RETURN TO NAUVOO—SICKNESS OF LEONORA—SAVED BY THE POWER OF GOD—FOUNDS "NAUVOO NEIGHBOR"—EDITS "TIMES AND SEASONS"—NOMINATES THE PROPHET FOR PRESIDENT—REASONS—INTRODUCTION OF CELESTIAL MARRIAGE—HIS CONDUCT IN REGARD TO IT.

The remainder of Elder Taylor's time while on his first mission to England was employed mostly in preaching in Liverpool and in assisting the Saints who were beginning to emigrate to Nauvoo.

There was something singular in this movement among the British Saints. When the Apostles started on their missions, the Prophet Joseph had instructed them to say nothing, for the present, in relation to the gathering of the people. It was doubtless the unsettled state of the Church at that time which led him to give such counsel. The instructions were, of course, followed by the Apostles; but no sooner were the people baptized than they were seized with a desire to gather with the main body of the Church. "I find it is difficult to keep anything from the Saints," writes Elder Taylor, "for the Spirit of God reveals it to them. * * * Some time ago Sister Mitchel dreamed that she, her husband and a number of others were on board a vessel, and that there were other vessels, loaded with Saints, going somewhere. She felt very happy and was rejoicing in the Lord." Another sister had a similar dream, and was informed that all the Saints were going. Neither of these sisters, nor any of the Saints at that time, knew anything about the principle of gathering, yet all were anxious to leave their homes, their kindred and the associations of a lifetime, to join the main body of the Church in a distant land, the members of which were total strangers to them.

Not only had this desire to gather with the Church taken hold of them, but those who had means were moved upon to assist those who were poor. Altogether more than eight hundred Saints left England before the Apostles turned their faces homeward, and Elder Taylor was of material service to them in Liverpool, as he secured for them the best possible terms for their passage; organized them into companies, appointing the most experienced and wisest among them to take charge, that the inexperienced might not be a prey for sharpers and rogues to feast upon.

In addition to these labors, Elder Taylor visited Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield and many other cities, everywhere preaching the gospel with great success, everywhere preaching the gospel with great success, converting the unbelieving and strengthening and encouraging the Saints. Thus the autumn and winter of 1840—41 passed away.

The object for which the Apostles had visited Great Britain was accomplished. They had established the Church there on a sound basis. The Book of Mormon and the Hymn Book had been published; a periodical to advocate and defend the faith delivered to the Saints established; a permanent shipping agency founded to aid the Saints in gathering to Zion; branches had been organized in nearly all the principal towns of the kingdom, and some eight thousand souls had been baptized. In all this labor Elder Taylor had taken an active, prominent part; and now, in company with his fellow Apostles, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith and Willard Richards, he sailed on the ship Rochester for America.

Elder Taylor arrived in Nauvoo on the 1st of July, 1841. Here a great sorrow was awaiting him—his faithful, patient Leonora was sick nigh unto death. The hardships in Missouri, the separation from her husband,—on whose strong arm and steadfast courage she was wont to lean,—and the consequent increase of care in watching over her family, had at last broken down her strength; and hence he found her pale and wan, and death clutching at her precious life. He called in twenty Elders, who prayed for her; she was anointed with oil, hands were laid upon her, and, in fulfillment of God's promise, the prayer of faith healed the sick—the Lord raised her up.

It was shortly after the return of the Twelve from England that the Prophet Joseph made known to them the doctrine of celestial marriage—the marriage system that obtains in the celestial worlds where the Gods dwell,—marriage that is to endure for time and for eternity, the ceremony being performed by one holding that power which binds on earth and binds in heaven. Celestial marriage also includes a plurality of wives.

This system of marriage had been revealed to the Prophet a number of years before, but he had kept the matter in his own heart. The time had come, however, when the principles of this marriage system must be made known to others and the practice thereof entered into by the faithful in the Priesthood. Hitherto the Saints, in common with the so-called Christian world, had married until death did them part; but now, through the introduction of celestial marriage, the covenants between men and their wives were to be made for eternity as well as for time. In this marriage system the great truth is revealed that the association of husband and wife, with all its endearing associations is to continue forever; and that—to paraphrase the words of one who spake as if inspired on this theme^[1]—as long as there is room in infinite space, or matter in the exhaustless storehouse of nature, or as long as the bosoms of the Gods glow with affection, just so long will new worlds be created and filled with the ever increasing posterity of the righteous, and new kingdoms added to the dominions of the Fathers!

