Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

The impulse to believe the absurd when presented with the unknowable is called religion. Whether this is wise or unwise is the domain of doctrine. Once you understand someone's doctrine, you understand their rationale for believing the absurd. At that point, it may no longer seem absurd. You can get to both sides of this conondrum from here.

Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:35 am

In Utah Mormons Call Themselves Jews and Jews Are Considered “gentiles”
by Jewish Telegraphic Agency
February 21, 1928
(News Letter from Salt Lake City)

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Salt Lake City is of particular interest to Jews since it is, perhaps, the only place in the world where Christians call themselves Jews and Jews are often called “Gentiles.”

Salt Lake City is the headquarters of the evangelical Christian denomination–the unique Christian sect in America known as the Mormons. The full name of the sect is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It teaches that the Jews are of Israel and God’s chosen people. The Mormon sect believes that Jesus will eventually come to the Jews and claim them for his own, confounding any enemies they may still have.

This denomination, founded in 1830, sent one of its leaders to Palestine many years ago -- in 1840, to be exact -- to dedicate that land to the gathering of the Jews, a movement in which they still firmly believe and are ready to assist at any time, at least, to the extent of lending their moral support.

REGARD JEWS SUPERIOR

To an orthodox Mormon the Nordic or any other race is not superior to the Jewish. This is the stand that Anthony W. Ivins, a member of the First Presidency of the Church, took in an interview with the present writer on the Nordic superiority question. Mr. Ivins, a cousin of Heber J. Grant, the President of the Church, said the fact that the Jews had been able to preserve their integrity as a race in the face of all obstacles was proof that they are racially inferior to none.

The Mormon people regard themselves as of Israel, too, if you please, and the term “Israel” as applying to themselves is frequently heard in their congregations. They believe themselves to be of Ephraim, and cousins of the Jews, who are of Judah. To a Mormon those not of their faith are regarded as “Gentiles.” Gentiles in Utah often say, in a bantering way, that everybody in Utah outside of the Mormons is a Gentile, even the Jews! But the Mormons themselves would add “Excepting the Jews,” for, as already pointed out, they regard the Jew in the same light that he regards himself, as of Israel, but of another “branch” of the face.

The Mormons hold Heber J. Grant, who is an insurance man by profession and interested in banks, sugar companies, office buildings, mercantile houses, hotels and so forth, as a literal prophet of God, even as Abraham and Moses. They do not compromise on this one inch. Joseph Smith was their first prophet and Brigham Young the second. Others followed until Mr. Grant took the office nearly a decade ago. They assert that they are hated by some sects because of their teachings respecting exclusive divine authority rather than because of polygamy. Polygamy was dropped in the ’90’s, and if anybody in the church attempted it today he would be set upon by church leaders without mercy, as far as immediate excommunication has any terrors. This is because the church undertook to abandon polygamy after the U. S. Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, and not because of any retraction of faith.

Governor Bamberger, Democratic governor of Utah for four years beginning in 1917, was the first Jew to hold the office of governor of an American state. Governor Bamberger, now deceased, was nominated by Hon. B. H. Roberts, until recently head of the Eastern States Mission of the Mormon Church and one of its most able men. Roberts told the writer in talking on the subject that he deliberately took up the question of his candidate’s race because he knew it would come up in some quarters sooner or later, and during the campaign he was among his most ardent supporters.

“EPHRAIM SHALL NOT VEX JUDAH”

Mr. Roberts said in speaking of the relationship of the Mormons and the Jews. “With us Mormons who are Ephraimites the time has come when Judah shall not envy Ephraim and Ephraim shall not vex Judah.”

Rabbi Samuel Gordon, of Temple Bene Israel, said, “We have a condition in Salt Lake City that is a little unique in the sense that there are so many intermarriages, especially among families of the older settlers. The only way I can account for it is that there is less prejudice here against the Jews than in any other community in the world. This lack of prejudice is due to the Mormon influence, who have felt the sting of persecution themselves and at the same time regard us as their kinsmen.”

There are but 1,500 to 1,600 Jews in Salt Lake City, with two congregations, the Bene Israel and the Monte-fiore, the latter presided over by Rabbi Krickstein, orthodox. In this community of about 140,000, this handful of Jews play a prominent part in its commercial, professional and civic life. Dr. Gordon of Bene Israel and his wife are active this year in the Neighborhood House for boys.

A little over a year ago the Jewish residents of the city bought the home of the late Colonel Wall, wealthy citizen, and turned it into a community center for themselves at a total cost of about $75,000. It is a fine building and enjoys one of the best locations in the city. This building is made excellent use of.
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:17 am

The Dearborn Independent
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/17/18

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The International Jew: The World's Problem in The Dearborn Independent, May 22, 1920

The Dearborn Independent, also known as The Ford International Weekly, was a weekly newspaper established in 1901, and published by Henry Ford from 1919 through 1927. The paper reached a circulation of 900,000 by 1925, second only to the New York Daily News, largely due to a quota system for promotion imposed on Ford dealers. Lawsuits regarding anti-Semitic material published in the paper caused Ford to close it, and the last issue was published in December 1927. The publication's title was derived from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan.

Acquisition by Ford

In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased the Independent from Marcus Woodruff, who had been running it at a loss. The initial staff of the newspaper included E. G. Pipp, previously managing editor of the Detroit News, writers William J. Cameron (also formerly of the News) and Marcus Woodruff, and Fred Black as business manager.

The paper was printed on a used press purchased by Ford and installed in Ford's tractor plant in The Rouge. Publication under Mr. Ford was inaugurated in January 1919. The paper initially attracted notoriety in June 1919 with coverage of the libel lawsuit between Henry Ford and the Chicago Tribune, as the stories written by Pipp and Cameron were picked up nationally.

Ford's motivations

Henry Ford was a pacifist who opposed World War I, and he believed that Jews were responsible for starting wars in order to profit from them: "International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all those countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme ... here the Jew is a threat".[1]

Ford believed that Jews, in their role as financiers, contributed nothing of value to society.[2] He believed that Jewish business workers focused solely on price, and cheapened their products. Ford once bit into a candy bar and, finding it not as good as it once had been, said "The Jews have taken hold of it. They've cheapened it to make more money".[3]

In 1915 Ford blamed Jews for instigating World War I, saying "I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers." Later, in 1925, Ford said "What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose – a power that has no country and that can order the young men of all countries out to death."

Ford ensured that everyone who worked for any of his companies accepted his views, and made sure not to hire a single Jew in office jobs, although he hired them for physical labor.[4]

So began the articles with themes of a worldwide conspiracy by Jewish super-capitalists, that the Jews invented the stock market and gold standard just to corrupt the world and other peoples.[5]

Antisemitic articles

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Jewish Jazz—Moron Music—Becomes Our National Music, August 6, 1921

Pipp left the Independent in April 1920 in disgust with the planned antisemitic articles, which began in May. Ford did not write the articles. He expressed his opinions verbally to his executive secretary, Ernest Liebold, and to William J. Cameron, who replaced Pipp as editor. Cameron had the main responsibility for expanding these opinions into article form, although he did not agree with them. Liebold was responsible for collecting more material to support the articles.

