History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM. 673
the deserving and capable a competence. All this
he had accomplished, beginning wellnigh without a
dollar, 44 and in a region forsaken by mankind for its
worthlessness, struggling at times almost hopelessly
against the unkindliness of nature and the unkindliness
of man.
Esteemed by his followers as an angel of light,
and considered by his foes as a minister of evil, an
impostor, a hypocrite, a murderer, he was in fact
simply an enthusiast, a bigoted and egotistical enthu-
siast, as the world believes, but a practical and farsighted
man, one who by his will, ability, and intuitive
knowledge of human nature was fitted to combat
the difficulties that beset each step in his path of life,
and to give cohesion to the heterogeneous elements
of which his people was composed. "As I sat near
his bed," remarked George Q. Cannon, "and thought
of his death, if it should occur, I recoiled from the
contemplation of the view. It seemed to me that he
was indispensable. What could we do without him'?
He has been the brain, the eye, the ear, the mouth,
and hand for the entire people of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the greatest details
connected with the organization of this church
down to the smallest minutiae connected with the
work, he has left upon it the impress of his great
mind." 45
Not least among the traits in the character of
Brigham was the faculty for accumulating wealth;
and this he did, not, as his enemies have asserted, by
** He had about $50, then almost the only money in Utah.
45 For sketches of the character, physique, and policy of Brigham Young,
see, among others, Hist. Brigham Young, MS.; Utah Early Records, MS.,
passim; Richards' Rem., MS., 15; Richards' Narr., MS., 83-4; Burton's
City of the Saints, 290-4, 300; Hyde's Mormonism, 137-S; Tullidge's Life of
Young, 456-8; Utah Pamphlets, Religious, no. 3, p. 19; Bowles' Across the
Continent, 86-7; Mackay's The Mormons, 286; Stenhouse's Englishwoman,
163-7; Young's Wife No. 19, 162-5; Beadle's Life in Utah, 265-7, 362;
Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi, 352-3; Rae's Westward by Rail, 106-7;
Ludloio's Heart of the Continent, 366-9, 371-3; Rusting, Across America, 177-
8. Mention is made of these points in more detail on pp. 200-6, this vol. A
history of Brigham Young is published in the Deseret News, commencing with
the issue of Jan. 27, 1S58, and continued in subsequent numbers.
Hist. Utah. 43