Vol. II.                           Voree, W. T., February 3, 1848.                        No. 46.

Pastoral  Letter.

James J. Strang, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a Prophet of Almighty God, to the Churches in all the world, and to all the Saints scattered abroad, greeting: --

For as much as it hath pleased God to reserve unto himself a people to serve him in these times, when the whole world is sunk in wickedness, and the fullness of the Gentiles is very nearly come in, and the time is near that God will pour out his wrath on them without measure, it behooves us that we commune oft with one another, and communicate spiritual treasures, such as God bestows upon us; and especially that we gather together and strengthen one another's hands, lest we be overcome of Satan and perish in the destruction of the ungodly. I am more impressed to address you now, because when iniquity is pouring forth among the Gentiles without measure the church has not altogether escaped from the inevitable consequence of too great a conformity to the world: except so far as influenced and changed by gospel principles, mankind are much the same in all countries and all ages. And if we do not practically conform to gospel principles, their influence is lost on us. Though men may subscribe to and teach gospel principles all their lives, yet unless they conform thereto in the transaction of our common intercourse with men their influence will be directly lost upon us. And the same consequence which has fallen upon the Gentile world in consequence of their corrupt systems, will also befall the saints if they continue therein. Of this truth the history of the last few years has furnished us many sad examples.

There has been much speculation among men as to the cause of the great falling away in the church during the last four years. It has been attributed to a great variety of different causes, none of which are sufficient to produce so general corruption and such wide spread ruin. But there is one unnamed cause, abundantly equal to the production of such results, which remains to this day, still active and doing its work. So long as the saints conform in all things to Gentile usages and customs, so long they must expect to share the fate of those they thus imitate. And the poverty, suffering and sin which are wide spread throughout the earth, as the consequence of speculation, swindling and the most unblushing oppression of the poor and needy, cannot be escaped among the saints while they do these things. Let us now try to make our religion a reality. The time has come that the saints must practice their religion and profess their faith, and he that will not do it will be cut off from them. The same causes under like circumstances cannot fail to produce like effects. And as the Gentile social system has produced poverty, want and crime in all the world, in the face of the greatest improvements in the science of agriculture and the mechanic arts, so that in countries where machinery, steam and water do the work of millions of men there is a real want of both food and clothing, we cannot flatter ourselves that while we pursue the same course we can escape a still greater amount of suffering, beginning in poverty, as most of us do.

I have been constrained by the most obvious signs of the times to look over the world and see if there was anything in the state of the nations to justify the oft repeated assertion that the Lord delayeth his coming. Again, I have turned my thoughts inwardly, to contemplate the things which God has revealed relative to these days; and as the servant of God set upon the walls of Zion to watch, I admonish you to come out of Babylon and separate yourselves from her uncleanness. For the day of God's wrath upon her is near, and the time is at hand when his vengeance will be poured out.

The earth presents to us a most unhappy picture. The United States are engaged in a most bloody war against the most powerful sister republic which she has on the earth. This war she has waged without the authority of God, and for causes very far from commensurate to the blood she has shed or the misery she has inflicted. And passing by the nature of the cause (for I will not pretend that this war is causeless) there is good reason, from what God has said, to believe that the greatest portion of its evils will fall on those who have waged it. In the period of less than two years that has elapsed since its commencement, with the very small force engaged, the loss of life has been not less than ten thousand Americans, and probably three times that number of Mexicans. And the hatred, blood-thirstiness, and passion for violence it is engendering, will remain through generations to come, the consequences of men's corruptions and the instruments of God's wrath upon the nations. Whatever may be the future fate of Mexico, she is practically denationalized. Yet every object professedly sought by the war is further off than at the beginning. Unceasing hostility and the desolation and waste of cities, towns and provinces will follow thick in the future history of the daughter of Babylon, and pestilence and famine will soon commence their work, as they have already in the old world.

So, too, though Europe is not convulsed with any general war, the elements of disorder and destruction are every where active. The British Empire, which has by her policy and arms for a long time held sway throughout the earth, is just beginning to crumble to dust. A little territory of the extent of a small State, she has extended her dominion throughout the sea and to the four quarters of the earth. The sun never sets on her empire. The reveille on her legions beats time to the hours as the earth rolls round. The terror of her arms has carried desolation into every country on the face of the earth, and the bones of her sons who have fallen in her wars lie bleaching in the sun forever. So omnipresent has been her power that neither wilderness, mountain or island sufficed to hide the refugee from the emissaries of her oppression. The very name of Britain has become a terror to the most secluded and savage tribes. And with a mechanical power in actual use equal to the labor of one half the human race, the fifteen or sixteen millions of inhabitants of England are now in a state of destitution bordering on starvation. A majority of the people are real paupers, dependent on public and private charities for the bread that preserves life. And with the immense wealth and power of the nation, it has not the ability to furnish bread to fill the mouths of starvation.

France, Germany, Poland, Hungary and provinces of other countries of Europe have suffered for want of food. And this not because there is any lack of men to work the lands, not because there is a lack of skill or any indisposition to work, but because the established order of things makes some men drones and others swindlers; and the habit of individual sponging and swindling induces those habits in nations. And the loss of that fellow-feeling among men which is necessary to heartily loving our neighbors as ourselves and doing as we would be done by is so general and pervasive in its influence, that few men ever think of consulting the interest and general good of mankind in any of their undertakings or avocations. And the man whose entire income is derived from the labors of others, without making any real return, and, consequently, who in a moral and religious view lives by mere swindling and robbery, is no less respected in society than those who are engaged in producing that which is necessary for the use of man.

