Part 18 (1/2)
Being a er, conditions were now favorable for a little roled with the dull cares of state Near the close of his last term, he says: ”I became acquainted with a lady in the District of Columbia, and we, in consideration of mutual love and affection, married The same tie binds us in matrimonial happiness to the present tiht at this later day subject him to Executive displeasure: ”Posterity will have an unsettled account against us for having _added nothing to the great reservoir of the human family”_
It ress our member humbly accepted the appointotiate the Illinois and Michigan Canal bonds
His earnest desire to have so, and in the interest of the great enterprise, upon the success of which the future of the State see, he spent the summer of 1839 in Europe While his mission abroad was fruitless as to its i to know that our commissioner returned duly impressed with ”the immense superiority in every possible lorious institutions, over those of the monarchies of the old world”
It would be idle to suppose that the retireress was to terminate his career of usefulness to the people
On the contrary, he says: ”In 1846, I was elected a member from St Clair County to the General assembly of the State The main object of myself and friends was to obtain a charter for a macadamized road from Belleville to the Mississippi River, opposite St Louis”
This all satisfactorily accoislature adjourned, ”I turned my time and attention to the calm and quiet of life
With ed in the study of science and literature I soon discovered that the bustle and turmoil of political life did not produce happiness”
Sad to relate, this faithful public servant, ith the cares of state, was not even yet permitted to lay aside his armor
The happiness of private life, for which his soul yearned as the hart panteth for the water brooks, was again postponed for the hated bustle and turainst his reislature, and upon the organization of the House unanimously chosen Speaker
Reluctantly indeed,take leave of John Reynolds--the quaintest of all the odd characters this country of ours has known In doing so, it is indeed a coreat heart continued to beat in unison with that of the people Ascending the Speaker's stand, and lifting the gavel, with deep emotion he said--and these are to us his last words: ”I have nothing to labor for but the public good My life has been devoted to promote the public interest of Illinois, and in my latter days it will afford me profound pleasure to advance now, as I have always done in the past, _the best interests of the people”_
XIII THE MORMON EXODUS FROM ILLINOIS
DELEGATE CANNON AND SENATOR CANNON, MORMONS--SKETCH OF MORMONISM BY GOVERNOR FORD--JOSEPH SMITH'S OWN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF HIS CHURCH--HOW ”THE BOOK OF MORMON” WAS MADE--NAUVOO, ”THE HOLY CITY”--EFFORTS OF WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS TO WIN THE VOTES OF THE MORMONS--VICTORY OF THE DEMOCRATS, AND CONSEQUENT ANTI-MORMONISM OF THE WHIGS--JOSEPH SMITH'S PRETENSIONS TO ROYALTY--THE ORIGIN OF POLYGAMY IN THE MORMON CHURCH--CONFLICT WITH THE STATE AUTHORITIES --SURRENDER OF THE LEADERS--assassINATION OF SMITH--BRIGHAM YOUNG CHOSEN AS HIS SUCCESSOR--THE EXODUS BEGINS
Just across the aisle fro the forty-sixth Congress sat George Q Cannon, the delegate from the Territory of Utah He held this position for ree the confidence of the Mor over the Senate, I administered the oath of office to his son, the Hon Frank J
Cannon, the first chosen to represent the State of Utah in the Upper Chah favor with ”the powers that be” in Salt Lake City, but for some cause not well understood by the Gentile world, is now _persona non grata_ with the head of the Mora seated upon the presentation of his credentials as a Senator His father, the delegate, was in theory a polygae of his convictions” to the extent of being the husband of five wives, and the head of as many separate households This, before the days of ”unfriendly legislation,” was, in Morate and the Senator were both ree the respect of their associates The former was in early youth a resident of Illinois, and was of the advance guard of the Mormon exodus to the valley of the Great Salt Lake soon after the assassination of the ”prophet” When I first visited Salt Lake City, in 1879, George Q Cannon, in addition to being the delegate in Congress, was one of the ”Quorum of the Twelve,”
and was in the line of succession to the presidency of the Church
Fro the history and tenets of the Mormon people The venerable John Taylor was then the president of the Church, the i He was in early life a resident with his people in Nauvoo, Illinois, and was a prisoner in the Carthage jail with the ”Prophet Joseph” at the tiave edy, and of his own narrow escape from the fate of his idolized leader
A brief notice of this singular people, and of what they did and suffered in Illinois, may not be wholly without interest Mor almost the entire official term of the late Governor Ford More than one little ar that period, sent into Hancock County--”the Mormon country”--to suppress disturbances and maintain public order
Governor Ford says:
”The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as this organization is denoonistic Gentile and Mormon standpoints
”Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church and its prophet, was born in Vere His early education was extrean to act the prophet, he was ignorant of al which pertained to science; but hefor e of ten, he was taken by his father to Wayne County, New York, where his youth was spent in an idle, vagabond life, roa hi of a forked stick in his hands, or by looking through enchanted stones He and his father were 'water witchers,' always ready to point out the exact points where wells could be successfully dug While leading an idle, profligate life, Joseph Sdon, a don was the possessor of a religious roydon the idea of starting a new religion By theolden plates had been found buried near Pal a record inscribed on them in unknown characters, which, when deciphered by the power of inspiration, gave the history of the ten lost tribes of Israel in their wanderings through Asia into America, where they had settled and flourished, and where, in due time, Christ came and preached the Gospel to them, appointed his twelve Apostles, and was crucified here, nearly in the same manner he had been in Jerusaleive the history of the American Christians for a few hundred years until the wickedness of the people called down the judgment of God upon them, which resulted in their extermination Several nations from the Isthmus of Darien to the northern extreed in continual warfare The culht o near the present site of Pal the heathen and the latter the Christians of this continent In this battle, in which hundreds of thousands were slain, the Nephites perished from the earth, except a re this nuhteous man as divinely directed to old, and who buried them in the earth, to be discovered in future tiious romance above lyphics said to have been inscribed on the golden plates
”The account given of himself by the 'prophet' is of far different tenor froreatly concerned in regard to his soul's salvation; and being deeply agonized in spirit, he sought divine guidance While fervently engaged in supplication, hisobjects and enwrapped in a heavenly vision, and he sao glorious personages siht, outshi+ning the sun at noonday He was then inforious denoed of God as His church and kingdoo after them
At the same time, he received a promise that the fulness of the Gospel should at some future ti of Septeed in prayer, suddenly a light like that of day, only far h the house were filled with fire, and a personage stood before hireater than he had yet seen This el of God, sent with the joyful tidings that the covenant which God had made with ancient Israel was about to be fulfilled; that the preparatory work for the second co of Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel to be proclaimed in all its fulness and power to all nations, to the end that a peculiar people n He was further informed that he, Joseph, was to be the instrulorious dispensation The angel also inforard to the American Indians, who they were, and whence they cahteousness, and iniquity, and why the blessing of God had been withdrawn from them as a people He was also told where certain plates were deposited, whereon were engraved the records of the ancient prophets, who once existed on this continent And then, to wit, on the last day el of the Lord delivered into his hands the records raved on plates which had the appearance of gold They were filled with engravings in Egyptian characters and bound together in a volume as the leaves of a book; with the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called ”Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breastplate
By the instrumentality of the Urilyphics aforementioned
Thus translated, the records mentioned became ”The Book of Mormon”
The last of the ancient prophets had inscribed these records upon the golden plates by the command of God, and deposited them in the earth, where, fifteen centuries later, they were divinely revealed to Joseph Solden plates are still in existence, but that after being translated by Joseph Smith, by the aid of the wonderful instruel