The plurality of wives included in this system of marriage is what gave rise to grave concern in the minds of the faithful men to whom it was revealed. The world never made a greater mistake than when it supposed that plural marriage was hailed with delight by the Elders who were commanded of the Lord to introduce its practice in this generation. They saw clearly that it would bring additional reproach upon them from the world; that it would run counter to the traditions and prejudices of society, as, indeed, it was contrary to their own traditions; that their motives would be misunderstood or misconstrued. All this they saw, and naturally shrank from the undertaking required of them by the revelation of God. How Elder Taylor looked upon this matter and how he received it is best told in his own words:

"Joseph Smith told the Twelve that if this law was not practiced, if they would not enter into this covenant, then the Kingdom of God could not go one step further. Now, we did not feel like preventing the Kingdom of God from going forward. We professed to be the Apostles of the Lord, and did not feel like putting ourselves in a position to retard the progress of the Kingdom of God. The revelation says that 'All those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.' Now, that is not my word. I did not make it. It was the Prophet of God who revealed that to us in Nauvoo, and I bear witness of this solemn fact before God, that He did reveal this sacred principle to me and others of the Twelve, and in this revelation it is stated that it is the will and law of God that 'all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.'

"I had always entertained strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that this was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do. The idea of going and asking a young lady to be married to me when I had already a wife! It was a thing calculated to stir up feelings from the innermost depths of the human soul. I had always entertained the strictest regard of chastity. I had never in my life seen the time when I have known of a man deceiving a woman—and it is often done in the world, where, notwithstanding the crime, the man is received into society and the poor woman is looked upon as a pariah and an outcast—I have always looked upon such a thing as infamous, and upon such a man as a villain. * * * Hence, with the feelings I had entertained, nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God, and the truth of them, could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this.

"We [the Twelve] seemed to put off, as far as we could, what might be termed the evil day.

"Some time after these things were made known unto us, I was riding out of Nauvoo on horseback, and met Joseph Smith coming in, he, too, being on horseback. * * * I bowed to Joseph, and having done the same to me, he said: 'Stop;' and he looked at me very intently. 'Look here,' said he, 'those things that have been spoken of must be fulfilled, and if they are not entered into right away the keys will be turned.'

"Well, what did I do? Did I feel to stand in the way of this great, eternal principle, and treat lightly the things of God? No. I replied: 'Brother Joseph, I will try and carry these things out."'

So indeed he did, for within two years, in Nauvoo, he married Elizabeth Haigham, Jane B. Ballantyne and Mary A. Oakley. Subsequently, in Utah, he married Harriet Whitaker, Sophia Whitaker and Margaret Young.^[2]

By tongue and pen, as well as by the force of example, he defended this celestial order of marriage against all who assailed it; and among all who have advocated it in the face of the fierce opposition it provoked, or who spoke out in its defense both at home and abroad, there was not one whose arguments carried more weight than did his.

Meantime Nauvoo had arisen from the bogs of Commerce, and was now an incorporated city, divided into four wards, with a population of nearly five thousand. A glorious temple and other public buildings were in course of construction, a periodical—the Times and Seasons—was being published, and there was every prospect of the city becoming a commercial and manufacturing center as well as the headquarters of the Church.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the Twelve were heartily welcomed home by the Prophet. He at once rolled on their shoulders much of the responsibility he had carried during their absence; and called upon them to assist in gathering the people to Nauvoo and to build up the Stakes of Zion.

The Twelve forthwith published a proclamation to the Saints in the British Isles, calling upon them to gather to Zion and to assist in founding manufactories and other enterprises. Another was issued denouncing thieves who began to infest Nauvoo, and whose villainy was charged to the Saints; another calling for aid in the construction of the temple. In all these labors Elder Taylor took a prominent part. He was also elected a member of the City Council, made a member of the Board of Regents for the Nauvoo University, and chosen Judge Advocate with the rank of colonel in the Nauvoo Legion, a position that made him the responsible adviser of the court and also the public prosecutor in affairs military.

These labors, in connection with his private business, occupied his attention after his return from England until February, 1842, when he was chosen associate editor of the Times and Seasons, the Prophet Joseph being editor-in-chief. This appointment introduced him into a field of labor for which he was admirably adapted, and in which, during his lifetime—notwithstanding his labors in that sphere were frequently interrupted by the drivings of the Church and calls to other kinds of employments—he accomplished much good, and became well known as a powerful writer.