The [University of Virginia] Institute [of Public Affairs] in 1938 also invited one of America's most notorious antisemites, William J. Cameron, who had edited Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent, to present a paper on "The Interdependence of Farm and Industry" at its economic stability roundtable. Cameron had contributed significantly to the Dearborn Independent's vitriolic attacks on Jews during the 1920s. Part of the British Israelite movement that believed the Anglo-Saxons were the real descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Cameron claimed that contemporary Jews were the remnants of a racially distinct and inferior group despised by God. Remaining a top aide to Ford after the Dearborn Independent ceased publication in 1927, he cofounded the antisemitic Anglo-Saxon Federation in 1930 and was elected its president. In 1935 Cameron became director of Destiny, the Anglo-Saxon Federation organ whose diatribes laid the groundwork for the virulently antisemitic Christian Identity movement. Two weeks after the Institute roundtable, Cameron delivered the keynote address at the ceremony the Nazi government arranged for Henry Ford, at which it presented him with the highest honor it could bestow on a foreigner, the Grand Service Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. [61]

Despite Cameron's long record of disseminating antisemitism, the Institute of Public Affairs leadership declared that it was honored to have him participate in its roundtable. [62] About three months after the conference, the Institute's acting director expressed to Cameron his "great personal satisfaction and the appreciation of the University and the Institute" for what he said was Cameron's "very important" contribution to the session, about which he had heard "many kind words." Gooch told Cameron that both he and university president John Lloyd Newcomb would be "most grateful" for any suggestions that "might be calculated to improve the conduct of the Institute." [63]

-- The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower: Complicity and Conflict on American Campuses, by Stephen H. Norwood


One of the articles, "Jewish Power and America's Money Famine", asserted that the power exercised by Jews over the nation's supply of money was insidious, depriving farmers and others outside the banking coterie of money when they needed it most. The article asked the question: "Where is the American gold supply? ... It may be in the United States but it does not belong to the United States." It concluded that Jews controlled the gold supply and, hence, American money.[6]

Another article, "Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System", was a reflection of Ford's distrust of the Federal Reserve System and its proponent, Paul Warburg. Ford believed the Federal Reserve system was secretive and insidious.[7]

These articles gave rise to claims of antisemitism against Ford,[8] and in 1929 he signed a statement apologizing for the articles.[9]

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Many issues of the Independent comment extensively upon The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The first mention of the Protocols appears in the issue of July 10, 1920, the seventh installment of its "International Jew" series. Also, in 1920–21 the Independent carried a series of articles expanding on the themes of financial control by Jews, entitled:[10]

1. Jewish Idea in American Monetary Affairs: The remarkable story of Paul Warburg, who began work on the United States monetary system after three weeks residence in this country.

2. Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System: What Baruch was in War Material, Paul Warburg was in War Finances; Some Curious revelations of money and politics.

3. Jewish Idea of a Central Bank for America: The evolution of Paul M. Warburg's idea of Federal Reserve System without government management.

4. How Jewish International Finance Functions: The Warburg family and firm divided the world between them and did amazing things which non-Jews could not do.

5. Jewish Power and America's Money Famine: The Warburg Federal Reserve sucks money to New York, leaving productive sections of the country in disastrous need.

6. The Economic Plan of International Jews: An outline of the Protocolists' monetary policy, with notes on the parallel found in Jewish financial practice.

The newspaper published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was discredited by The Times of London as a forgery during the Independent's publishing run. The American Jewish Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as "anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic". In February 1921, the New York World published an interview with Ford in which he said: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on." During this period, Ford emerged as "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice", reaching around 700,000 readers through his newspaper.[11]

Republication in Germany

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Grand Cross of the German Eagle, an award bestowed on Ford by Nazi Germany

During the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s, the Protocols was reprinted and published in Germany, along with anti-Jewish articles first published by The Dearborn Independent and reprinted in translation in Germany as a set of four bound volumes, cumulatively titled The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem.

Steven Watts wrote that Adolf Hitler "revered" Ford. He quotes Hitler as saying, "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany", and says that Hitler modeled the Volkswagen, the people's car, on the Model T.[12] Several themes from the Dearborn Independent articles appear in Mein Kampf. Hitler even quoted the Dearborn Independent in Mein Kampf and Henry Ford was the only American that Hitler specifically named: "Every year they [the Jews] manage to become increasingly the controlling masters of the labor power of a people of 120,000,000 souls; one great man, Ford, to their exasperation still holds out independently there even now."[13]

On February 1, 1924, Ford received Kurt Ludecke, a representative of Hitler, at his home. Ludecke was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the famous composer Richard Wagner) and his wife Winifred, both Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites. Ludecke asked Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, though this is denied by the Ford Motor Company.[14]

In July 1938, prior to the outbreak of war, the German consul at Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner.[15] James D. Mooney, vice-president of overseas operations for General Motors, received a similar medal, the Merit Cross of the German Eagle, First Class.[16]

Reaction to the Dearborn Independent

There was much negative press about the Dearborn Independent within Jewish communities, but there was non-Jewish negative press as well.

Jewish reaction

There are many accounts of Jewish organizations coming together to fight the Dearborn Independent.[17] The first major anti-semitic article about Jews was published on June 19, 1920. There were major repetitions on August 28, then again in February, March, and November 1921.[17] The essay "Anti-Semitism- Will it Appear in the U.S.?" quoted Louis Brandeis, a Justice of the Supreme Court, who advocated for Jewish civil rights and said, "Organize, organize, organize, until every Jew must stand up and be counted." Louis Marshall noticed that The Cause of World Unrest was advertised on the back of one issue of the Independent, so he wrote a personal letter to the publisher, Major George Haven Putnam, condemning him for his intolerance. Marshall said that Putnam was using Jews as his scapegoat. Eventually Putnam apologized for his advertisement and for publishing the book.[18]

Non-Jewish reaction

The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America published a resolution condemning Ford's propaganda and beliefs. In January 1921, a statement titled "The Peril of Racial Prejudice" denounced anti-Semitism as un-American and condemned the Independent for its anti-Semitic campaign. It was signed by more than one hundred prominent citizens of "Gentile birth and Christian faith", including President Woodrow Wilson, former president William Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, Nicholas Murray Butler, Robert Frost, Samuel Seabury, Ida Tarbell, Paul Cravath and the presidents of Williams, Oberlin, and Dartmouth colleges as well as Princeton, Cornell, and Syracuse universities. However, this did not stop the Dearborn Independent from their negative press regarding Jews.[19][20]

Libel lawsuit

While they explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews, Ford's articles blamed the Jews for provoking incidents of mass violence.[21] San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro filed a libel lawsuit in response. During the trial, the editor of Ford's "Own Page," William Cameron, testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified that he never discussed the content of the pages with Ford, or sent them to Ford for his approval.[22] Friends and business associates said they warned Ford about the contents of the Independent and that Ford probably never read the articles (he claimed he only read the headlines.)[23]

Further court testimony alleged that Ford knew about the contents of the Independent in advance of publication.[24] Investigative journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim [Cameron's denial] may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro."[24]

Michael Barkun observed:

That Cameron would have continued to publish such controversial material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval.'[25]


Action by the Anti-Defamation League

The trial prompted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to begin a concerted effort to oppose the Independent. An ADL-led coalition of Jewish groups led the charge, and raised objections to Ford's writings in the Detroit press. The ADL also organized a boycott of Ford products, which was supported not only by Jews, but also by several liberal Christian groups. In December 1927, Ford gave in and abolished the paper. News reports at the time quoted him as saying he was shocked by the paper's content and unaware of its nature. Ford also wrote a public letter to ADL president Sigmund Livingston recanting his anti-Semitic views.[20]

Ford's 1927 apology was well received. "Four-Fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the Industrialist."[26] In January 1937, a Ford statement to the Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as The International Jew."[26]

Unauthorized distribution of The International Jew

Unauthorized distribution of The International Jew was halted in 1942 through legal action by Ford, despite complications due to a lack of copyright.[26] Extremist groups often recycle the material; it still appears on antisemitic and neo-Nazi websites.

