Page:History of Utah.djvu/204



152 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.

nett, also called general, whom Mackay, Smucker, a reviewer in the Edinburgh, and others have mis-

which are cliarged to these agencies. Sidney Rigdon is praised by Bennett; so much the worse for Sidney. Doubtless this book played its part in bring- ing about the assassination of Joseph Smith. Says John Taylor of John C. Bennett: 'At one time he was a good man, but fell into adultery, and was cut off from the church for his iniquity;. . .lie was also expelled from the mu- nicipal court, of which he was a member. ' Public Di.icussioii, 5-G.

William Hall was an old gentleman of simple mind and manners when he wrote liis book; he appears to be earnest and truthful. As he says of the saints, so I should say of him: he meant well, but he should beware of bad leaders. Hall was not a great man in the church, like Bennett; nevertheless, like Bennett he wrote a book, but unlike Bennett's, his book reads like that of an honest man, although it is full of bitter accusations against the Mor- mons. AH such works should be taken with some degrees of allowance; for when a person begins to rail against any people or individual, he is apt to be carried away and misrepresent, intentionally or unintentionally. The period that Hall's experiences cover is quite an important one, including as it does the Illinois expulsion and the exodus to Great Salt Lake.

Quite different from any of his brother apostates is John Hyde, Jr, who cannot by right be placed in the category of vulgar ranter or hypocritical re- former. I regard him as an able and honest man, sober and sincere. He does not denounce the sect as hypocrites. 'I know your sincerity; I know also your delusion,' he writes. He does not even denounce all the leaders; even to Brigham Young, whom he mercilessly scourges, he gives credit for ability and sincerity. 'That you are sincere in your conlidence in Joseph Smith, and in your own piretensions, ' he writes to him, 'I believe and ac- knowledge; but at the same time, that you are leading confiding thousands to misery and ruin is evident ... I admire your genius, but I deplore its exercise. ... I admire the industry of your people, their notable labors, and their general sincerity; but I dejilore their delusion, and I denounce their deceivers.' Hi? book is dedicated 'To the honest believers in Mormonism,' and he says to them: 'In writing the following work I was not actuated by the base design of helping to malign an unpopular people, nor by the unworthy one of ad- ministering to a mere idle curiosity. ' John Hyde was born in England, in 1833, and joined the Mormons there when fifteen years of age. He was al- most immediately ordained a priest and began to preach. In 1851 he was ordained one of the seventies, an oiEce of equal power but inferior jurisdic- tion to that ol one of the twelve, and joined John Taylor in France. With about 400 Mormon converts he sailed from Liverpool in Feb. 1853, visited Nau- voo, and thence crossed the plains in company Avitli 2,500 brethren to Salt Lake City, where he married and began teaching school. In Feb. 1854 ho was 'in- itiated into the mysteries of the Mormon endowment,' became shaken in the faith, and the following year, having accepted a mission to the Hawaiian Isl- ands, he threw off' Mormonism and preached and wrote against it instead of for it. In his book he gives a description of Salt Lake City in 1853-4, a chap- ter entitled 'Practical Polygamy,' and others on Mormon Mysteries, Educa- tion, Brigham Young, Book of Mormon, Theoretical Polygamy, and Sup- pression of Mormonism. Hyde's book would be quite useful were lie not so loose about his dates; it would appear from the way he throws statements together that in the absence of a date he guessed at it.

Still another style of book is that of John D. Lee, purporting to have been written by him, but as a matter of fact written for the most part by W. W. Bishop while Lee was in prison condemned to death. The work, there- fore, though the story of a Mormon, and of one who under the circumstances could not be expected to be very friendly, is not by a Mormon. The book is not essentially different from the matter published in the newspapers about the time of Lee's execution, under the tii:ie of 'Confessions.' Lee gives the