Such are the consequences of the Gentile social system, under the most favorable circumstances. The examples I have named can be found in kind wherever man is, differing only in degree as the system has been more or less expanded. So entirely have they carried out the system of setting man against man, that the very commandment "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" has been struck out of the decalogue, and men have forgotten that God has engraved it on stone as a perpetual memorial against this ungodly generation. The selfishness engendered in all the intercourse of men is the fruitful cause of national wars and individual sufferings. The affairs of men have been so regulated, and the institutions established among them are of such kind and nature as to set man against his fellow man, and make it the interest of every one to injure others. While the interest of man is sought in the injury of his neighbor, it is vain to hope that men will do to others as they would that others should do to them. And though we may go forth proclaiming gospel brotherhood and gospel equality from year to year, yet so long as we practice on the same system which has produced all these evils among the Gentiles, so long we must suffer them among ourselves. It is vain to talk about or to hope for the fullness of the spirit of God, or the establishment of his kingdom, if we will not make our religion a practical reality, by doing the things we teach.

The doctrine of the equality of the saints in their temporal things was taught in the beginning of the church. Such an equality has been the hope of the poor and the virtuous from the commencement of the gathering. As early as January, 1831, the word of the Lord came by his prophet showing by parable the justice of equality among the children of the kingdom (D&C 12:5); and adds, "be one; if ye are not one, ye are none of mine." (D&C 12:6) A most thrilling admonition is also given, that the cry of the poor has ascended up to God (D&C 12:4), and that the enemy in secret chambers sought their lives, and in consequence thereof the Lord said, "ye hear of wars in far countries, and ye say there will soon be wars in far countries, but ye know not the hearts of them in your own land; wherefore treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things to you with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth." (D&C 12:4, 6)

This revelation by the wickedness of wicked men has been made so often, that the saints ought now to seek to obey God rather than to follow their own devices. As the saints learned not wisdom by what they heard, will they also refuse to learn by what they suffer? When God requires us to make any sacrifice to his cause, he requires a willing sacrifice. But if we give not willingly, he will not suffer us to possess what he requires. When the church went up to Missouri they went under a special command to consecrate their property, that all might be made equal. This command was never kept; yet they did not keep that which they refused to consecrate. Because the rich refused to make the poor rich with them, their enemies made them poor with the poor. Together were they driven out in destitution. From that time to this they have been driven from city to city, and from country to country; constantly going out robbed and plundered of that which they have greedily kept back from the Lord. Saints, will you that these things shall always be?

In February, 1831, less than one year after the organization of the church, a command was given that the saints consecrate their property for the poor, by a deed which could not be broken; receiving their inheritances according to their several wants, and requiring them to put all their surplus production from time to time into a common storehouse, and receive supplies of what they lack from it (D&C 13:8-10,12). In May, 1831, those who had so consecrated their substances, are commanded to organize themselves that they may be alike and receive alike, and have a common storehouse (D&C 23:1-5). In August, the same year, Martin Harris and all who were going up to Zion were commanded to make this consecration, to purchase lands in Zion for the saints (D&C 18:6-7,10-12). In November, of the same year, the Lord said, "in your temporal things you shall be EQUAL, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the spirit shall be withheld. Now this commandment I give unto my servants for their benefit while they remain, for a manifestation of my blessings on their heads, and for a reward of their diligence; and for their security for food and for raiment, for an inheritance; for houses and for lands, in whatsoever circumstances I the Lord shall place them, and whithersoever I the Lord shall send them." (D&C 26:3)

In the succeeding years the ancient order established by revelation of God in the antediluvian world was again revealed as the order of the church for an everlasting order, and with many other precepts and commandments the following were received...

These commandments, though they are more perfect in system than any other wheres recorded, contain no other doctrine than what has always been taught by the gospel and the Melchizedek priesthood. Before Israel went into Egypt each patriarch was the head of a house, consisting in some instances of many thousands of persons, all holding one common estate and inheritance, in the use of which they enjoyed equal benefits. The family of Job could not have been less than 10,000 souls; that of Melchizedek was doubtless larger, and Abraham's probably numbered 4,000, all heirs with him of the promise of the land of Canaan for a perpetual inheritance (Genesis 17:7-13). Israel, when they entered into the land of Canaan, received their inheritances by families, not by individuals, and usually each family received a city and the country around extending half way to the next city for its possession. During the ministry of Christ he and the chief of his disciples had no separate property, but Judas, one of the twelve, was treasurer and purveyor for the whole. And though doubtless some individual disciples retained their estates, yet when a certain rich young man came inquiring what he should do to inherit eternal life, Christ told him to "sell what he had and give to the poor," and follow him (Matthew 19:21). And about a year after the crucifixion of Christ, when the church was receiving great accessions, "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things COMMON: neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of houses or lands, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was made to every man according as he had need." (Acts 4:32,34-35)

Finally, it pleased the Lord, when he chose me to be the shepherd of the flock, as he chose David to be king of Israel, not from among princes and rulers, but from the field, to show me still more clearly by many visions and revelations the true order for establishing judgment and justice, exalting the poor and delivering the needy. The work was once begun both in Kirtland and Zion, but failed by means of a multitude of transgressions. And from that time till this the church has not ceased to be scourged by her enemies, nor will she until she obeys this commandment. So general was the feeling in favor of the common stock and equality at the time the church was finally driven from Missouri, that Joseph wrote from prison to prevent it, telling them that though the principle was correct they had no authority to do the act, and must wait until God gave commandment. In his wisdom he has withheld the commandment till the great falling away is past.

