things of God is quite as important as the spoken testimony, that the world will be judged by what is written in the books, and that where it is the duty to record the manifestations of the spirit of God and men neglect to fulfil that duty, the spirit will be withdrawn from them. "Were you to be brought before the civil authorities and accused of a crime or a misdemeanor, you may be punished if you cannot prove from your journal that you were somewhere else and are innocent. Your enemies may prevail against you."

These words from the lips of Brigham Young in those early days are significant because of the position the enemies of the Church sought to place him in. How often he was subject to accusations which were laid at his door and which the enemies insisted were true if he could not prove his innocence. How often that has been the case in the history of the Latter-day Saints concerning whom, in the minds of their enemies, there are no presumptions whatever of innocence. The order of proof with them has been different too often from that followed by the world in the administration of law and justice. From these admonitions of the Prophet it may be seen that so far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned, they may often be compelled to prove their innocence, for their enemies will not treat them with the fairness with which they treat one another, and regard men as innocent until they are proven guilty.

Just before the opening of spring conference, on March 23rd, President Woodruff officiated in the dedication of the baptismal font which had been erected by the people of the Fourteen Ward. The semi-annual conference in those days created a great deal of interest as well as anxiety because of those whose names were announced for the first time as missionaries to the nations of the earth. As the list was read at the close of conference, a profound silence fell upon the entire congregation, as wives and mothers, as well as fathers and husbands, never knew when the minute call would come to them or to their household.

This spring the missionaries adopted the hand-cart method of crossing the plains. They were an enthusiastic body of men who on the 23rd of April hitched themselves to their carts and made their way through the canyons and over the mountains to the Missouri River and other terminal points, from which they adopted a more convenient method of travel.