Part 45 (2/2)

* ”Biography of Lorenzo Snow,” p. 86.

The first step taken by the Mormon authorities to explain the removal to their people was an explanation made at a conference in the new Temple, three days after the correspondence with the commission closed. P. P.

Pratt stated to the conference that the removal meant that the Lord designed to lead them to a wider field of action, where no one could say that they crowded their neighbors. In such a place they could, in five years, become richer than they then were, and could build a bigger and a better Temple. ”It has cost us,” said he, ”more for sickness, defence against mob exactions, persecutions, and to purchase lands in this place, than as much improvement will cost in another.” It was then voted unanimously that the Saints would move en ma.s.se to the West, and that every man would give all the help he could to a.s.sist the poorer members of the community in making the journey.*

* Millennial Star, Vol. VI, p. 196. Wilford Woodruff, in an appeal to the Saints in Great Britain, asked them to buy Mormon books in order to a.s.sist the Presidency with funds with which to take the poor Saints with them westward.

Brigham Young next issued an address to the church at large, stating that even the Mormon Bible had foretold what might be the conduct of the American nation toward ”the Israel of the last days,” and urging all to prepare to make the journey. A conference of Mormons in New York City on November 12, 1845, attended by brethren from New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut, voted that ”the church in this city move, one and all, west of the Rocky Mountains between this and next season, either by land or by water.”

Active preparations for the removal began in and around Nauvoo at once.

All who had property began trading it for articles that would be needed on the journey. Real estate was traded or sold for what it would bring, and the Eagle was full of advertis.e.m.e.nts of property to sell, including the Mansion House, Masonic Hall, and the Armory. The Mormons would load in wagons what furniture they could not take West with them, and trade it in the neighborhood for things more useful. The church authorities advertised for one thousand yokes of oxen and all the cattle and mules that might be offered, oxen bringing from $40 to $50 a yoke. The necessary outfit for a family of five was calculated to be one wagon, three yokes of cattle, two cows, two beef cattle, three sheep, one thousand pounds of flour, twenty pounds of sugar, a tent and bedding, seeds, farming tools, and a rifle--all estimated to cost about $250.

Three or four hundred Mormons were sent to more distant points in Illinois and Iowa for draft animals, and, when the Western procession started, they boasted that they owned the best cattle and horses in the country.

In the city the men were organized into companies, each of which included such workmen as wagonmakers, blacksmiths, and carpenters, and the task of making wagons, tents, etc., was hurried to the utmost.

”Nauvoo was const.i.tuted into one great wagon shop,” wrote John Taylor.

If any members of the community were not skilled in the work now in demand, they were sent to St. Louis, Galena, Burlington, or some other of the larger towns, to find profitable employment during the winter, and thus add to the moving fund.

On January 20, 1846, the High Council issued a circular announcing that, early in March, a company of hardy young men, with some families, would be sent into the Western country, with farming utensils and seed, to put in a crop and erect houses for others who would follow as soon as the gra.s.s was high enough for pasture.

This circular contained also the following declaration:--

”We venture to say that our brethren have made no counterfeit money; and if any miller has received $1500 base coin in a week from us, let him testify. If any land agent of the general government has received wagon loads of base coin from us in payment for lands, let him say so. Or if he has received any at all, let him tell it. These witnesses against us have spun a long yarn.”

This referred to the charges of counterfeiting, which had resulted in the indictment of some of the Twelve at Springfield, and which hastened the first departures across the river. That counterfeiting was common in the Western country at that time is a matter of history, and the Mormons themselves had accused such leading members of their church as Cowdery of being engaged in the business. The persons indicted at Springfield were never tried, so that the question of their guilt cannot be decided.

Tullidge's pro-Mormon ”Life of Brigham Young” mentions an incident which occurred when the refugees had gone only as far as the Chariton River in Iowa, which both admits that they had counterfeit money among them, and shows the mild view which a Bishop of the church took of the offence of pa.s.sing it:--”About this time also an attempt was made to pa.s.s counterfeit money. It was the case of a young man who bought from a Mr.

Cochran a yoke of oxen, a cow and a chain for $50. Bishop Miller wrote to Brigham to excuse the young man, but to help Cochran to rest.i.tution.

The President was roused to great anger, the Bishop was severely rebuked, and the anathemas of the leader from that time were thundered against thieves and 'bogus men,' and pa.s.sers of bogus money.... The following is a minute of his diary of a council on the next Sunday, with the twelve bishops and captains: 'I told them I was satisfied the course we were taking would prove to be the salvation, not only of the camp but of the Saints left behind. But there had been things done which were wrong. Some pleaded our sufferings from persecution, and the loss of our homes and property, as a justification for retaliating on our enemies; but such a course tends to destroy the Kingdom of G.o.d'.”

As soon as the leaders decided to make a start, they sent a pet.i.tion to the governor of Iowa Territory, explaining their intention to pa.s.s through that domain, and asking for his protection during the temporary stay they might make there. No opposition to them seems to have been shown by the Iowans, who on the contrary employed them as laborers, sold them such goods as they could pay for, and invited their musicians to give concerts at the resting points. Lee's experience in Iowa confirmed him, he says, in his previous opinion that much of the Mormons' trouble was due to ”wild, ignorant fanatics”; ”for,” he adds, ”only a few years before, these same people were our most bitter enemies, and, when we came again and behaved ourselves, they treated us with the utmost kindness and hospitality.”*

* ”Mormonism Unveiled,” p. 179.

How much property the Mormons sacrificed in Illinois cannot be ascertained with accuracy. An investigation of all the testimony obtainable on the subject leads to the conclusion that a good deal of their real estate was disposed of at a fair price, and that there were many cases of severe individual loss. Major Warren, in a communication to the Signal from Nauvoo, in May, 1846, said that few of the Mormons'

farms remained unsold, and that three-fourths of the improved property on the flat in Nauvoo had been disposed of.

A correspondent of the Signal, answering on April 11 an a.s.sertion that the Mormons had a good deal of real estate to dispose of before they could leave, replied that most of their farms were sold, and that there were more inquiries after the others than there were farms. As to the real estate in the city, he explained:--

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