The time has now come. The command went forth in July, 1846... The work is begun, and every thing is ready for those who will come up to the help of the Lord, against those who have trodden down his children and had no compassion on the needy and the oppressed. The organization (including children) now consists of sixty persons, and applications for admission are being constantly received. The entire system is founded on UNION, EQUALITY, and a strict regard to the law of God and the discipline of the church. The association owns a farm of five hundred and sixty acres of land, four hundred acres of which might be cropped the coming season, and considering soil, water, salubrity and location, probably the very best in Wisconsin; several good stone buildings, a valuable water power and a property in all worth not less than $11,000, on which they owe debts a very little over three thousand. This property lies in, and in the immediate vicinity of Voree, is beautifully located, very productive and entirely healthy.

This we offer to the saints as the home of the poor and the asylum of the oppressed. Here we propose to share each others joys, and each others sorrows; each others toils, and each others possessions; and to teach mankind that love and truth wins with peace and sweetness, what force and fraud labors in vain to compel. Here we intend to gather a community who shall be equal in their temporal things; who shall do to others as they would be done by; and who shall love their neighbors as themselves. Here salvation shall be present, and the gospel a practiced reality. Here peace shall reign.

The Lord and his saints say come. Let him that heareth say come. He that is poor and needy, let him come. Yea, come buy food, raiment and habitation, a perpetual inheritance in Zion, without money and without price. And whosoever will, let him come and possess the land with us freely.
                                JAMES J. STRANG.

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                                                            Palestine, Lee Co., Ill., Dec. 29th, 1847.
Mr. Strang: --

Sir. -- I take this opportunity to drop you a line in answer to the line I received from you by Mr. Wasson, on his return, in which letter you seem to state that I am owing you as agent to the Voree Herald. If so, I should like to know the amount. I am willing to acknowledge to you, sir, that I am owing you, and you are owing me. And as well as I can recollect the accounts stand about thus: Sometime in the winter of 1845 I received a prospectus of the Herald from you, and to which I obtained, I think, two subscribers, and then I handed the prospectus to some one of your church, and he obtained several subscribers to the same and kept the money; and then some other member of your church took the paper and sent it across the Mississippi river into Iowa Territory to get subscribers, and that was the last that I ever saw of the paper, and if you know where it is, it is more than I know, And further, you will recollect that was the time of the troubles in Hancock. But no matter, I am ready and willing at all times to pay all I owe any one, and if you have an account against me and is just that I should pay the same, I will pay you all, deducting what you owe me on postage and per cent; and please let me hear again from you if you see fit. If you got the subscription paper that I had, you may possibly come at the thing, but if you have not you nor I nor any one else can make it out. But, sir, if you will make out my account, and I find it is just, I will pay every farthing &c.   Yours, &c.,
                                                                  WM. BACKENSTOS.
JAMES J. STRANG.

This is certainly the richest excuse for cheating we ever saw. -- 1st, He collected money and passed the account into another man's hands, and therefore did not pay over the money or any part of it. 2d, He received the money in the time of the Hancock troubles. -- 3d, We owe him postage. (No, not unless you charge us the postage on a dun we send you.) 4th, We owe him per centage for receiving this money, which he has never paid over or accounted for. Will Mr. Backenstos be so kind as to make out his account for per centage. If all the money will not pay him for receiving it, we should like to know how much odds he asks, and we will try for once to square the account, if we can find anything of such value that we can put it in his hands without paying him odds for taking it.


Note: William (John Wilhelm) Backenstos, brother of J. B. Backenstos (Sheriff of Hancock Co., Illinois), married Clara Marilla Wasson (1823-1905) on Oct. 3, 1843 at Nauvoo, with Joseph Smith, Jr. officiating. Clara was the daughter of Benjamin Wasson (or Wassen) and Elizabeth Hale, the sister of Emma Hale Smith. Clara was evidently a member of the Church at Nauvoo. Her brother, Lorenzo D. Wasson (1818-1857) was also a member -- he died on his way to the California gold rush. All of these persons, with the exception of J. B. Backenstos, were very likely connected with William Smith's splinter group, at Palestine, Lee Co., Illinois, during the late 1840s and early 1850s. John B. Wasson, a cousin of Clara and Lorenzo was baptized a member of the RLDS Church, in San Francisco, in 1884.

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, May 18, 1848.                         No. 9.

THE STATE OF WISCONSIN. -- The constitution of Wisconsin has been adopted, and a State government elected. It only wants the action of the Congress of the U. S. to make Wisconsin one of the States of the Union. In this work the saints have had very little to do, and we think had they done nothing it would have been well. Our opinion is now as heretofore, that the saints have nothing to do with elections, not so much as to vote. At the late election of State officers Oliver Cowdery, one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, was the regular candidate of the Democratic party for member of Assembly. though not in the district where the saints reside, and was defeated solely on the ground of Mormonism. His capacity and worth was admitted, but he had been a Mormon. Indeed he was worse used than the active members of the church; for here they are elected to office, though none of them attend caucuses or elections. We regret his defeat, because it was accomplished by wicked means, and as he has rejected the pretensions of various usurpers in the church, and maintained the integrity of his testimony, and settled down in the immediate neighborhood of the true church, we think he would do well to say "Othello's occupation is returned."


Notes: (forthcoming)

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, June 8, 1848.                         No. 12.

