Gary J. Bergera - Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith

Conflict in the Quorum

Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith

Gary James Bergera

Signatur e Books, Salt Lake City

A Smith-Pe ttit Foundation Book

2002 Smith-Petti t Foundation.

Cover design by Ron Stucki

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bergera, Gary James.

Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith / by Gary James Bergera.

p. cm.

A Smith-Pettit Foundation book.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-56085-164-3 (hardback)

1. Pratt, Orson, 1811-1881. 2. Smith, Joseph, 1805-1844. 3.Young, Brigham, 1801-1877. 4. Church controversiesChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--History19th century. 5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsHistory19th century. I. Title.

BX8695.P69 B47 2002

289.309034dc21

2002036664

For my parents

Contents

Preface

This is a study in interpersonal conflict and group dynamics. It is a story that illustrates issues of freedom and obedience and the fragile fabric they share.

Among the many beliefs embraced by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon), few are as pervasive as the perception that harmony prevails within the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles, the tightly knit core of the churchs governing hierarchy. (There are other general authorities or officers, but all are subservient to the First Presidency and Twelve.) As former LDS church president and official Church Historian Joseph Fielding Smith once explained: There is no division among the authorities, and there need be no divisions among the people, but unity, peace, brotherly love, kindness and fellowship one to another (qtd. in Bruce R. McConkie, comp., Doctrines of Salvation [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-56], 2:245-46). While such assurances stand as the rule, human nature and Mormonisms turbulent history suggest that within the highest councils, differences of opinion can and do erupt into debates among men who hold similar convictions yet possess vastly different temperaments.

An examination of the controversies arising between nineteenth-century LDS leaders Orson Pratt and Joseph Smith, and later between Pratt and Brigham Young, illustrates the degree to which such disharmony can affect church doctrine, policy, and organization. Aside from the personal views and experiences of these men, all of whom were deeply spiritual and strong-willed individuals, their influence and interplay in their quorums are what is significant. Their actions affected the entire structure of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the rest of the church as well.

I focus on Pratt because he was the common denominator in these disputes. Given his eventual demotion in his quorum, he is the one who was most directly impacted by the controversies. However, it should not be inferred that the overriding characteristic of the church, during this period or later, was conflict. Nor do I mean to question the faith or inspiration of any of these men. My interest is in exploring expressions of faith when one leader clashed with an equally sincere and devoted colleague.

Neither the conflict nor the men themselves were right or wrong, good or bad. Their actions resulted in consequences that were favorable or unfavorable depending on the criteria one employs or judgments that are made. I have tried to consider each persons perspective in terms of how he interpreted his circumstances. If a reader suspects that I favor one man over another, another reader may see evidence that I side with a different individual. I have tried to set aside my own preconceptions and biases as much as possible and let their own words, and the context in which they were spoken, form the core of this study.

A note about the sources used. Much, but not all, of the research was undertaken in the historical archives of the LDS church beginning in the late 1970s. Policies regarding access to the papers of general church officers were different then. In some cases, I have had to rely on notes and photocopies without being able to examine the originals a second time. Nevertheless, I have tried to present these documents as faithfully as possible, including peculiarities of spelling and punctuation. I regret that interested readers will not be able to verify independently all of my references and transcriptions.

For their assistance, encouragement, and especially example, I thank Thomas G. Alexander, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Leonard J. Arrington, Lisa Orme Bickmore, Martha Sonntag Bradley, Newell G. Bringhurst, David John Buerger, Eugene E. Campbell, Todd Compton, Everett Cooley, Scott H. Faulring, Steven Heath, Michael Homer, Scott G. Kenney, Stanley B. Kimball, Boyd Kirkland, Brigham D. Madsen, H. Michael Marquardt, D. Michael Quinn, Allen D. Roberts, John Sillito, George D. Smith, Susan Staker, Richard Van Wagoner, Dan Vogel, and David J. Whittaker. I also appreciate the support of Ron Priddis, Connie Disney, Jani Fleet, Greg Jones, Keiko Jones, and Tom Kimball. I have benefitted immensely from their perspectives and involvement.

Come martyrdom, come burnings at the stake, come any calamity and affliction of the body, that may be devised by wicked and ungodly menlet me choose that, and have eternal life beyond the grave; but let me not deny the work of God.

Orson Pratt

[Orson Pratt is] strangely Constituted. He [has] acquired a good deal of knowledge upon many things but in other things He [is] one of the most ignorant men [I] ever saw in [my] life. He [is] full of integrity & would lie down & have his head Cut off for me or his religi[o]n if necessary but he will never see his Error untill he goes into the spirit world. [T]hen he will say Brother Brigham how foolish I was.

Brigham Young

O[rson] P[ratt] [has] caused trouble by telling stories to people who would betray me and [who] must believe these stories because his [Pratts] wife told him so! I will live to trample on their ashes with the soles of my feet.

Joseph Smith

Prologue .
Out of the Church

Snow had fallen intermittently throughout the week, but by the 10th of April 1875, the blue sky held only high clouds. For the tenth time since Tuesday, members of the Rocky Mountain-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filled the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City to capacity for the 45th semi-annual general conference.

During the two oclock afternoon session, George Q. Cannon, the increasingly influential forty-eight-year-old assistant to aging church president Brigham Young, read the names of twenty-six church officers from president through the First Council of the Seventy. These men, Mormonisms elite, were endorsed by the uplifted hand of over ten thousand Saints.

Members had performed the same task six months earlier except that there had been no surprises at that meeting. Apostles Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt had been sustained as the senior members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, next in line to assume the church presidency. Now the same men were reduced to third and fourth in rank behind Elders John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff.

Hydes and Pratts reassignment brought real consequences. Both men outlived Brigham Young and, under the emerging protocol of apostolic succession, Hyde would have replaced Young as president of the church in 1877. He would have been followed by Pratt the next year when Hyde died. Instead, Taylor, and then Woodruff, bore the burden of the presidents mantle.

The issue was not explained publicly at the time but was broached privately. Shortly before conference, the Twelve were reminded that Hyde and Pratt had been out of the Church for several months some thirty-five years earlier and had presumably returned to positions behind Taylor and Woodruff, both of whom now stood ahead of [these men] in the Quorum. but an authoritative public explanation would not come for an additional four years until both Hyde and Pratt had died.