Page:History of Utah.djvu/205



SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 153

taken for the original. The quahty of impudence appears as fully in the second Bennett as in the first. ^^

As I have before observed, the misfortunes of the saints by no means dampened their ardor, or impov- erished them as a society. Some lost their all; in that case the others helped them. Old scores were

story of his life, simply and honestly enough; to this is added an account of the Mountain Meadow massacre, and of the arrest, trial, and execution of Lee. He was a native of Illinois, born in 181'2, worked hard and with suc- cess while a young man, became an enthusiastic Mormon in 1837, and went to Missouri. With everything there he was highly delighted; he attended devoutly all the services of the church, and was duly i^romoted. He was with his people at Nauvoo, migrated with them to Utah, and was adopted by Brigham Young. In 1877 he was executed for participation in the Moun- tain Meadow massacre, excusing himself while cui'sing others.

Mormonism and the Mormons.; A Historical Vieiu of the rise and progress of the sect seff-.sti/led Latter-day Saints; by Daniel P. Kidder, is the title of a IGmo vol. of 342 pages, published in New York, and bearing no date, though entered for copyright in the year 1842. Mr Kidder certainly wrote a book on short acquaintance with the subject; as he says up to Nov. 1840, he knew little about it. On the 13th of that month he found himself on board a Mormon steamboat called the Fulton Cit;/, on the Mississippi River, bound for Nauvoo. Nearly all the passengers and crew were Mormons. Desirous of knowing more of them, and holding to the maxim that by teach- ing most is to be learned, he procured copies of the Book of Mormm, Doc- trine and Covenants, Iloivc's Mormonism Unveiled, and CorrilVs Brief His- tory, and seating himself before them made his book, which consists chiefly of extracts from the above sources tied together with occasional remarks neither startling nor original. In Nauvoo, without date, but probably about 1841, were published two chapters of nonsense about women and their relations and duties to men, entitled. An Extract from a Manuscript entitled The Peace-maker, or the Doctrines of the Millennium, being a Treatise on Religion and Jurisprudence, or a New System of Religion and Politics. For God, my Country, and my Rights. By Adney Hay Jacob, an Israelite, and a Sheplierd of Israel. Nauvoo, III. J. Smith, Printer. In a preface the reader is told: 'The author of this work is not a Mormon, although it is printed by their pi-css.'

I'^In a letter to the prophet dated October 24, 1843, which has become quite famous, James A. Bennett pretends to have been baptized by Brigham Young, a ceremony that he alludes to as 'a glorious frolic in the clear blue ocean' with 'your most excellent and worthy friend. President B. Young.' 'Nothing of this kind,' he goes on to say, 'would in the least attach me to your person or cause. I am capable of being a most undcviating friend, without being governed by the smallest religious influence. . .Isay, therefore, go ahead, you have my good wishes. You know Mahomet had his right-hand man,' etc. Smith replied at length in a rcligio-philosophic strain. INIore lias been made of this correspondence than it deserves. It was printed in Times and Seasons, iv. 371-3, in Cor. between Joseph Smith. . .Wentworth. . .and . . .Calhoun, as well as in 3IacJ:a'/'s The Mormons, and Smucher's Hist. Mor. See also Edinburgh Review, April 1854, 334. Mackay observes: ' Joscpli's re- ply to this singular and too candid epistle was quite as singular and inflnitely more amusing. Joseph was too cunning a man to accept, in plain terms, the rude but serviceable offer; and he rebuked the vanity and presumption of Mr Bennett, while dexterously retaining him for future use.' All this would have some signidcancc if Smith had been in the least deceived, or had the writer of this letter and tlie original rascal been one.