Under
the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, 2003, Excerpts
The Saints reacted to
Joseph’s death with woe and staggering grief, vowing through their tears to
exact revenge. First, however, they had to address a more pressing concern: the
survival of Mormonism. Joseph had neglected to provide his followers with a
clear mechanism for determining his successor. The contenders fell into two
camps: those bitterly opposed to polygamy, who saw Joseph’s death as an
opportunity to eradicate the practice before it gained traction, and those who
had already taken plural wives and regarded polygamy as a divinely ordained
principle that must be sustained.
On the morning of
August 8, 1844, Brigham Young became the Mormon’s second president, prophet,
seer, and revelator. He had been baptized into the Mormon Church in 1832, at
the age of thirty-one, and quickly became one of Joseph’s most loyal
lieutenants. Like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young had been born poor in rural New
England, where the Second Great Awakening made a lasting imprint on his
consciousness.
Brigham was, however,
Joseph’s opposite in almost every imaginable way. Joseph was tall, athletic,
and handsome; Brigham was short and thick [at his heaviest, he weighed more
than 250 pounds], with small, porcine eyes. Joseph was emotional, charismatic,
an impulsive dreamer and incorrigible charmer; Brigham was steady, dependable,
and pragmatic to a fault, a brilliant organizer who thought things through and paid
attention to the details. Joseph craved the adoration of his followers; Brigham
didn’t ask the Saints to love him – he demanded only their respect and
unconditional obedience.
When the Mormons
faced imminent extermination in the wake of Joseph’s martyrdom, they required
discipline and firm, decisive leadership, which is what Brigham ably provided.
George Bernard Shaw praised him as “the American Moses.” He was the right man
for the right time.
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