The document from which this counsel is quoted was published in February, 1844. Eleven years later, namely, in 1855, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that the question of slavery should be met in accordance "with the interests of the South, and with the settled conscience of the North." "It is not really a great task," said this eminent writer, "a great feat for this country to accomplish, to buy that property of the planter as the British nation bought the West Indian slaves." He also predicted that "the United States will be brought to give every inch of their public lands for a purpose like this." This plan suggested by Mr. Emerson in 1855, brought to him no end of praise as a sage philosopher and wise humanitarian. But what of Joseph Smith, whose suggestion preceded that of Mr. Emerson by eleven years? Let another—Josiah Quincy—answer:
"We who can look back upon the terrible cost of the fratricidal war which put an end to slavery, now say that such a solution of the difficulty would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But if the retired scholar [referring to Emerson] was in advance of his time when he advocated this disposition of the public property in 1855, what shall I say of the political and religious leader [referring to Joseph Smith] who had committed himself in print, as well as in conversation, to the same course in 1844? If the atmosphere of men's opinions was stirred by such a proposition when war clouds were discernable in the sky, was it not a statesman-like word eleven years earlier when the heavens looked tranquil and beneficent?"6
By indulging in these reflections based upon the supposition of the success of Stephen A. Douglas in the election of 1860, I have wandered from the line of direct argument. I have nothing further to do with the career of Mr. Douglas than to point out in it the remarkable fulfillment of a prophecy which demonstrates the divine inspiration of the man who uttered it.
Footnotes
1. Mill. Star, Vol. xxi, No. 9.
2. See Cooper's American Politics, Bk. I, p. 86.
3. See tables in "American Politics," Bk. vii, pp. 22, 26; also, History U. S. (by Alexander H. Stephens), p. 559.
4. Shortly after the result of the election of 1860 was known in Utah, Elder Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve Apostles, then residing in Sanpete County, Utah, wrote to the Deseret News the following letter:
"Ephraim, Utah Ter., Nov. 27, 1860.
"Will the Judge now acknowledge that Joseph Smith was a true prophet? If he will not, does he recollect a certain conversation had with Mr. Smith at the house of Sheriff Backenstos, in Carthage, Illinois, in the year 1843, in which Mr. Smith said to him: 'You will yet aspire to the Presidency of the United States. But if you ever raise your hand or your voice against the Latter-day Saints, you shall never be President of the United States.'
"Does Judge Douglas recollect that in a public speech delivered by him in the year 1857, at Springfield, Illinois, of comparing the Mormon community, then constituting the inhabitants of Utah Territory, to a 'loathsome ulcer on the body politic,' and of recommending the knife to be applied to cut it out?
"Among other things, the Judge will doubtless recollect that I was present and heard the conversation between him and Joseph Smith at Mr. Backenstos' residence in Carthage, before alluded to.
"Now, Judge, what do you think about Joseph Smith and Mormonism?
"ORSON HYDE."
5. Joseph Smith's "Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States," Mill. Star, Vol. XXII, p. 743.
6. "Figures of the Past—Joseph Smith at Nauvoo," p. 398.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY—CONCLUDED.
On the 25th of December, 1832, the following revelation and prophecy in relation to the great American civil war, and war among all nations, was given through Joseph Smith:
"Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.
"The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place.
"For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations.
"And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war: and it shall come to pass also, that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation;
"And thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine and plague and earthquakes and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations;
"That the cry of the Saints, and of the blood of the Saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies.
"Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen."
As stated this revelation and prophecy was given in December, 1832; the elders carried manuscript copies of it with them in their missionary journeys, and frequently read it to their congregations in various parts of the United States. In Vol. XIII of the Millennial Star, published in 1851, pp. 216 and 217, is an advertisement of a new church publication to be called the Pearl of Great Price. In the announced contents is named this revelation of December, 1832, with a statement, that it had "never before appeared in print." Subsequently, but in the same year, the Pearl of Great Price with this prophecy in it, was published by Franklin D. Richards, in Liverpool, England. There are copies of the first edition still extant.1
I am careful to make these statements that the reader may have ample assurance that the revelation and prophecy preceded the event of the great Civil War. The revelation containing the prophecy was given on the 25th of December, 1832. The first shot fired in the great American Civil War was fired early on the morning of April 12th, 1861. Hence the prediction preceded the commencement of its fulfillment by twenty-eight years, three months and seventeen days. Ten years before the war began, the prophecy was published in England and circulated both in that country and in the United States. There can be no question, therefore, as to the prophecy preceding the event.
Let us inquire if the events predicted were of a nature that they could not be foreseen and hence foretold by human judgment, unaided by divine inspiration. The prophecy predicts,
First, that the war would begin with the rebellion of South Carolina.
Second, that it would terminate in the death and misery of many souls.
Third, that the Southern States would be divided against the Northern States.
Fourth, that the Southern States would call upon other nations for assistance, even upon the nation of Great Britain.
Fifth, that Great Britain would call upon other nations for assistance, and thus war would eventually be poured out upon all nations.
I submit that this is an enumeration of events twenty-eight years in the future altogether too definite for human wisdom, unassisted by divine inspiration, to give. Profane history has nothing like