See also

• Detroit portal
• The International Jew

Sources

• Ford R. Bryan: Henry's Lieutenants. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8143-2428-2
• Albert Lee: Henry Ford and the Jews. New York: Stein and Day, 1980. ISBN 0-8128-2701-5
• Max Wallace: The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of the Third Reich. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. ISBN 0-312-29022-5

References

1. Sachar, Howard Morley (1993). A History of the Jews in America. Vintage. p. 311. ISBN 0679745300.
2. Perry p 168-9. Perry quotes Ford.
3. Albert Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York:Stein and Day, 1980), 13-14
4. Sward, Legend, 137
5. Albert Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York:Stein and Day, 1980), 13-14-15
6. Geisst, Charles R.,Wheels of Fortune: The History of Speculation from Scandal to Respectability, John Wiley and Sons, 2003 p 66-68
7. Norword, Stephen Harlan, Encyclopedia of American Jewish history, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, 2008, p 181
8. Foxman, pp 69-72
9. Baldwin, Neil, Henry Ford and the Jews: the mass production of hate, PublicAffairs, 2002, pp 213-218
10. Jewish influence in the Federal Reserve System, reprinted from the Dearborn independent, Dearborn Pub. Co., 1921
11. Glock, Charles Y. and Quinley, Harold E. (1983). Anti-Semitism in America. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-87855-940-X, p. 168.
12. Watts, p. xi.
13. *Perry, p 171
• see also Perry p 119
• see also: Raushning, Herman Voice of Destruction, pp 237-38
14. Max Wallace The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich, (Macmillan, 2004), pp.50–54, ISBN 0-312-33531-8. Years later, in 1977, Winifred claimed that Ford had told her that he had helped finance Hitler. This anecdote is the suggestion that Ford made a contribution. The company has always denied that any contribution was made, and no documentary evidence has ever been found. Ibid p. 54. See also Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, (Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 185–89, ISBN 1-58648-163-0.
15. "Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration". Washington Post. November 30, 1998. pp. A01. Retrieved March 5,2008.
16. Farber, David R. (2002). Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-23804-0, p. 228.
17. Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 134
18. Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 142–144
19. Robert Rifkind, "Confronting Antisemitism in America: Louis Marshall and Henry Ford", American Jewish History (March/June 2008):7
20. Blakeslee, Spencer (2000).The Death of American Antisemitism. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-96508-2, p. 83.
21. Ford, Henry (2003). The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-7829-3, p. 61.
22. Lewis, (1976) pp. 140–56; Baldwin p 220–21.
23. Watts pp x, 376–387; Lewis (1976) pp 135–59.
24. Wallace, p. 30.
25. Barkun, Michael (1996). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4638-4, p. 35.
26. Lewis, David I. (1976). The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1553-4., pp. 146–154.
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:35 am

Part 1 of 2

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/17/18

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


[A]nother temple must be built to the Lord in the new Zion, since the one at Kirtland had been desecrated by falling into Gentile hands …

[T]ake the spoils from the "ungodly Gentiles;" for was it not written, "The riches of the Gentiles shall be consecrated to the people of the house of Israel?" …

Joseph not only advised his people publicly to plunder from the Gentiles, but privately ordered them to do so …

Joseph did not cease his injunctions to "get all you can from the wicked Gentiles"…

It was an act pleasing to Him whenever a Gentile was put out of the way …

[T]he blood of Gentiles is not "innocent" blood; the shedding of it, therefore, is no crime …

[T]he "defiled hands" of the Gentiles …

Break the Gentile yoke …

"I wish we were in a situation favorable to our doing that which is justifiable before God, without any contaminating influence of Gentile amalgamation, laws, and traditions, that the people of God might lay the axe to the root of the tree, and that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit might be hewn down." …

[N]o Gentile was safe in the Mormon territory …

[O]ne of the men asked Rockwell "if all the damned Gentiles were dead” …

[W]e swore that we would use every exertion to avenge the death of our Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum upon the Gentile race, by whose means they were brought to their unhappy fate, and to teach our children to foster this spirit of revenge also …

The cutting of every Gentile and apostate throat, and the "sending to hell across lots," that have been so openly and emphatically urged from the stand by Brigham Young and others, is only a public expression of the mysteries of the Endowment oaths….

I was taught from my earliest childhood that there was nothing good outside of the Mormon Church; that the Gentile men were bad to the core, possessing neither honor nor manly virtues of any kind, and that every Gentile woman was so vile as to be utterly unworthy of mention; that goodness was unknown among them, and that certain destruction awaited them and those who associated with them.

-- Wife No. 19, the Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy, by Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's Apostate Wife


Salt Lake City is of particular interest to Jews since it is, perhaps, the only place in the world where Christians call themselves Jews and Jews are often called “Gentiles.”

-- In Utah Mormons Call Themselves Jews and Jews Are Considered “gentiles”, by Jewish Telegraphic Agency


According to John D. Lee, the official scribe of the Council, the organization [Council of Fifty] was meant to be the "Municipal department of the Kingdom of God set upon the earth, and from which all law emanates, for the rule, government & controle of all Nations Kingdoms & toungs and People under the whole Heavens.

-- Council of Fifty, by Wikipedia


If you grew up Mormon in the first half of the 20th century, you were likely to be taught over and over–in Sunday School, genealogy, and priesthood lessons, in stake and general conferences, in church magazines, books, and pamphlets–that you were literally an Israelite, directly descended from Ephraim. This teaching would come in at least two forms:

1. The teaching one might call “Mormon Israelism” was that Ephraim’s descendants were scattered among all nations, but that almost all Mormons were Ephraimites (for some, even “pure” Ephraimites) because the people that had responded to the missionary message were the select few with Israel in their veins. It was taught (including by Joseph Smith) and assumed by some that the more pure the Israelite blood, the more open a person was to the Mormon message.

2. Somewhat in conflict with this, you would also have been taught Mormon Anglo or British Israelism: that almost all Mormons were Israelites (and to some, pure Israelites), because the Saints were of Northern European stock (largely British), which was the place the not-so-lost tribes (mainly Ephraim) had settled.

In the 20th century, the main church leaders and authors who preached Israelism and British Israelism were Church Historian and Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, apostle and First Presidency member Anthony Ivins, Asst. Church Historian Andrew Jenson, and officers of the Utah Genealogical Society such as Archibald Bennett and James Anderson.

In dozens of articles, books, and general conference talks, these men played a significant role in teaching a couple of generations of Saints that they were literal descendants of Israel, with detailed proofs that the not-so-lost ten tribes had settled either Northern Europe or Great Britain taken directly from the prominent British-Israel works. Anderson, in God’s Covenant Race, From Patriarchal Times to the Present, a 1937 book published by the Deseret News Press, even claimed (incorrectly) Mormon credit for starting the British-Israel Movement through the church’s 1830s missionary work in England (154-155). The 1938 and later editions of the book included an appendix with 127 pages of articles copied verbatim from the “Anglo-Israel Federation” magazine Destiny.

One collection of Mormon British-Israelism teachings was the 1942 Sunday School course book, Birthright Blessings; its 48 lessons included topics such as “The Chosen Race Being Gathered,” “Early Israelite Colonies,” “Mound Builders of Europe,” “Sagas and Civilization of Scandinavia,” “Who Are the Anglo-Saxons?,” “Early Welsh Customs,” ”Ancient Irish Pedigrees,” and “The Royal House of David.”

A very similar collection was the 1937 Junior Genealogy Class manual, Children of the Covenant. Its 40 lessons covered most of the Birthright topics mentioned and others such as “A White and a Blessed People,” “The Day of Ephraim,” and “The New Race of Israel.” The activity for one of the lessons instructed students to “Write a one page explanation, and read it in class or in a public meeting, of the topic: “My Heritage as a Descendant of Ephraim.”

Articles preaching British Israelism and Mormon Israelism were also common in the quarterly journal of the Church’s Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine.

Examples of this were the paired 1930 articles, “Mission of Ephraim,” by Joseph Fielding Smith, and “Children of Ephraim,” by Archibald Bennett. [Bennett, Archibald F. 1930, "The Children of Ephraim," Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 21 (April): 67-85)]

The latter even contained a detailed explanation and ancestral charts explaining how the Norse God Odin (Woden) was ancestor of “most of the kingly and noble races of the north,” and therefore, of Anglo-Saxons and Mormons. Consequently, you can find Mormon family trees from that period that include both Odin and Thor (there’s a current example of this in my extended family). Odin is also discussed in detail in the Birthright Blessings and Children of the Covenant manuals, in a lesson called Sagas and Civilization of Scandinavia that recounts Icelander Snorri Sturluson’s Ynglinga Saga. Both books included a photo of a B.E.F. Fogelberg’s statute of Odin (the graphic at the top of this post).