==> Scarcely a week passes but we see in some of our exchange papers articles credited to the Missouri Republican, speaking of the great success and prosperity of the Brighamite camp in the west. -- All this would be well enough if it was true. Indeed we think their worst enemies ought to be satisfied with what they have suffered, and to pray for a respite of the evils they are daily drawing down on their own heads. But these editorial puffs seem to be stretched to the last degree of tension, and may burst like overgrown bubbles before the papers can reach the readers. If a cause is to be built up by lying, yet it is possible to lie too barefaced. -- Certainly it looks very much like it when the Republican says that the Mormons had, at the last accounts, pit in 5,000 acres of winter wheat in Salt Valley. In an earlier article the Republican had stated that 500 teams had gone to the Valley, and though this is 336 higher than other estimates and accounts of those who met them, yet take this for a basis of reasoning, each and every team must have carried the seed for 10 acres of ground, say 13 bushels, besides carrying the families, clothing, furniture, farming utensils of every kind, and a year's provisions. If any one can believe that a single family can move into the wilderness 1,000 miles beyond the last house, carrying all provisions, clothing, furniture, tools, seeds, and everything else necessary for a year's use, including seed wheat to put in crops for market, he may believe this story. But if one family cannot do it, many cannot. Increasing the number of persons does not diminish the food and clothing necessary for each person. Besides this it should be remembered that nearly all these wagons went over late in the fall, and could not have arrived earlier than late for wheat sowing. And by showing the Republican they have built a large fortified town, as well as sowed 5,000 acres of wheat. And as by the same accounts they have taken over large herds of cattle, this 5,000 acres must all be fenced too, and the timber for the fences as well as that for building has all to be drawn some twelve miles. Nonsense! Any man who will believe such stuff deserves to be deceived.

---

==> We are informed that Sidney Rigdon is engaged in the honorable avocation of dressing cloth in the western part of the State of New York. This speaks well for him, and is an example that we commend to the sectarian priests who have reviled him for eighteen years. Is there not yet hope for the old man eloquent? -- Wholesome honest labor is good both for ambition and insanity, and he has shown his manliness by turning to it.


Note: Following the collapse of his splinter group church in Franklin Co., Pennsylvania, in 1847, Sidney Rigdon relocated in Cuba, Allegany Co., New York. His son-in-law, George Robinson, operated a retail sales business in the nearby town of Friendship, and it appears that Sidney's spate of "honest labor" was connected to Robinson's business dealings. Probably Sidney Rigdon's work consisted of some hours spent in a small wool carding and dressing mill, where the raw wool was prepared for weaving, and then the surfaces of the woven textiles were made smooth, by shearing, stretching and pressing. Sidney probably learned the basics of these and similar operations, when he worked as a leather finisher in the Pittsburgh area in his younger days. There he not only learned tanning, but also "currying" -- the preparation of a fine surface on leather intended for use in manufacturing, the making of book-bindings, etc. Isaac Craig, who researched Sidney Rigdon's early years, reported that Rigdon once "had a small tannery... [in Pittsburgh] for the manufacture of book-binders sheep-skins." This discovery agrees with the testimony of another old Pittsburgh resident, who recalled, "So far back as 1822 the firm of Patterson & Lambdin... did business as Publishers... [in Pittsburgh] At the same time Sidney Rigdon, tanner and currier, had his tan-yard... it is likely that, in the business transactions between book-binder and tanner, Sidney Rigdon took the Spaulding manuscript." It remains unknown whether, during his days of "honest labor" in Allegany Co., New York, Rigdon worked at finishing cotton, wool or linen -- but it is not unlikely that a portion of his finished product once again went into the production of book-bindings.

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, June 29, 1848.                         No. 15.

THE  SCATTERED  MORMONS.

Lyman Wight and George Miller have settled on the Colorado in Texas with some thirty houses, and have their property common and by their account are doing well. They have published a small tract giving an account of their doings and circumstances, and the reasons for their separation from the Brighamites. We have not been able to obtain a copy of the tract, but one of the elders who has read it gives us this information.

We have a letter from a gentleman connected with the press in St. Louis saying that the Mormons in Salt Valley are divided into two parties, Taylorites and Parleyites. We are more disposed to think this information correct, because some of the elders recently from the Bluffs speak of P. P. Pratt's excommunication as a probable and necessary event. We have taken some pains to ascertain the health of the western camp, and finally succeeded in getting the sexton's account of the burials at Council Bluffs. Don't stare, reader; even in that wilderness means can be contrived to tax the dead. -- Some friend of Brigham, too lazy to earn an honest living at ordinary wages, must needs monopolize the business of burying the dead for a fee. Well, the sexton's account shows eight hundred deaths at the Bluffs in one year from April 1847 to April 1848. We could not ascertain the number the preceding year, but those who have visited the ground say the burials cover more than twice the space, and it is universally agreed that the former year was far the most sickly.

The camp fever and scurvy in addition to the usual diseases of new countries then prevailed greatly. The last year the most common disease among them was chills and fever and the deaths have very many of them been for want of suitable nourishment after the fever had its course. In other words, they have starved to death. -- Not that there has been an absolute and entire destitution of food, but that the supply has been so limited and so unequally distributed that the poor were unable to obtain such as the sick could possibly eat.

Allowing the number of Mormons at the Bluffs to be 4,000, and we think that number too high, and 600 deaths is equal to one in every five. It just takes one to a family, on an average, and is equal to the last curse on the Egyptians, the smighting of the first born. It would take off a generation in five years, and would shortly exterminate the human race. It should be understood that this account does not include the deaths at Salt Valley, Garden Grove, or any other place but merely at the Bluffs.

Our St. Louis correspondent also informs us that there is a difficulty with Young and Kimball about the soldiers' bounty. The bounty which the Mormon battalion received in advance at the time of their enlistment amounted to twenty thousand dollars. -- This was left with Young and Kimball as a fund for the benefit of the families of these soldiers left behind, but was immediately laid out for a large supply of merchandise which they sold out on speculation, and pocketed the proceeds. The soldiers have many of them got back as far as Salt Valley, and are now thundering vengeance on Brigham and Heber, and they are afraid to go to their new home. Doubtless the thing will be hushed up in some way, but be that as it may the whole crowd are rapidly diminishing in number, and the leaders are rapidly becoming estranged from one another. Having no bond of union but the fleece of the flock, as that fails to yield its increase they naturally separate from each other.

