Upheld Death
“Brigham Young, who had been under suspicion at Joseph Smith’s death, introduced polygamy and blood atonement at Salt Lake City. Blood atonement meant death to anyone who left his church. Brigham Young’s argument was that the apostate whose throat was cut from ear to ear, the favorite way, saved his soul, but his object was to keep his people under his iron heel. Young was a shrewd, bad man.
“I spent a day and a half with Joseph F. Smith at Salt Lake City three years ago, and he gave me a group photo of himself, his surviving five wives, and thirty-six children. His first wife was dead. She died broken-hearted and insane. Personally, Joseph F. Smith is a genial, kindly man, but he and I differed on Polygamy. I told him it was vile and wicked, always had been, and always would be. In appearance he resembles his cousin, my own president.”
Mr. Evans is married, and has two children. The three faces look at you from his watch case. He has recently returned from the northwest. His faith has several thriving churches there, he says, while the Utah Mormons are settled in one part of Alberta.
Footnotes
1. Mr. Evans’ declaration that the Prophet was killed for his anti-slavery sympathies is rather surprising, when we consider that he was in one of the anti-slave states, and the mob at Carthage was largely composed of men with very strong “anti-slavery sympathies.” The fact is he and his brother Hyrum were martyred for their religion of which Celestial Marriage, (including Plural Marriage) formed a part. One of the charges made against them was that of teaching “polygamy.”
2. In proof that the Prophet did not ordain or consecrate his son as his successor, the reader is referred to the affidavits of John W. Rigdon and Bathsheba W. Smith.
3. As the Church was never disorganized, it could not be reorganized. Mr. Evans has made a mistake. It was the Quorum of the First Presidency that was disorganized at the Prophet’s death and which was reorganized when Brigham Young was elected President, and not the Church.