-- British Israelism, by Stirling


The protocol used in Mormon temple ritual has been received by revelation line upon line and precept upon precept. Most of the protocol was revealed by God to Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the Last Days, and founder of the LDS Church. However, the protocol was received gradually. Baptism for the Dead, for instance, was not practiced until the Latter-day Saints were established in Nauvoo, Illinois. Other small changes have been made more recently, according to received revelation. A few changes have come because of technological improvements. For instance, parts of the instruction on the creation and Plan of Salvation used to be presented live, but now are presented in a film. This has enabled easier translation into foreign languages as temples are built all over the world.

-- Mormon Temple Ritual, by mormonwiki.com


Image
Cover of first book edition, The Great within the Minuscule and Antichrist
Author Unknown. Plagiarised from Hermann Goedsche and Maurice Joly, plagiarized in turn from Eugène Sue and Alexandre Dumas, père
Original title Програма завоевания мира евреями (Programa zavoevaniya mira evreyami, "The Jewish Programme to Conquer the World")
Country Russian Empire
Language Russian, with plagiarism from German and French texts
Subject Antisemitic conspiracy theory
Genre Propaganda
Publisher Znamya
Publication date
August–September 1903
Published in English
1919
Pages 417 (1905 edition)

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russian: Протоколы сионских мудрецов) or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion is an antisemitic fabricated text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The forgery was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers, the Protocols are the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting where Jewish leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world's economies.

Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies that were distributed throughout the United States in the 1920s. The Nazis sometimes used the Protocols as propaganda against Jews; it was assigned by some German teachers, as if factual, to be read by German schoolchildren after the Nazis came to power in 1933,[1] despite having been exposed as fraudulent by The Times of London in 1921. It is still widely available today in numerous languages, in print and on the Internet, and continues to be presented by some proponents as a genuine document.

Creation

The Protocols is a fabricated document purporting to be factual. Textual evidence shows that it could not have been produced prior to 1901. It is notable that the title of Sergei Nilus's widely distributed edition contains the dates "1902–1903", and it is likely that the document was actually written at this time in Russia, despite Nilus' attempt to cover this up by inserting French-sounding words into his edition.[2] Cesare G. De Michelis argues that it was manufactured in the months after a Russian Zionist congress in September 1902, and that it was originally a parody of Jewish idealism meant for internal circulation among antisemites until it was decided to clean it up and publish it as if it were real. Self-contradictions in various testimonies show that the individuals involved—including the text's initial publisher, Pavel Krushevan—deliberately obscured the origins of the text and lied about it in the decades afterwards.[3]

If the placement of the forgery in 1902–1903 Russia is correct, then it was written at the beginning of the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, in which thousands of Jews died or fled the country. Many of the people whom De Michelis suspects of involvement in the forgery were directly responsible for inciting the pogroms.

Political conspiracy background

Towards the end of the 18th century, following the Partitions of Poland, the Russian Empire inherited the world's largest Jewish population. The Jews lived in shtetls in the West of the Empire, in the Pale of Settlement and until the 1840s, local Jewish affairs were organised through the qahal, including for purposes of taxation and conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. Following the ascent of liberalism in Europe, the Russian ruling class became more hardline in its reactionary policies, upholding the banner of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality, whereby non-Orthodox and non-Russian subjects, including the Jews, were not always embraced. Jews who attempted to assimilate were regarded with suspicion as potential "infiltrators" supposedly trying to "take over society", while Jews who remained attached to traditional Jewish culture were resented as undesirable aliens.

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The Book of the Kahal (1869) by Jacob Brafman, in the Russian language original.

Resentment towards Jews, for the aforementioned reasons, existed in Russian society, but the idea of a Protocols-esque international Jewish conspiracy for world domination was minted in the 1860s. Jacob Brafman, a Russian Jew from Minsk, had a falling out with agents of the local kahal – the semi-autonomous Jewish government – and consequently turned against Judaism. He subsequently converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and authored polemics against the Talmud and the kahal.[4] Brafman claimed in his books The Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods (1868) and The Book of the Kahal (1869), published in Vilna, that the kahal continued to exist in secret and that it had as its principal aim undermining Christian entrepreneurs, taking over their property and ultimately seizing power. He also claimed that it was an international conspiratorial network, under the central control of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, which was based in Paris and then under the leadership of Adolphe Crémieux, a prominent freemason.[4] The Vilna Talmudist, Jacob Barit, attempted to refute Brafman's claim.

The impact of Brafman's work took on an international aspect, as it was translated into English, French, German and other languages. The image of the "kahal" as a secret international Jewish shadow government working as a state within a state was picked up by anti-Jewish publications in Russia and was taken seriously by some Russian officials such as P. A. Cherevin and Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who in the 1880s urged governor-generals of provinces to seek out the supposed kahal. This was around the time of the Narodnaya Volya assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and the subsequent pogroms. In France it was translated by Monsignor Ernest Jouin in 1925, who supported the Protocols. In 1928, Siegfried Passarge, a geographer active in the Third Reich, translated it into German.

Aside from Brafman, there were other early writings which posited a similar concept to the Protocols. This includes The Conquest of the World by the Jews (1878),[5] published in Basel and authored by Osman Bey (born Frederick Millingen). Millingen was a British subject of Dutch-Jewish extraction (the grandson of James Millingen), but served as an officer in the Ottoman Army where he was born. He converted to Islam, but later became a Russian Orthodox Christian. Bey's work was followed up by Hippolytus Lutostansky's The Talmud and the Jews (1879) which claimed that Jews wanted to divide Russia among themselves.[6] Incidentally, in a 1904 edition of The Talmud and the Jews, Hippolytus directly quoted verbatim the first, little-known 1903 edition of the Protocols.[7]

Sources employed

Source material for the forgery consisted jointly of Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu), an 1864 political satire by Maurice Joly;[8] and a chapter from Biarritz, an 1868 novel by the antisemitic German novelist Hermann Goedsche, which had been translated into Russian in 1872.[9]

A major source for the Protocols was Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl, which was referred to as Zionist Protocols in its initial French and Russian editions. Paradoxically, early Russian editions of the Protocols assert that they did not come from a Zionist organization.[10] The text, which nowhere advocates for Zionism, resembles a parody of Herzl's ideas.[11]

Literary forgery

The Protocols is one of the best-known and most-discussed examples of literary forgery, with analysis and proof of its fraudulent origin going as far back as 1921.[12] The forgery is an early example of "conspiracy theory" literature.[13] Written mainly in the first person plural,[a] the text includes generalizations, truisms, and platitudes on how to take over the world: take control of the media and the financial institutions, change the traditional social order, etc. It does not contain specifics.[15]

Maurice Joly

Elements of the Protocols were plagiarized from Joly's fictional Dialogue in Hell, a thinly veiled attack on the political ambitions of Napoleon III, who, represented by the non-Jewish character Machiavelli,[16] plots to rule the world. Joly, a monarchist and legitimist, was imprisoned in France for 15 months as a direct result of his book's publication. Scholars have noted the irony that Dialogue in Hell was itself a plagiarism, at least in part, of a novel by Eugène Sue, Les Mystères du Peuple (1849–56).[17]

Identifiable phrases from Joly constitute 4% of the first half of the first edition, and 12% of the second half; later editions, including most translations, have longer quotes from Joly.[18]

The Protocols 1–19 closely follow the order of Maurice Joly's Dialogues 1–17. For example:

Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu
How are loans made? By the issue of bonds entailing on the Government the obligation to pay interest proportionate to the capital it has been paid. Thus, if a loan is at 5%, the State, after 20 years, has paid out a sum equal to the borrowed capital. When 40 years have expired it has paid double, after 60 years triple: yet it remains debtor for the entire capital sum.
— Montesquieu, Dialogues, p. 209

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
A loan is an issue of Government paper which entails an obligation to pay interest amounting to a percentage of the total sum of the borrowed money. If a loan is at 5%, then in 20 years the Government would have unnecessarily paid out a sum equal to that of the loan in order to cover the percentage. In 40 years it will have paid twice; and in 60 thrice that amount, but the loan will still remain as an unpaid debt.
— Protocols, p. 77

Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu
Like the god Vishnu, my press will have a hundred arms, and these arms will give their hands to all the different shades of opinion throughout the country.
— Machiavelli, Dialogues, p. 141

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
These newspapers, like the Indian god Vishnu, will be possessed of hundreds of hands, each of which will be feeling the pulse of varying public opinion.
— Protocols, p. 43

Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu
Now I understand the figure of the god Vishnu; you have a hundred arms like the Indian idol, and each of your fingers touches a spring.
— Montesquieu, Dialogues, p. 207

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Our Government will resemble the Hindu god Vishnu. Each of our hundred hands will hold one spring of the social machinery of State.
— Protocols, p. 65


Philip Graves brought this plagiarism to light in a series of articles in The Times in 1921, the first published evidence that the Protocols was not an authentic document.[19][20]

Hermann Goedsche

"Goedsche was a postal clerk and a spy for the Prussian Secret Police. He had been forced to leave the postal work due to his part in forging evidence in the prosecution against the Democratic leader Benedict Waldeck in 1849."[21] Following his dismissal, Goedsche began a career as a conservative columnist, and wrote literary fiction under the pen name Sir John Retcliffe.[22] His 1868 novel Biarritz (To Sedan) contains a chapter called "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel." In it, Goedsche (who was unaware that only two of the original twelve Biblical "tribes" remained) depicts a clandestine nocturnal meeting of members of a mysterious rabbinical cabal that is planning a diabolical "Jewish conspiracy." At midnight, the Devil appears to contribute his opinions and insight. The chapter closely resembles a scene in Alexandre Dumas' Giuseppe Balsamo (1848), in which Joseph Balsamo a.k.a. Alessandro Cagliostro and company plot the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.[23]

In 1872 a Russian translation of "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague" appeared in Saint Petersburg as a separate pamphlet of purported non-fiction. François Bournand, in his Les Juifs et nos Contemporains (1896), reproduced the soliloquy at the end of the chapter, in which the character Levit expresses as factual the wish that Jews be "kings of the world in 100 years" —crediting a "Chief Rabbi John Readcliff." Perpetuation of the myth of the authenticity of Goedsche's story, in particular the "Rabbi's speech", facilitated later accounts of the equally mythical authenticity of the Protocols.[22] Like the Protocols, many asserted that the fictional "rabbi's speech" had a ring of authenticity, regardless of its origin: "This speech was published in our time, eighteen years ago," read an 1898 report in La Croix, "and all the events occurring before our eyes were anticipated in it with truly frightening accuracy."[24]

Fictional events in Joly's Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu, which appeared four years before Biarritz, may well have been the inspiration for Goedsche's fictional midnight meeting, and details of the outcome of the supposed plot. Goedsche's chapter may have been an outright plagiarism of Joly, Dumas père, or both.[25]

Structure and content

The Protocols purports to document the minutes of a late-19th-century meeting attended by world Jewish leaders, the "Elders of Zion", who are conspiring to take over the world.[26][27]

The forgery places in the mouths of the Jewish leaders a variety of plans, most of which derive from older antisemitic canards.[26][27] For example, the Protocols includes plans to subvert the morals of the non-Jewish world, plans for Jewish bankers to control the world's economies, plans for Jewish control of the press, and – ultimately – plans for the destruction of civilization.[26][27] The document consists of twenty-four "protocols", which have been analyzed by Steven Jacobs and Mark Weitzman, who documented several recurrent themes that appear repeatedly in the 24 protocols,[c] as shown in the following table:[28]

Protocol / Title[28] / Themes[28]

1 / The Basic Doctrine: "Right Lies in Might" / Freedom and Liberty; Authority and power; Gold = money
2 / Economic War and Disorganization Lead to International Government / International Political economic conspiracy; Press/Media as tools
3 / Methods of Conquest / Jewish people, arrogant and corrupt; Chosenness/Election; Public Service
4 / The Destruction of Religion by Materialism / Business as Cold and Heartless; Gentiles as slaves
5 / Despotism and Modern Progress / Jewish Ethics; Jewish People's Relationship to Larger Society
6 / The Acquisition of Land, The Encouragement of Speculation / Ownership of land
7 / A Prophecy of Worldwide War / Internal unrest and discord (vs. Court system) leading to war vs Shalom/Peace
8 / The transitional Government / Criminal element
9 / The All-Embracing Propaganda / Law; education; Freemasonry
10 / Abolition of the Constitution; Rise of the Autocracy / Politics; Majority rule; Liberalism; Family
11 / The Constitution of Autocracy and Universal Rule / Gentiles; Jewish political involvement; Freemasonry
12 / The Kingdom of the Press and Control / Liberty; Press censorship; Publishing
13 / Turning Public Thought from Essentials to Non-essentials / Gentiles; Business; Chosenness/Election; Press and censorship; Liberalism
14 / The Destruction of Religion as a Prelude to the Rise of the Jewish God / Judaism; God; Gentiles; Liberty; Pornography
15 / Utilization of Masonry: Heartless Suppression of Enemies / Gentiles; Freemasonry; Sages of Israel; Political power and authority; King of Israel
16 / The Nullification of Education / Education
17 / The Fate of Lawyers and the Clergy / Lawyers; Clergy; Christianity and non-Jewish Authorship
18 / The Organization of Disorder / Evil; Speech;
19 / Mutual Understanding Between Ruler and People / Gossip; Martyrdom
20 / The Financial Program and Construction / Taxes and Taxation; Loans; Bonds; Usury; Moneylending
21 / Domestic Loans and Government Credit / Stock Markets and Stock Exchanges
22 / The Beneficence of Jewish Rule / Gold = Money; Chosenness/Election
23 / The Inculcation of Obedience / Obedience to Authority; Slavery; Chosenness/Election
24 / The Jewish Ruler / Kingship; Document as Fiction


History

Publication history


The Protocols appeared in print in the Russian Empire as early as 1903, published as a series of articles in Znamya, a Black Hundreds newspaper owned by Pavel Krushevan. It appeared again in 1905 as the final chapter (Chapter XII) of the second edition of Velikoe v malom i antikhrist ("The Great in the Small & Antichrist"), a book by Sergei Nilus. In 1906, it appeared in pamphlet form edited by Georgy Butmi de Katzman.[29]

These first three (and subsequently more) Russian language imprints were published and circulated in the Russian Empire during the 1903–6 period as a tool for scapegoating Jews, blamed by the monarchists for the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the Revolution of 1905. Common to all three texts is the idea that Jews aim for world domination. Since The Protocols are presented as merely a document, the front matter and back matter are needed to explain its alleged origin. The diverse imprints, however, are mutually inconsistent. The general claim is that the document was stolen from a secret Jewish organization. Since the alleged original stolen manuscript does not exist, one is forced to restore a purported original edition. This has been done by the Italian scholar, Cesare G. De Michelis in 1998, in a work which was translated into English and published in 2004, where he treats his subject as Apocrypha.[29][30]

As fiction in the genre of literature, the tract was further analyzed by Umberto Eco in his novel Foucault's Pendulum in 1988 (English translation in 1989), in 1994 in chapter 6, "Fictional Protocols", of his Six Walks in the Fictional Woods and in his 2010 novel The Prague Cemetery.