The Indians have killed four or five head of cattle the past season, and at one time drove off forty horses. In addition to this the Mormons west of the Missouri River have all had to leave, and either go on to Salt Valley or return to Iowa. Their settlements west of the Mo., were on the Omaha Indians land, and the U. S. Indian Agent warned them off, by which means extensive improvements and their crops of winter wheat were lost. And what is still worse, because the loss was irreparable, wheat crops were put in at Salt Valley were left without fence, and a guard stationed to keep off the cattle. And by some mischance the guard was not duly kept up and the whole crop except a few potatoes was destroyed. The fault in this case is laid on P. P. Pratt.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, August 17, 1848.                         No. 22.

AN  APPEAL.

It is seldom that I address the public concerning myself, and very seldom that I do so by way of complaint. On the whole I have great reason to be thankful for the kindnesses that I have received at the hands of those with whom I have associated and corresponded... And when I begin to complain, I hope it will not be supposed that I think injuries have blotted out kindnesses, or that I am in any respect destitute of friends. Considering the very arduous and difficult mission which God has committed to me, I have every reason to be thankful that my perils have not been greater...

But there is a class of injuries which have been for a few years past poured out upon me without measure or sparing, cruel and wicked in their import, and where successful, irreparable in their consequences, which I do not feel the least obligation to patiently submit to. And these injuries come much more from those who claim the name of saints than from mere Gentiles...

I became a member of the church only a few months previous to the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph. It is very well known that about the time of, and immediately after his decease, certain doctrines of a most deleterious tendency were sown broadcast throughout the church, and cultivated with so skillful a hand as to become deep rooted. I believe no man denies that at that time I maintained an unstained moral character... It is a fact perfectly notorious throughout the land that my principal accusers are those whose life has been chiefly devoted to the same crimes which they charge me, and for which they profess to abandon me. The saints who credit their lies, have placed themselves in the ridiculous predicament of believing that a man whose character was always fair, whom they acknowledged as the Lord's anointed, and who is and has been during his ministry principally surrounded by men of exalted virtue and unsuspected reputation, is a vile scamp because those whom they know to be such, say he is like them, and that therefore they cannot endure him...

Scarcely a week passes by without some tale being put afloat upon me, charging me with some offence against public law, on which, if convicted, I should be subject to imprisonment. A triumphant cry is raised among apostates, very frequently, that they have got Strang now where he can't wiggle out of their hands, and they shall put him through... Reuben Miller accuses me of lying in saying that in my ordination the angel touched me, and brings a certificate of two or three who were present at our interview to prove that I did not then say so, &c. But a majority of those present certify that I did say so at that time. If I said it, his witnesses might not have heard it.-- But id I did not say it, the others Could Not. Yet several persons have apostatized on it. They believed the negative of a few, stronger evidence than the affirmative of several, and enough stronger to convict a gentleman of good character or falsehood. And that falsehood utterly objectless, contrary to what he had said and written many times a day both before and after. Such a charge would not be worthy of notice on any testimony and unopposed. It proves its own falsehood.

It is very well known that the second day of January, 1847, some 24 of the saints met at my house and some ordinances of some kind were administered. As the meeting was not public, much curiosity has always been felt to know what they were. The transaction is usually spoken of by the name of "ILLUMINATION." Immediately after it occurred a rumor was put afloat that some terrible imposition had been practiced by me. It was alleged that I had gathered the saints in a lower room with a loose floor overhead, and causing a bright light to shine through the cracks, had pretended that it came from heaven! And that by burning pitch or other combustibles in the chimney had caused a pillar of light to rise up as the channel of communication! Men were found to believe that two dozen respectable gentlemen and ladies could be imposed on by such means! And that one in any circumstances was capable of stooping to it!

Directly the Elkhorn Star and the New Era published that fire was produced on the heads of the saints by the use of a galvanic battery, secretly concealed in another room. All scientific men know very well that the battery would destroy human life before it produced an illumination...

William Smith has published far and near and got it in the religious papers generally that I got a house built on the promise of a heavenly illumination, which I then gave by anointing the heads of the saints with phosphorus and oil. He goes on to say that he discovered the cheat and accused me of it on the spot, and that I both acknowledged it and justified it by saying that all miracles are similar cheats. Had such a story been told on any body else, the U. S. would not have furnished seven fools to credit it. But being on the Mormon prophet, it must be true. I have no reason to doubt that it is generally believed. The saints are filled with fears that it may be so.

Now I ask, in all candor, I put it to the good sense of every man, could the church have been preserved under my leading a single day after such an act? Would it not have produced universal indignation and denunciation, immediate and unqualified? Would even a man's person be safe among those who had been subjected to such base imposture? William Smith spent that Winter in Knox county, Ill., and was not within 150 miles of Voree, within some three months of that time. But several others, men of very different character from Wm. Smith, assert that the illumination was really an imposition by the use of phosphorus and oil, and as a few of them are men who are usually credited in other matters, it may be expected of me to show a reason why they should not in this. I have cheerfully done it as often as requested.

Phosphorus and oil only produces a dim light in a warm dark room. It barely makes itself visible, and could not possibly for a single moment be mistaken for the glory of God. So if such an imposition was practiced, it must have been detected on the spot. -- If an impostor, could I be such a fool? Why did not these men expose it? Within three days of that meeting the whole band of apostates in the place, amounting to some forty, were continually accusing the saints of having been imposed on in the illumination, and every soul of them denied it...

