The Dangers of Taking the Brethren Too Literally

[_CaliforniaKid]

In 1843, Elder Reuben Hedlock was sent to Britain on an appointment as President of the British Mission. As Mission President, one of Hedlock's responsibilities was to oversee the "gathering" of British Saints to Nauvoo. The economy in Britain was failing, and the Saints there were almost universally desperately poor. As such, the Church had helped to fund their emigration by running a little import/export business on the side: ships full of British Saints were also full of British goods, and returned to England full of American goods! Church agents in Britain had also become extremely efficient at finding transport to Nauvoo for extremely low prices.

That all of this could potentially be taken to the bank was not lost on Brigham Young. Young wrote to Hedlock in May of 1844 in order to report "the whisperings of the Spirit":

...print as many Stars, pamphlets, hymn books, tracts, cards, etc., as you can sell; and make all the money you can in righteousness... Sell the Books of Mormon the first opportunity, if it be at reduced prices, and forward the money by the first safe conveyance to Brigham Young...

We also wish you to unfurl your flag on your shipping office, and send all the Saints you can to New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia or any other port in the United States, but not at our expense any longer... We have need of something to sustain us in our labors...make enough to support yourself and help us a bit...

Ship everybody to America you can get money for-- Saint and sinner-- a general shipping-office. And we would like to have our shipping agent in Liverpool sleep on as good a bed, eat at as respectable a house, keep as genteel an office, and have his boots shine as bright, and blacked as often as any other office keeper. Yes, sir; make you money enough to wear a good broadcloth, and show the world that you represent gentlemen of worth, character, and respectability...

We will by-and-by have offices from the rivers to the ends of the earth, and we will begin at Liverpool... and increase and increase and increase the business...Employ a runner, if necessary, and show the world you can do a better and more honorable business than anybody else, and more of it. Don't be afraid to blow your trumpet...

As Robert Bruce Flanders has pointed out, the emigration to the US was slowing by 1844, "So Young's plans for a gradiose and lucrative 'general shipping-office' faced a diminishing market as far as emigrating Saints were concerned." But as Mormons were wont to do in those days, Hedlock assumed that Young's Apostolic counsel was actually to be followed. He began to echo Young's rhetoric and set up a joint-stock company in order to back the venture. He hired emigration agents throughout Britain, and began to live the sort of lifestyle that Young had advised. After he spent a huge amount of the proceeds from stock sales on the company's overhead, friends wrote to the Apostles back in the States to complain about his mismanagement. Hedlock was disfellowshipped for "repeated disregard of counsel." An ironic charge, to say the least.

Source:
Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi (Urbana--Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1965), 78-85.

[_Droopy]

Boooooooring.

[_harmony]

Boooooooring.

And true.

[_skippy the dead]

It's interesting inasmuch as it shows the propensity of Brigham Young to try to make a buck through the church.

Of course, he did have a lot of mouths to feed.

[_harmony]

It's interesting inasmuch as it shows the propensity of Brigham Young to try to make a buck through the church.

The church finances were so convoluted then, there was no separating them from Brigham's.

Of course, he did have a lot of mouths to feed.

51 by the time he died, if I remember right.

[_CaliforniaKid]

It's interesting inasmuch as it shows the propensity of Brigham Young to try to make a buck through the church.

Not to mention his propensity to throw a friend under the bus.

[_Droopy]

Maybe rc or someone else here can plow through all the ellipses here and reconstruct the entire statement in context, and then we'll see what we have.

Until then, try to enjoy the daylight...

[_CaliforniaKid]

Since Coggins finds my post boring, here's another except from Young's letter that might helps spice things up just a bit:

Let nobody know your business but the underwriters. Our wives know not all our business, neither does any wise man's wife...for the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and do his business...keep our business safe from your wife and from everybody else...

Brother Hedlock, a word with you privately. Joseph said, last Conference [April, 1844], that Zion included all North and South America; and after the Temple was done, and the Elders endowed, they would spread and build up cities all over the United States; but at present we are not to teach this doctrine. Nay, hold your tongue. But by this you can see why it is wisdom for the Saints to get into the United States-- anywhere rather than stay in England and starve.

In this single, short quote we have prime examples of the early Mormon obsession with secrecy, prophetic chauvinism, and a now-abandoned eschatological vision.

[_CaliforniaKid]

Maybe rc or someone else here can plow through all the ellipses here and reconstruct the entire statement in context, and then we'll see what we have.

Until then, try to enjoy the daylight...

For the most part, the ellipses are Flanders', not mine. But he doesn't seem to me to have particularly distorted Young's meaning. You can read the letter in full here.