As the Russian Revolution unfolded, causing White movement-affiliated Russians to flee to the West, this text was carried along and assumed a new purpose. Until then, The Protocols had remained obscure;[30] it now became an instrument for blaming Jews for the Russian Revolution. It became a tool, a political weapon, used against the Bolsheviks who were depicted as overwhelmingly Jewish, allegedly executing the "plan" embodied in The Protocols. The purpose was to discredit the October Revolution, prevent the West from recognizing the Soviet Union, and bring about the downfall of Vladimir Lenin's regime.[29][30]

First Russian language editions

Conspiracy references


According to Daniel Pipes,

The great importance of The Protocols lies in its permitting antisemites to reach beyond their traditional circles and find a large international audience, a process that continues to this day. The forgery poisoned public life wherever it appeared; it was "self-generating; a blueprint that migrated from one conspiracy to another."[31] The book's vagueness—almost no names, dates, or issues are specified—has been one key to this wide-ranging success. The purportedly Jewish authorship also helps to make the book more convincing. Its embrace of contradiction—that to advance, Jews use all tools available, including capitalism and communism, philo-Semitism and antisemitism, democracy and tyranny—made it possible for The Protocols to reach out to all: rich and poor, Right and Left, Christian and Muslim, American and Japanese.[15]


Pipes notes that the Protocols emphasizes recurring themes of conspiratorial antisemitism: "Jews always scheme", "Jews are everywhere", "Jews are behind every institution", "Jews obey a central authority, the shadowy 'Elders'", and "Jews are close to success."[32]

The Protocols is widely considered influential in the development of other conspiracy theories[citation needed], and reappears repeatedly in contemporary conspiracy literature, such as Jim Marrs' Rule by Secrecy, which identifies the work as a Czarist forgery. Some recent editions proclaim that the "Jews" depicted in the Protocols are a cover identity for other conspirators such as the Illuminati,[33] Freemasons, the Priory of Sion, or even, in the opinion of David Icke, "extra-dimensional entities."[citation needed]

Emergence in Russia

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The front piece of a 1912 edition using occult symbols.

The chapter "In the Jewish Cemetery in Prague" from Goedsche's Biarritz, with its strong antisemitic theme containing the alleged rabbinical plot against the European civilization, was translated into Russian as a separate pamphlet in 1872.[9] However, in 1921, Princess Catherine Radziwill gave a private lecture in New York in which she claimed that the Protocols were a forgery compiled in 1904–5 by Russian journalists Matvei Golovinski and Manasevich-Manuilov at the direction of Pyotr Rachkovsky, Chief of the Russian secret service in Paris.[34]

In 1944, German writer Konrad Heiden identified Golovinski as an author of the Protocols.[33] Radziwill's account was supported by Russian historian Mikhail Lepekhine, who published his findings in November 1999 in the French newsweekly L'Express.[35] Lepekhine considers the Protocols a part of a scheme to persuade Tsar Nicholas II that the modernization of Russia was really a Jewish plot to control the world.[36] Stephen Eric Bronner writes that groups opposed to progress, parliamentarianism, urbanization, and capitalism, and an active Jewish role in these modern institutions, were particularly drawn to the antisemitism of the document.[37] Ukrainian scholar Vadim Skuratovsky offers extensive literary, historical and linguistic analysis of the original text of the Protocols and traces the influences of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's prose (in particular, The Grand Inquisitor and The Possessed) on Golovinski's writings, including the Protocols.[36]

Golovinski's role in the writing of the Protocols is disputed by Michael Hagemeister, Richard Levy and Cesare De Michelis, who each write that the account which involves him is historically unverifiable and to a large extent provably wrong.[38][39][40]

In his book The Non-Existent Manuscript, Italian scholar Cesare G. De Michelis studies early Russian publications of the Protocols. The Protocols were first mentioned in the Russian press in April 1902, by the Saint Petersburg newspaper Novoye Vremya (Новое Время – The New Times). The article was written by famous conservative publicist Mikhail Menshikov as a part of his regular series "Letters to Neighbors" ("Письма к ближним") and was titled "Plots against Humanity". The author described his meeting with a lady (Yuliana Glinka, as it is known now) who, after telling him about her mystical revelations, implored him to get familiar with the documents later known as the Protocols; but after reading some excerpts, Menshikov became quite skeptical about their origin and did not publish them.[41]

Krushevan and Nilus editions

The Protocols were published at the earliest, in serialized form, from August 28 to September 7 (O.S.) 1903, in Znamya, a Saint Petersburg daily newspaper, under Pavel Krushevan. Krushevan had initiated the Kishinev pogrom four months earlier.[42]

In 1905, Sergei Nilus published the full text of the Protocols in Chapter XII, the final chapter (pp 305–417), of the second edition (or third, according to some sources) of his book, Velikoe v malom i antikhrist, which translates as "The Great within the Small: The Coming of the Anti-Christ and the Rule of Satan on Earth". He claimed it was the work of the First Zionist Congress, held in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland.[29] When it was pointed out that the First Zionist Congress had been open to the public and was attended by many non-Jews, Nilus changed his story, saying the Protocols were the work of the 1902–3 meetings of the Elders, but contradicting his own prior statement that he had received his copy in 1901:

In 1901, I succeeded through an acquaintance of mine (the late Court Marshal Alexei Nikolayevich Sukotin of Chernigov) in getting a manuscript that exposed with unusual perfection and clarity the course and development of the secret Jewish Freemasonic conspiracy, which would bring this wicked world to its inevitable end. The person who gave me this manuscript guaranteed it to be a faithful translation of the original documents that were stolen by a woman from one of the highest and most influential leaders of the Freemasons at a secret meeting somewhere in France—the beloved nest of Freemasonic conspiracy.[43]


Stolypin's fraud investigation, 1905

A subsequent secret investigation ordered by Pyotr Stolypin, the newly appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers, came to the conclusion that the Protocols first appeared in Paris in antisemitic circles around 1897–1898.[44] When Nicholas II learned of the results of this investigation, he requested, "The Protocols should be confiscated, a good cause cannot be defended by dirty means."[45] Despite the order, or because of the "good cause", numerous reprints proliferated.[42]

The Protocols in the West

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A 1934 edition by the Patriotic Publishing Company of Chicago.

In the United States, The Protocols are to be understood in the context of the First Red Scare (1917–20). The text was purportedly brought to the United States by a Russian army officer in 1917; it was translated into English by Natalie de Bogory (personal assistant of Harris A. Houghton, an officer of the Department of War) in June 1918,[46] and Russian expatriate Boris Brasol soon circulated it in American government circles, specifically diplomatic and military, in typescript form,[47] a copy of which is archived by the Hoover Institute.[48] It also appeared in 1919 in the Public Ledger as a pair of serialized newspaper articles. But all references to "Jews" were replaced with references to Bolsheviki as an exposé by the journalist and subsequently highly respected Columbia University School of Journalism dean Carl W. Ackerman.[49] [48]

In 1923, there appeared an anonymously edited pamphlet by the Britons Publishing Society, a successor to The Britons, an entity created and headed by Henry Hamilton Beamish. This imprint was allegedly a translation by Victor E. Marsden, who died in October 1920.[48]

Most versions substantially involve "protocols", or minutes of a speech given in secret involving Jews who are organized as Elders, or Sages, of Zion,[50] and underlies 24 protocols that are supposedly followed by the Jewish people. The Protocols has been proven to be a literary forgery and hoax as well as a clear case of plagiarism.[20][51][52][53][54]

English language imprints

On October 27 and 28, 1919, the Philadelphia Public Ledger published excerpts of an English language translation as the "Red Bible," deleting all references to the purported Jewish authorship and re-casting the document as a Bolshevik manifesto.[55] The author of the articles was the paper's correspondent at the time, Carl W. Ackerman, who later became the head of the journalism department at Columbia University. On May 8, 1920, an article[56] in The Times followed German translation and appealed for an inquiry into what it called an "uncanny note of prophecy". In the leader (editorial) titled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Wickham Steed wrote about The Protocols:

What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?".[57]


Steed retracted his endorsement of The Protocols after they were exposed as a forgery.[58]

United States

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Title page of 1920 edition from Boston.

