History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 153
taken for the original. The quality of impudence
appears as fully in the second Bennett as in the first. 12
As I have before observed, the misfortunes of the
saints by no means dampened their ardor, or impoverished
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 1812, worked hard and with success
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 promoted. He was
with his people at Nauvoo, migrated with them to Utah, and was adopted
by Brigham Young. In 1S77 he was executed for participation in the Mountain
Meadow massacre, excusing himself while cursing others.
Mormonism and the Mormon*; A Historical View of the rise and progress
of the sect self-styled Latter-day Saints; by Daniel P. Kidder, is the title
of a lGmo vol. of 342 pages, published in New York, and bearing no date,
thou'h 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 City, on the Mississippi River,
bound for Nauvoo. Nearly all the passengei'S and crew were Mormons.
Desirous of knowing more of them, and holding to the maxim that by teaching
most is to be learned, he procured copies of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine
and Covenants, Howe's Mormonism Unveiled, and CorrilUs Brief History,
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 Ilay Jacob, an Israelite, and a Shepherd
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 press.
12 In a letter to the prophet dated October 24, 1S43, which has became
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 ine to
your person or cause. I am capable of being a most undeviating friend,
say, therefore,
without being governed by the smallest religious influence . . .1
go ahead, you have my good wishes. You know Mahomet had his right-hand
man,' etc. Smith replied at length in a religio-philosophic strain. More has
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 r.s in Mackat/'s The Mormons, and Smucker's Hist. Mor.
See also Edinburgh Review, April 1854, 334. Mackay observes: 'Joseph's reply
to this singular and too candid epistle was quite as singular and infinitely
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 signiflcance if Smith had been in the least deceived, or
had the writer of this letter and the original rascal been one.
'