Amos Fuller, the first one of the number who asserted the use of phosphorus, gave me on the tenth day of February following a letter directed to Mrs. Emma Smith, in which he expressed the most unqualified confidence in me as the prophet of God and as an honest man. The very day of this apostacy we scouted the last suggestion of imposition and declared that it had never been pretended that the glory of God was more manifest in the illumination than in the eucharist. Those who have since gone out from among us and taken up this calumny, then treated it the same as I do now. The principal men among them stood up at the April Conference following and expressed their faith and confidence in me as the Lord's anointed, faithful and true, not only in the strongest language that they could command, but many of them (including J M. Adams, William Smith and U. C. H. Nickerson) added that they knew these facts by revelation. U. C. H. Nickerson took a mission to the western camp, visiting on the way most of the saints in Illinois and Iowa, and meeting this scandal wherever he went, perfectly laughed it down on its own innate folly. Yet such a man has become now the principal representative of my opponents, and chief accuser in the premises. To such shifts are men driven to make me vile. As I expect to return to the subject again, I forbear remarks.   Most sincerely,       JAMES J. STRANG,

---

... For proof that the Twelve were apprised of the fact that Joseph Smith had appointed James J. Strang as his (Joseph's) successor, I copy an entire article from the Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, page 631: --

"Whereas Elders James J. Strang and Aaron Smith have been circulating a "revelation." (falsely called) purporting to have been received by Joseph Smith on the 18th of June, 1844: and through the influence of which they have attempted and are attempting to establish a stake, called Voree, in Wisconsin Territory, thereby leading the saints astray: therefore, the said James J. Strang and Aaron Smith are cut off from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this 26th day of August, 1844.

By order of the Council of the Twelve.

W. RICHARDS, Clerk.

When did any one notify Strang to appear and answer any charges? NEVER! Before what tribunal of the church was he tried? NONE!! Who ever heard of the idea of the quorum of the Twelve sitting in judgment on the First President of the church?...


Note 1: Mr. Strang's training as a lawyer is put to service in the defense he offers in response to the "phosphorus illumination" charges. Still, in all his carefully chosen words, he never quite manages to state clearly, for the record, that he did not employ use of the glowing substance in his Jan. 2, 1848 ceremony in the darkened room. While a certain amount of phosphorus may only produce a dim light when mixed into a certain amount of a particular kind of oil, Strang produces no credible evidence showing that some kind of a mixture of phosphorus and other substances, in an oil base (or emerging into the air from a draining pool of oil on the hair), might not produce a "glory" as "manifest in the illumination" as "in the eucharist." Had Strang administered to his followers food or drink which contained a pupil-enlarging chemical, that factor alone might make a dim light appear relatively bright in a darkened room.

Note 2: Although William Smith was not in Wisconsin to participated in the Jan. 1-2, 1848 events, he came to Voree in their immediate aftermath and was able to learn of the "illumination," both from Strang's followers and from issues of the dissident New Era then being published at Elkhorn, ten miles away. An issue of Strang's own newspaper, of Apr. 22, 1847, as well issues as for other early 1847 dates, places William at or near the scene of the "illumination" within about 90 days of the event. In the Dec. 1846 issue of Zion's Reveille (issued early in January), Elder John Greenhow reported the "light, as consuming fire, and it sat upon each of our heads," and William Smith, wise in the ways of Mormonism, no doubt conducted his own surreptitious inquiries as to how the "manifestation" was produced. The fact that William and other ex-Strangites waited until after their respective breaks with Strang to expose this and other "impositions" says little that is useful for investigation, respective of any member's honesty.

Note 3: The same Amos Fuller, whom President J. J. Strang praised for his loyalty, prior to his disassociation from the group, was evidently the person who obtained a sample of Strang's anointing oil from that ceremony and who made it available for analysis, away from the oversight of President Strang -- see the Dec. 29, 1888 issue of the RLDS Saints' Herald. See also the Zion's Reveille issues of Dec., 1846 and Jan. 14, 1847, as well as the Gospel Herald of Dec. 23, 1847.

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, August 31, 1848.                         No. 24.

Pres. Strang -- Sir: -- I have just taken a squint at a pamphlet entitled "An Address to the Latter Day Saints, by Lyman Wight, by way of an abridged account of his life from Feb., 1844, up to April, 1848." This Lyman Wight was one of the Twelve Apostles, who was appointed of God to fill the vacancy in that quorum, caused by the martyrdom of David W. Patton in Missouri, in the fall season of 1838. I have nothing to say concerning that man (Wight) as a man, only that he is one of the most noble, generous, brave, persevering, whole hearted men that I was ever acquainted with. Many and many a time has he offered his life as a willing scarifice for his brethren; and that, too, when my life was jeopardized, for which, as a man, he is rivitted to my attention, remembrance and high regard that time and distance never, no never, can obliterate; and I know no temporal sacrifice so great that I would withhold it to save him from peril....

Lyman seems to cherish the idea that is ignorantly held out by some others, that Joseph, the prophet's son, will yet come up and take his father's original place in the church, as the prophet to the church; whereas there is not one single word in all the book of D. & C. to warrant the idea. It is true, the son is warranted a claim to the priesthood that was confirmed on his father by lineal descent, but not the Presidency of the church; that depends entirely on the appointment of his father. And as Joseph's son has made no such claim, it is to be reasonably presumed that he does not recognize any such appointment. If he does, God has been slack concerning his promises, and left his people to wander like sheep without a shepherd... [JOHN E. PAGE]

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, October 5, 1848.                         No. 29.