In the US, Henry Ford sponsored the printing of 500,000 copies,[59] and, from 1920 to 1922, published a series of antisemitic articles titled "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem", in The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper he owned. The articles were later collected into multi-volume book series of the same name.[60] In 1921, Ford cited evidence of a Jewish threat: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are 16 years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time."[61] Robert A. Rosenbaum wrote that "In 1927, bowing to legal and economic pressure, Ford issued a retraction and apology—while disclaiming personal responsibility—for the anti-Semitic articles and closed the Dearborn Independent in 1927.[62] He was also an admirer of Nazi Germany.[63]

In 1934, an anonymous editor expanded the compilation with "Text and Commentary" (pp 136–41). The production of this uncredited compilation was a 300-page book, an inauthentic expanded edition of the twelfth chapter of Nilus's 1905 book on the coming of the anti-Christ. It consists of substantial liftings of excerpts of articles from Ford's antisemitic periodical The Dearborn Independent. This 1934 text circulates most widely in the English-speaking world, as well as on the internet. The "Text and Commentary" concludes with a comment on Chaim Weizmann's October 6, 1920, remark at a banquet: "A beneficent protection which God has instituted in the life of the Jew is that He has dispersed him all over the world". Marsden, who was dead by then, is credited with the following assertion:

It proves that the Learned Elders exist. It proves that Dr. Weizmann knows all about them. It proves that the desire for a "National Home" in Palestine is only camouflage and an infinitesimal part of the Jew's real object. It proves that the Jews of the world have no intention of settling in Palestine or any separate country, and that their annual prayer that they may all meet "Next Year in Jerusalem" is merely a piece of their characteristic make-believe. It also demonstrates that the Jews are now a world menace, and that the Aryan races will have to domicile them permanently out of Europe.[64]
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

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Part 2 of 2

The Times exposes a forgery, 1921

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The Times exposed the Protocols as a forgery on August 16–18, 1921

In 1920–1921, the history of the concepts found in the Protocols was traced back to the works of Goedsche and Jacques Crétineau-Joly by Lucien Wolf (an English Jewish journalist), and published in London in August 1921. But a dramatic exposé occurred in the series of articles in The Times by its Constantinople reporter, Philip Graves, who discovered the plagiarism from the work of Maurice Joly.[20]

According to writer Peter Grose, Allen Dulles, who was in Constantinople developing relationships in post-Ottoman political structures, discovered "the source" of the documentation and ultimately provided him to The Times. Grose writes that The Times extended a loan to the source, a Russian émigré who refused to be identified, with the understanding the loan would not be repaid.[65] Colin Holmes, a lecturer in economic history at Sheffield University, identified the émigré as Michael Raslovleff, a self-identified antisemite, who gave the information to Graves so as not to "give a weapon of any kind to the Jews, whose friend I have never been."[66]

In the first article of Graves' series, titled "A Literary Forgery", the editors of The Times wrote, "our Constantinople Correspondent presents for the first time conclusive proof that the document is in the main a clumsy plagiarism. He has forwarded us a copy of the French book from which the plagiarism is made."[20] In the same year, an entire book[67] documenting the hoax was published in the United States by Herman Bernstein. Despite this widespread and extensive debunking, the Protocols continued to be regarded as important factual evidence by antisemites. Dulles, a successful lawyer and career diplomat, attempted to persuade the US State Department to publicly denounce the forgery, but without success.[68]

Arab world

A translation made by an Arab Christian appeared in Cairo in 1927 or 1928, this time as a book. The first translation by an Arab Muslim was also published in Cairo, but only in 1951.[69]

Switzerland

The Berne Trial, 1934–35


The selling of the Protocols (edited by German antisemite Theodor Fritsch) by the National Front during a political manifestation in the Casino of Berne on June 13, 1933,[d] led to the Berne Trial in the Amtsgericht (district court) of Berne, the capital of Switzerland, on October 29, 1934. The plaintiffs (the Swiss Jewish Association and the Jewish Community of Berne) were represented by Hans Matti and Georges Brunschvig, helped by Emil Raas. Working on behalf of the defense was German antisemitic propagandist Ulrich Fleischhauer. On May 19, 1935, two defendants (Theodore Fischer and Silvio Schnell) were convicted of violating a Bernese statute prohibiting the distribution of "immoral, obscene or brutalizing" texts[70] while three other defendants were acquitted. The court declared the Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms, and obscene literature. Judge Walter Meyer, a Christian who had not heard of the Protocols earlier, said in conclusion,

I hope the time will come when nobody will be able to understand how in 1935 nearly a dozen sane and responsible men were able for two weeks to mock the intellect of the Bern court discussing the authenticity of the so-called Protocols, the very Protocols that, harmful as they have been and will be, are nothing but laughable nonsense.[42]


Vladimir Burtsev, a Russian émigré, anti-Bolshevik and anti-Fascist who exposed numerous Okhrana agents provocateurs in the early 1900s, served as a witness at the Berne Trial. In 1938 in Paris he published a book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Proved Forgery, based on his testimony.

On November 1, 1937, the defendants appealed the verdict to the Obergericht (Cantonal Supreme Court) of Berne. A panel of three judges acquitted them, holding that the Protocols, while false, did not violate the statute at issue because they were "political publications" and not "immoral (obscene) publications (Schundliteratur)" in the strict sense of the law.[70] The presiding judge's opinion stated, though, that the forgery of the Protocols was not questionable and expressed regret that the law did not provide adequate protection for Jews from this sort of literature. The court refused to impose the fees of defense of the acquitted defendants to the plaintiffs, and the acquitted Theodor Fischer had to pay 100 Fr. to the total state costs of the trial (Fr. 28'000) that were eventually paid by the Canton of Berne.[71] This decision gave grounds for later allegations that the appeal court "confirmed authenticity of the Protocols" which is contrary to the facts. A view favorable to the pro-Nazi defendants is reported in an appendix to Leslie Fry's Waters Flowing Eastward.[72] A more scholarly work on the trial is in a 139-page monograph by Urs Lüthi.[73]

The Basel Trial

A similar trial in Switzerland took place at Basel. The Swiss Frontists Alfred Zander and Eduard Rüegsegger distributed the Protocols (edited by the German Gottfried zur Beek) in Switzerland. Jules Dreyfus-Brodsky and Marcus Cohen sued them for insult to Jewish honor. At the same time, chief rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis of Stockholm (who also witnessed at the Berne Trial) sued Alfred Zander who contended that Ehrenpreis himself had said that the Protocols were authentic (referring to the foreword of the edition of the Protocols by the German antisemite Theodor Fritsch). On June 5, 1936 these proceedings ended with a settlement.[e]

Germany

According to historian Norman Cohn,[75] the assassins of German Jewish politician Walter Rathenau (1867–1922) were convinced that Rathenau was a literal "Elder of Zion".

