Without Disclosing My True Identity
(^6) See Declaration of Independence. A facsimile can be viewed online at The National Archives,
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 12 Jan. 2012
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html.
(^7) See n. 6 above.
(^8) Thomas Jefferson, numerous references available.
(^9) Richard L. Bushman, “Joseph Smith’s Family Background,” in The Prophet Joseph: Essays on
the Life and Mission of Joseph Smith, eds. Larry C. Porter and Susan Easton Black (Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 1988) 11.
(^10) Parallels Genesis 47:12.
(^11) DHC, 4:393.
(^12) Compare TSP, 43:80–98.
(^13) “In noticing the claims of Brigham Young to superior power and authority, I would here
observe that I heard my brother Joseph declare before his death, that Brigham Young was a man,
whose passions, if unrestrained, were calculated to make him the most licentious man in the world,
and should the time ever come, said he, that this man should lead the church, he would certainly lead
it to destruction.” (William Smith, “A Proclamation,” The Warsaw Signal 2:32 (29 Oct. 1845).
“I do not see how you boys can preach Brigham the successor to Joseph or that he has eny
[sic] more authority than he had when Joseph died. I never believed it nor never shall believe it.”
(Arthur Millikin [husband of Lucy Jr., who asked Arthur to ‘sit down & write a few lines’].
“Although written by Arthur, the letter likely reflects the sentiments of both him and Lucy, as Arthur
indicated he was writing at Lucy’s request.” (Kyle R. Walker, “Katherine Smith Salisbury and Lucy
Smith Millikin’s Attitude Toward Succession, the Reorganized Church, and Their Smith Relatives in
Utah,” Mormon Historical Studies 3.1 [Spring 2002] 168–70.)
Lyman Wight, a leading character and defender of Joseph and an apostle (the 18th), when
asked to support Brigham Young, declared that he [Wight] “did not care a damn for the Twelve in
Nauvoo, and as for Brigham Young, Joseph always said his office would kill him.” He said the set
time for the building of the temple had expired—that the Lord would not accept it if completed. He
hoped the Twelve would cut him off “as he could not please himself until then.” (Barrett, Joseph Smith
and the Restoration, 526.)
“In a conference held at Provo City, Utah Territory, in the year 1867, in the bowery, on the
northwest corner of the now Provo Commercial Bank block, President Brigham Young, in the course
of a sermon he was delivering to the people, made the following prophecy: ‘Brethren, this Church
will be led onto the very brink of hell by the leaders of this people, then God will raise up the one
‘Mighty and Strong’ spoken of in the 85th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants to save and redeem
this Church.’ Attested to by Joshua Jones who made a minute of it at that time and now has it in his
diary. He is now (June 1922) at Provo City, Utah. The sending of this one ‘Mighty and Strong’ the
Lord has purposed for the salvation of the honest in heart among his people, and to be the initiative
to bring about the great blessing the Lord has in reserve to cause the poor, the lame, the deaf, and the
blind to rejoice.” (John T. Clark, as quoted in Ogden Kraut, The One Mighty and Strong [Salt Lake City:
Pioneer Press, 1991] 106.)
Years earlier, he had quoted another witness who heard Brigham Young that same day
(Ogden Kraut, The Segregation of Israel [1979; Salt Lake City: Pioneer, 1986] 211): “Learned through
Lorin C. Woolley, that his father, John W. Woolley, attended the above meeting, and upon arriving
home at Centerville he told Lorin and his mother of the incident. He related it thusly: “President
Young, being filled with the Holy Ghost, said, ‘The time will come when this people will be led onto
the very brink of hell by their leaders, then the one mighty and strong will come to set the house of
God in order.’ (Joseph Musser Journal, p. 79.)”
(^14) Compare TSP, 43:38–98. “The early years of Christ with his family, which consisted of
Joseph, his mother Mary, and his brothers, Joseph Jr., James, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters Sariah,
Rachael, Elizabeth and Anah.”
(^15) TSP, 30:84–90.