==> We are in the weekly receipt of the Walworth Democrat, published by Cooley and (Oliver) Cowdery. It is conducted with ability, and laboring hard in an uphill cause -- Cass Democracy. -- By the way, what has become of all Dr. McLellin's promises that brother Cowdery was about to join him in building up a new Mormon church? McL. has regularly roared for a year and a half, and finally run out. Had he any promise of assistance from brother Cowdery, or was he lying all this time? His defunct Ensign did contain one letter with Oliver's name to it, saying he "held the keys," &c., but as he takes extraordinary liberties both with facts and documents, we always suspected it was a forgery. Indeed we think Oliver would do worse in joining hands with Dr. McL. in religion than with Mr. Cooley in politics, and even this is the losing hand in the long run.

By the way, not long since Oliver was in nomination for Representative in the State Assembly, and that blackguard, the "Elkhorn Star," opposed him on the ground of his being a witness of the Book of Mormon. Doubtless if John the Revelator was a candidate it would oppose him because he was a witness of the resurrection of Jesus. But the friends of Mr. Cowdery produced testimonials of the leading citizens, both political and religious, without distinction of party or sect, of the northern part of Ohio, of his excellent character while in that region. Just as it should be. Oliver certifies that he knows the Book of Mormon "was translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates. And we declare with words of soberness that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the PLATES, and the engravings thereon, and the voice of the Lord commanded us to bear record of it;" and the leading men of various sects and parties in northern Ohio, where he has spent many years of his life, certify that his character is above reproach. Surely he is entitled to credit. We thank the Gentiles for stirring up this matter.

On the whole, Oliver seems to be in good demand and first rate standing. Even Phineas Young is here, telling that brother Cowdery is going with him to Council Bluffs. We don't doubt that he does so with just as much truth as McLellin told him that he was going with him. A short time ago all were against him; now all [are] crying him up, and bragging that he will go with them. Don't think they will lift him high enough to make him dizzy. If they should, they would let him fall very hard.


Note 1: Four years later, in the Nov. 11, 1852 issue of his his Michigan Northern Islander, James J. Strang took some pains to refute the story that Oliver Cowdery died a drunkard in Wisconsin. Strang credits the misinformation to "Mr. Cooly" the editor of the Green Bay Spectator, a newspaper published in Brown Co., Wisconsin between 1851 and 1853. The person thus referred to was (Edwin) Alanson Cooley, who published the Walworth County Democrat during the time that Oliver Cowdery edited that paper. Why Mr. Cooley would have offered such an incorrect summary of Oliver's final days is unknown -- if indeed he did. The connection between Cooley and Cowdery doubtless may be traced back to Lockport and Batavia, New York in the 1820s, when the two young men were just beginning their respective newspaper careers. See also the notes appended to the Dec. 30, 1837 issue of the Niagara Democrat and the Sept. 12, 1846 issue of the Janesville Gazette.

Vol. III.                           Voree, Wisconsin, January 4, 1849.                         No. 42.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO THE
PRINTER OF THE GOSPEL HERALD.

               Ashtabula, Ohio, Nov. 19th, 1848.

Mr. Cooper, -- Sir: -- *   *   *   *  I think that you will some day wake up to an understanding of your situation, for I think that you have more mind than to remain blind forever. -- For your benefit I will give you a short history of Mormonism. I will commence with the golden Bible. It was written in Erie, Pa., as a romance with regard to the ten lost tribes of Israel. From Erie it was sent to Pittsburgh in manuscript to be printed, where Rigdon, the great Apostle of "Mormonism," was at work as a journeyman printer, whole stole the manuscript, and with "Jo Smith" commenced one of the greatest systems of fraud and humbug ever got up. Jo Smith learned the manuscript off by heart, and then got a piece of glass and called it the philosopher's stone, with which he would read from the plates, which he found when the Devil kicked him six feet on end. And as for Jo Smith, he was known to be one of the greatest villains in the western part of the State of New York.

As I was saying, he read them to a gaping crowd, and every word was taken down as an oracle from God. Yes, the offspring of the imagination of a man, who died before his work could be printed, was read as the word of God! what profanity! From whence do they derive their order? From Jo Smith, I suppose. But ambition and fanaticism will carry some men a great ways. They want to be called Apostle, and want to mislead ignorant and foolish people, and especially when they have got money. That is what they want. And among them is that great Apostle Strang. I will not call him a fool, for he is not one. But his talents ought to be put to a better use than carrying on a system of fraud and deception, excelled only by Mohammed. *   *   *   JOHN GIFFORD.

==> The foregoing letter, written to the printer of the Herald by an old acquaintance, we publish just as set off to the assertions of Wm. Smith. The only differences we can see in them is that Mr. Gifford probably supposes what he says is true, just as some future fool who repeats Wm.'s tales may think them true. The story of Joseph getting a piece of glass and calling it the philosopher's stone is doubtless an attempt at the use of the Urim and Thummim. All that is said of the dead man's manuscript, is probably a vague reiteration of the Spaulding story. Mr. Gifford very likely does not know that Sidney Rigdon never was a printer. -- Nor that at the time the Spaulding manuscript was in Pittsburgh, Rigdon was a boy on his father's farm. We presume he would not like to know any such fact. Otherwise we would send him the evidence to his heart's content.

By the way, "Jo Smith" must have been full as smart to learn the whole Book of Mormon by heart as Strang was in endeavoring to make converts by fraudulent miracles, and at the same time teaching that all miracles were cheats. Pray, who would be converted by a miracle, if the doer said it was a fraud? And why should a "gaping crowd" think a man's words were an oracle from God, merely because he looked in a glass when he spoke them? Strange that no man can tell a lie, but he sticks up a signboard to show its falsity. We are pleased to see prophet Strang ranked with the prophets, even in calumny, and are not a whit displeased that Mr. Gifford, after repeating stale falsehoods on Joseph, should call him hard names also. If, like the assembly at Ottawa, Wm.'s eastern audiences should require him to begin his Mormon expose with "Old Jo" or return the money, they doubtless could hear something of more prophets than one. However this may be, all who know him know that, rather than fail of a favorite undertaking, he would justify any iniquity under Joseph's cloak.


