From the President's office Wilford Woodruff watched the procession as it passed. President Woodruff says that to himself he remarked, as he stood in silent gaze, "There goes to his final rest the third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Immediately President Woodruff and the Twelve entered upon the duties of the presidency. These duties were numerous and pressing. President Woodruff was not yet free from the probability of arrest and therefore did not appear in public. He signed hundreds of recommends to the Temple as they came to him from day to day. On the 9th, however, of October, at the general semi-annual conference of that year, in company with Lorenzo Snow and Franklin D. Richards, he entered the building at the afternoon session. As the people recognized their venerable President they greeted him with a round of hearty applause which did not cease until he arose and waved his hand in salutation. He addressed the multitude for thirty minutes and then quietly retired before the singing, as he deemed it unwise to expose himself to arrest. During the rest of the year he remained quietly at his home.
The duties of President Woodruff now called his special attention to the general affairs of the Church so that he remained constantly near headquarters. While the presidency of the Church devolved upon the Twelve, President Woodruff now looked to Presidents Cannon and Smith for information and assistance, on account of their familiarity with Church affairs during the presidency of John Taylor.
While the crusade was by no means at an end, its extreme bitterness was gradually vanishing. During the year Judge Zane was succeeded by Judge Elliott Sanford of New York. Mr. Sanford was a man of refinement and of moral courage. He manifested no personal bias and no excessive zeal in the administration of the law. During his tenure of office George Q. Cannon was sentenced to 185 days' imprisonment and a fine of $450.00. Apostle F. M. Lyman and others were also sentenced by him. Judge Judd, another federal appointee, acted in harmony with Judge Sanford in dealing with the Latter-day Saints.
Those days were trying to President Woodruff, especially in view of the waste of property going on through the process of confiscation. Private individuals were enriching themselves at the expense of the Church, and to the discredit of the government. Men unable to provide for more than the daily wants of life suddenly came into possession of moderate private fortunes. The Latter-day Saints beheld the travesty of this gross injustice as men, under the guise of law and as reformers, showed an unrighteous zeal to lay their hands upon Church property.
During the year 1888 Elder Woodruff records the death of a number of prominent men with whom he had been closely associated for many years. Erastus Snow died May 27th at the age of sixty-nine years. On June the 24th Judge Elias Smith passed away, at eighty-three. Horace Eldredge also died on September 6th at the age of seventy-two. Azmon Wodruff died at the advanced age of eighty-six years. President Woodruff was now eighty-two, but still active. He found pleasure in manual labor whenever he could snatch away some time in which to devote himself to his garden and to his field. One day during the summer of 1888, while hoeing corn by the side of a grandson, who was too swift for his grandfather in the corn field, the latter observed in his journal: "Well, this is the first time in my life that any of my children have beaten me hoeing corn or at any other manual labor."
February 21st of that year President George Q. Cannon was liberated from prison. Gradually the leading men began to obtain their freedom and to appear in the public assemblies of the Saints. On Washington's birthday some fifty Hawaiians met at the President's office for a social reunion. The Tabernacle Choir was present and rendered inspiring music. On the Sunday following ten thousand people were gathered in the Tabernacle and were addressed by Presidents Cannon and Woodruff.
On the 1st of March Elder Woodruff's birthday was celebrated. On a cake presented to him by Elder John Gallagher the following sentiment was given and a copy of it taken from President Woodruff's journal. It reads as follows:
"Fourscore years and two have fled in the work for Zion's cause
on earth.
This day we greet our honored head to show our love and tell his
worth.
We pray that heaven may long extend your life to testify unmoved,
As with your family, in the end find welcome by God approved."
At the April conference of 1889 and on the seventh of the month, Wilford Woodruff was sustained as President of the Church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as his counselors. "This 7th day of April, 1889," he said, "is one of the most important days in my life, for I was made President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the unanimous vote of ten thousand of them. The vote was first taken by quorums and then by the entire congregation as in the case of President John Taylor. This is the highest office ever conferred upon any man in the flesh. It came to me in the eighty-third year of my life. I pray God to protect me and give me power to magnify my calling to the end of my days. The Lord has watched over me until the present time. I wish to counsel my wives and my children and whoever may read this journal to honor God and keep His commandments to the end of their lives that they may receive eternal life and celestial glory in the presence of God and the Lamb."