Page:A dictionary of the Book of Mormon.pdf/173

Rh embraced the vilest of the race, endeavored to gain control and establish a monarchy. Among them were very many office-holders, lawyers and petty judges, who thirsted for extended power. They had been the foremost in persecuting and slaying the servants of God, and, more than any others, contributed to the overthrow of the government. But the confederate tribes were stronger than the monarchists and opposed the establishment of a kingdom. Jacob therefore determined to take his followers to the northernmost part of the land and there establish that form of government. So speedy and unexpected were his movements that the tribes were unable to intercept him. He accomplished his purpose, built a large city and reigned over that region as king. We can well imagine the condition of society composed of such elements, it must have been a head-centre for everything abominable, and turbulent. Jacob, however, flattered himself that dissenters from the tribes would flock to his standard and soon make him powerful enough to extend his authority over the whole land. In this he was disappointed, for in the horrors of the upheavals of nature that came with the death of the Savior, Jacobugath and its people disappeared forever. Of their destruction Jesus himself says: "That great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of the king of Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire, because of their sins and their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people and the government of the land: therefore I did cause them to be burned, to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up unto me any more against them."  JACOM. The eldest son of Jared, the father 