Note 1: John Gifford's recollection of a story about "the ten lost tribes of Israel" having been written in Erie County, PA corresponds closely with the testimony of Daniel Tyler. In an 1878 letter, Tyler (like Gifford, an early resident of the area where PA and OH meet on the Lake Erie shore) speaks of "A superannuated Presbyterian preacher" having "written a romance... pretending that the ten tribes" came to ancient America. Tyler also mentions his neighbor in Erie, County, PA: "Erastus Rudd, in whose house much of the romance was formerly written..." (Daniel Tyler, "The Spauldin' Story," Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Jan. 16, 1878. It appears that both Gifford and Tyler were heirs to a local tradition that the Rev. Solomon Spalding wrote a story about the "ten lost tribes of Israel," perhaps partly in New Salem, Ashtabula, Ohio, but mostly in the adjacent Erie Co., Pennsylvania.

Note 2: As for Rigdon's "father's farm," it was within walking distance of Pittsburgh and it was where both Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spalding picked up their mail now and then. Although Spalding's residence, at Amity, was more than a convenient day's walk from Pittsburgh, it was not terribly far from the "father's farm" and it is not unlikely that Sidney Rigdon occasionally visited Amity, since he had an aunt and cousins living in the same hamlet, probably within sight of the inn Spalding kept there. These relatives lived in Amity during practically the entire length of Spalding's 1824-1816 stay. Finally, although Rigdon may have not been a printer, his occasional occupation as a leather currier in and around Pittsburgh would have naturally brought him into contact with the Patterson Brothers' book bindery there, if not with their other associated enterprises -- a paper mill, a book store, and a publishing office.

Vol. IV.                           Voree, Wisconsin, June 7, 1849.                         No. 12.

==> We learn by private correspondence from St. Louis that large numbers of Brighamites are passing through that city, both to and from Council Bluffs. Also that Phineas Young, who figured in this region in persuading Oliver Cowdery off to the Bluffs, has been down to Texas on a similar errand to Lyman Wight, which appears not to have been quite so successful. It is also alledged, we know not with what truth, that David Whitmer has an invitation to join them and serve as a kind of puppet prophet for the camp. Greatly are they in need of one, but whether they can supply the want in that way, they have yet to learn.


Note: During the summer of 1847 Oliver Cowdery moved his family, from Tiffin, Seneca Co., Ohio to the town of Elkhorn, Walworth Co., Wisconsin Territory -- a mere ten miles west of J. J. Strang's Mormon colony at Voree. Shortly after this relocation, Oliver was visited by the traveling church organizer, William E. McLellin. Although McLellin was unable to convince Oliver to move back to Ohio (and unite with Mormons at Kirtland) he seems to have stirred up ideas for Oliver's re-uniting with the Saints -- both in Oliver's mind and in the minds of the Brighamite leaders. Through his Mormon brother-in-law, Phineas H. Young, the Twelve invited Oliver Cowdery back into their church. By February of 1848 Oliver seems to have accepted the invitation and was making plans to visit the Brighamite spring conference at Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa. Oliver Cowdery did not show up for the conference, and all that Phineas could report to the attendees was that Oliver was "prepared to receive the word" of the Twelve and would come west "as soon as circumstances will permit." Those "circumstances" appear to have been the April, 1848 elections for representatives to the newly formed Wisconsin State Legislature. When Oliver lost in his bid for elected office, his interest in joining the Mormons was renewed. Phineas Young came to Elkhorn by the beginning of October and escorted the Cowdery family to Council Bluffs. They arrived there on Oct. 21st and Oliver was able to attend a local conference and have his application for re-baptism considered by the High Council assembled there. George W. Harris, an old associate of Oliver's from his early years in western New York, recommended Oliver's readmittance to the Church. According to LDS sources, Oliver Cowdery was re-baptized a Mormon, on Sunday Nov. 12, 1848, in Mosquito Creek, at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Vol. IV.                           Voree, Wisconsin, November 1, 1849.                         No. 33.

MARTYRS  OF  THE  LATTER  DAY  SAINTS.

The following are the names of a few of the Martyrs, who, for the testimony of Jesus, have been inhumanly murdered in the States of Missouri and Illinois: -- Mr. Barber, Martyred November 4, 1833, in Jackson county, Mo. The following Saints were martyred in Caldwell co, Mo., Oct 30, 1833: -- Thos. McBride, Levi Merrick [sic - Hancock?], Wm. Merrick, Elias Benner, Josiah Fuller, Benjamin Lewis, Alex. Campbell, Warren Smith, Sardius Smith, George Richards, Mr. Napier, Mr. Harmar, Mr. Cox, Mr. Abbott, and Mr. York. About the same time and in the same county, the following persons were martyred, namely: David W. Patten, one of the Twelve Apostles, Gideon Carter, Mr. Obanion, and Mr. Carey. Martyred in Carthage Jail, in the county of Hancock, State of Illinois, on the 27th day of June, 1844, Joseph Smith, the Seer, Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch, two of the noblest Martyrs whose blood has stained the earth for ages. The murderers of the foregoing persons, though the most of them are well known, are yet running at large, boasting of their deeds. Samuel H. Smith, brother of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who died from the effects of poison administered to him, within one month after the martyrdom of his brother. These all have sealed their testimony with their blood, besides many more whose days have been shortened by the persecutions that they have endured.


Note: The Strangites "lifted" the above list of names from the Oct., 1849 issue of William Smith's Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, without attribution. See notes appended to that entry for further particulars.