The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-02
Brigham Young
BY APOSTLE
ORSON r. WHITNEY.

fallen a martyr to the cause. Presi-
dent Young was now at the head of the
second council of authority in the
church. Though compelled to leave
Missouri, he. in the absence Of the I'm
prisoned first presidency - Joseph
Smith, Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum
Smith-directed the winter exodus of
the plundered and homeless people.
Mission to Europe.
As early as July 1898, the prophet
had instructed the twelve APOSTLES to
take a mission to Europe, and The re-
velation commanding ii gave the dars
upon which they should depart from
the temple lot in Far West. This was
before the mob troubles began, before
the Saints were driven, and before
there was any prospect of such a ga
lamity. But now all was changed; the
expulsion was an accomplished fact,
and 1t was as much as a Mormon's lite
was worth to be seen in Missouri. How
was the word of the Lord to be full
filed? The mob leaders, aware of the
prediction, had sworn that it should
never be fulfilled. Before daybrealx,
however, on the morning of the day APP
pointed-April &c, 1S39-Brigham Young
and others of the twelve rode into Far
West, held a meeting on the temple
lot, ordained two apostles, and started
thence upon their mission: the enemy
meanwhile wrapped in slumber,
oblivious to what was taking place. De-
layed by the founding of their new
city. Nauvoo, in Illinois. and by an
epidemic of fever and ague, which
swept over that newly settled section,
the apostles did not cross the Atlantic
until nearly a year later and even
then this intrepid man and his no less
intrepid companions, arose from SICK
beds, leaving their families afling and
almost destitute, to begin their jour
ney.
In Great Britain.
Landing at Liverpool, penniless, On
the 9Th of April. 1910, Brigham Young
and his brethren remained in Great
Britain q little more than a year, dur
ing which time they broadened aud
strengthened the foundations of that
important mission. previously laid by
two of. their number-Heber G.. KIM
ball and Orson Hyde-with their asso-
ciates. Seven OF eight thousand souls
were now added to the church, and
branches raised up in. nearly every
noted city and town throughout the
United Kingdom. The Book of Nor
mon was published, the Millennial
Star founded, gospel tracts and hymn
books printed and distributed, thou
sand emigrants sent to Nauvoo, and a
permanent emigration agency estab-
lished, which sent annually across the
ocean hundreds and thousands of souls
to help build UP the church in Ameri-
ca 1t was during this mission that
Brigham Young gave the first great
proof of his rare ability as an organ
iZeT and an executive.
He had returned from Europe, and
with the majority of his quorum was
on mission in the eastern states. when
the prophet and the patriarch, Joseph
and Hyrum Smith, were murdered in
Carthage Jail. Hurrying back TO Nau-
VOC, bingham Young and his confreres
were just in time to defeat certain am
bilious designs upon the leadership of
the church and to maintain the right
of the twelve apostles to succeed the
first presidency. now no more.
A veritable Moses to a modern Israel,
Brigham Young led his people in their
historic fight into the western wilder
ness, and commanded in person the
pioneer band which entered Salt Lake
valley on the oath of July, 1S47. They
had penetrated to the heart of the
Great American Desert" a region de-
scribed by Daniel Webster as "a vast,
worthless area, unfit for civilized occu-
pancy and impossible to reclaim Here
they founded Salt Lake City, the par
ent of hundreds of cities, towns and
villages that have since sprung from
the barren bosom of the waste, as
''Mormonism's" gift to civilization.
The Stars and Stripes.
Flinging to the breeze the Stars and
Stripes, the pioneers took possession of
a country just conquered from Mexico;
a portion of the invading army being
the Mormon battalion. furnished to the
government by the migrating church.
at Council Bluffs. in the summer of
1876. At the close of the Mexican war
pending action by congress upon their
petition for a state government, our
people organized the provisional gov
eminent of the state of Deseret, with