He occupied the position of associate editor on the Times and Seasons for about a year, when the Prophet's increasing cares made it necessary for him to resign his place as editor-in-chief. Elder Taylor was appointed to take his place. He continued to edit and publish that periodical until the Church was driven out of Nauvoo in the spring of 1846.

In addition to his labors on the Times and Seasons, within a year he became the editor and proprietor of another paper, the Nauvoo Neighbor, a large imperial sheet issued weekly, and devoted "to the dissemination of useful knowledge of every description—the arts, science, religion, literature, agriculture, manufactures, trade, commerce and the general news of the day." In both these periodicals he ably defended the truth against all comers, and did much to stem the flood of falsehood that set in against the character of the Prophet Joseph.

The progress of Nauvoo was now by leaps and bounds, rapidly increasing in trade, commerce and population. The Prophet Joseph's career, too, was approaching its zenith. He was the most prominent man in the State of Illinois, and much courted because of his supposed political influence. Some of the most prominent men in the State sought his friendship, but it too frequently happened that it was for selfish purposes they courted him. No one was more sensitively aware of that fact than Elder Taylor. He knew them to be flatterers of the Prophet, that political thrift might follow fawning. They were heartless parasites, clinging to him in his hour of prosperity, but ready to fall away from and even betray him should the tide of his fortunes begin to ebb, or their interests require his immolation to satisfy the clamor of a prejudiced populace.

It was to remove the Prophet out of the filthy slough of party politics, that he and his people might not be the shuttle-cock for the battledoors of political demagogues—that he and they might not be the subjects of fulsome praise on the one hand, nor of fierce denunciation or unseemly vituperation on the other, that Elder Taylor urged the Prophet's nomination for the presidency of the United States, in February, 1844.

In a long editorial in the Neighbor, in which he nominates the Prophet for President, he represents that as Henry Clay—then one of the prominent candidates for President—inclined strongly to the old school of federalists, his political principles were diametrically opposed to those entertained by the people of Nauvoo, and hence they could not conscientiously vote for him; and they had even stronger objections to Mr. Van Buren, who, when the Saints appealed to him to redress the outrages put upon them in Missouri, admitted the justice of their cause, but claimed that he was powerless to assist them; he also held that Congress was powerless to redress their grievances.

"But all these things are tolerable to what we have yet to state," says Elder Taylor. "We have been informed from a respectable source, that there is an understanding between Mr. Benton [Senator], of Missouri, and Mr. Van Buren, and a conditional compact entered into that if Mr. Benton will use his influence to get Mr. Van Buren elected, that Mr. Van Buren, when elected, shall use his executive influence to wipe away the stain from Missouri by a further persecution of the Mormons, wreaking vengeance on their heads, either by extermination or by some other summary process. We could scarcely credit the statement, and we hope yet, for the sake of humanity, that the suggestion is false; but we have too good reason to believe that we are correctly informed."

Then, after enlarging upon the fitness of the Prophet for the high office of President of the United States, he adds:

"One great reason that we have for pursuing our present course is that at every election we have been made a political target for the filthy demagogues in the country to shoot their loathsome arrows at. And every story has been put into circulation to blast our fame, from the old fabrication of 'walk on the water' down to the 'murder of Governor Boggs.' The journals have teemed with this filthy trash, and even men who ought to have more respect for themselves—men contending for the gubernatorial chair—have made use of terms so degrading, so mean, so humiliating, that a Billingsgate fisherwoman would have considered herself disgraced with. We refuse any longer to be thus bedaubed for either party; we tell all such to let their filth flow in its own legitimate channel, for we are sick of the loathsome smell. * * * Under existing circumstances we have no other alternative [than that of withdrawing from both political parties,] and if we can accomplish our object, well; if not we shall have the satisfaction of knowing we have acted conscientiously and have used our best judgment; and if we have to throw away our votes, we had better do so upon a worthy, rather than upon an unworthy individual, who might make use of the weapon we put in his hand to destroy us.

Then the Prophet was put before the country for President of the United States. He published his views on the powers and policy of the government, and called upon his friends to support him.

By adopting this policy there was a candidate in the field the Saints could vote for conscientiously; and if their candidate from the beginning was sure of defeat, they had at least removed themselves and their religion from the filthy vortex of political controversy.

Footnotes

1. Parley P. Pratt's Key to Theology.2. For dates of these marriages, birth of children, etc., see Appendix.