It seems likely Hitler first became aware of the Protocols after hearing about it from ethnic German white émigrés, such as Alfred Rosenberg and Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter.[76] Hitler refers to the Protocols in Mein Kampf:

... [The Protocols] are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans [ ] every week ... [which is] the best proof that they are authentic ... the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims.[77]


The Protocols also became a part of the Nazi propaganda effort to justify persecution of the Jews. In The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933–1945, Nora Levin states that "Hitler used the Protocols as a manual in his war to exterminate the Jews":

Despite conclusive proof that the Protocols were a gross forgery, they had sensational popularity and large sales in the 1920s and 1930s. They were translated into every language of Europe and sold widely in Arab lands, the US, and England. But it was in Germany after World War I that they had their greatest success. There they were used to explain all of the disasters that had befallen the country: the defeat in the war, the hunger, the destructive inflation.[78]


Hitler endorsed the Protocols in his speeches from August 1921 on, and it was studied in German classrooms after the Nazis came to power. "Distillations of the text appeared in German classrooms, indoctrinated the Hitler Youth, and invaded the USSR along with German soldiers."[1] Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels proclaimed: "The Zionist Protocols are as up-to-date today as they were the day they were first published."[79]

In contrast to Hitler, Nazi leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsky admitted:

I am the only living witness but I must say the truth. Contrary to the opinion of the National Socialists, that the Jews were a highly organized group, the appalling fact was that they had no organization whatsoever. The mass of the Jewish people were taken complete by surprise. They did not know at all what to do; they had no directives or slogans as to how they should act. This is the greatest lie of anti-Semitism because it gives the lie to that old slogan that the Jews are conspiring to dominate the world and that they are so highly organized. In reality, they had no organization of their own at all, not even an information service. If they had had some sort of organization, these people could have been saved by the millions, but instead, they were taken completely by surprise. Never before has a people gone as unsuspectingly to its disaster. Nothing was prepared. Absolutely nothing.[80][81]


Richard S. Levy criticizes the claim that the Protocols had a large effect on Hitler's thinking, writing that it is based mostly on suspect testimony and lacks hard evidence.[40]

Publication of the Protocols was stopped in Germany in 1939 for unknown reasons.[82] An edition that was ready for printing was blocked by censorship laws.[83]

German language publications

Having fled Ukraine in 1918–19, Piotr Shabelsky-Bork brought the Protocols to Ludwig Muller Von Hausen who then published them in German.[84] Under the pseudonym Gottfried Zur Beek he produced the first and "by far the most important"[85] German translation. It appeared in January 1920 as a part of a larger antisemitic tract[86] dated 1919. After The Times discussed the book respectfully in May 1920 it became a bestseller. "The Hohenzollern family helped defray the publication costs, and Kaiser Wilhelm II had portions of the book read out aloud to dinner guests".[79] Alfred Rosenberg's 1923 edition[87] "gave a forgery a huge boost".[79]

Italy

Fascist politician Giovanni Preziosi published the first Italian edition of the Protocols in 1921.[88][page needed] The book however had little impact until the mid-1930s. A new 1937 edition had a much higher impact, and three further editions in the following months sold 60,000 copies total.[88][page needed] The fifth edition had an introduction by Julius Evola, which argued around the issue of forgery, stating: "The problem of the authenticity of this document is secondary and has to be replaced by the much more serious and essential problem of its truthfulness".[88][page needed]

Modern era

The Protocols continue to be widely available around the world, particularly on the Internet, as well as in print in Japan, the Middle East, Asia, and South America.[89]

Governments or political leaders in most parts of the world have not referred to the Protocols since World War II. The exception to this is the Middle East, where a large number of Arab and Muslim regimes and leaders have endorsed them as authentic, including endorsements from Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, the elder President Arif of Iraq,[90] King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya.[69][91]

The 1988 charter of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group, states that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion embodies the plan of the Zionists.[92] Recent endorsements in the 21st century have been made by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, the education ministry of Saudi Arabia,[91] member of the Greek Parliament Ilias Kasidiaris,[93] and Young Earth creationist and tax evader Kent Hovind.[94]

See also

Pertinent concepts

• Black propaganda
• Blood libel
• Disinformation
• Hate speech
• World government

Individuals

• Martin Heidegger and Nazism

Related or similar texts

• A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century
• Alta Vendita
• Tanaka Memorial
• Protocols of Zion
• Hamas Covenant
• The Prague Cemetery
• Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East
• Warrant for Genocide

Notes

1. The text contains 44 instances of the word "I" (9.6%), and 412 instances of the word "we" (90.4%).[14]
2. This complex relationship was originally exposed by Graves 1921. The exposé has since been elaborated in many sources.
3. Jacobs analyses the Marsden English translation. Some other less common imprints have more or fewer than 24 protocols
4. The main speaker was the former chief of the Swiss General Staff Emil Sonderegger.
5. Zander had to withdraw his contention and the stock of the incriminated Protocolswere destroyed by order of the court. Zander had to pay the fees of this Basel Trial.[74]

References

1. Segel, BW and Levy, RS. A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. University of Nebraska Press (1995), p. 30. ISBN 0803242433,
2. Michelis, Cesare G. De (2004). The non-existent manuscript : a study of the Protocols of the sages of Zion. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press. p. 65. ISBN 0803217277.
3. Michelis, Cesare G. De (2004). The non-existent manuscript : a study of the Protocols of the sages of Zion. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press. pp. 76–80. ISBN 0803217277.
4. Webman 2012, p. 60.
5. Donskis, Leonidas (2003-01-01). Forms of Hatred: The Troubled Imagination in Modern Philosophy and Literature. Rodopi. ISBN 9042010665.
6. "Ritual murder encouraged..." New York Times. August 27, 1911.
7. "Non-Existent Manuscript - University of Nebraska Press". http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
8. Jacobs & Weitzman 2003, p. 15.
9. Segel, Binjamin W (1996) [1926], Levy, Richard S, ed., A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, University of Nebraska Press, p. 97, ISBN 0-8032-9245-7.
10. De Michelis 2004, p. 47.
11. De Michelis 2004, p. 114].
12. A Hoax of Hate, Jewish Virtual Library.
13. Boym, Svetlana (1999), "Conspiracy theories and literary ethics: Umberto Eco, Danilo Kis and 'The Protocols of Zion'", Comparative Literature, 51 (Spring): 97, doi:10.2307/1771244.
14. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, Marsden, VE transl, Shoah education.
15. Pipes 1997, p. 85.
16. Ye’r, Bat; Kochan, Miriam; Littman, David (December 1, 2001), Islam and Dhimmitude, US: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, p. 142, ISBN 978-0-8386-3942-9.
17. Eco, Umberto (1994), "Fictional Protocols", Six Walks in the Fictional Woods, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 135, ISBN 0-674-81050-3
18. De Michelis, Newhouse & Bi-Yerushalayim 2004, p. 8.
19. Bein, Alex (1990), The Jewish question: biography of a world problem, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, p. 339, ISBN 978-0-8386-3252-9
20. Graves 1921.
21. Keren, David (February 10, 1993), Commentary on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (PDF), IGC, p. 4, archived from the original (PDF) on July 29, 2014. Republished as "Introduction", The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, Marsden, Victor E transl.
22. Cohn, Norman (1966), Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion, New York: Harper & Row, pp. 32–36.
23. Eco, Umberto (1998), Serendipities: Language and Lunacy, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 14, ISBN 0-231-11134-7
24. Olender, Maurice (2009), Race and Erudition, Harvard University Press, p. 11.
25. Mendes-Flohr, Paul R; Reinharz, Jehuda (1995), The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, p.363 see footnote, ISBN 0-19-507453-X
26. Chanes 2004, p. 58.
27. Shibuya 2007, p. 571.
28. Jacobs & Weitzman 2003, pp. 21–25.
29. de Michelis, Newhouse & Bi-Yerushalayim 2004.
30. Cohn 1967.
31. Eco, Umberto (1990), Foucault's Pendulum, London: Picador, p. 490.
32. Pipes 1997, pp. 86–87.
33. Freund, Charles Paul (February 2000), "Forging Protocols", Reason Magazine.
34. "Princess Radziwill Quizzed at Lecture; Stranger Questions Her Title After She Had Told of Forgery of "Jewish Protocols." Creates Stir at Astor Leaves Without Giving His Name— Mrs. Huribut Corroborates the Princess. Stranger Quizzes Princess. Corroborates Mme. Radziwill. Never Reached Alexander III. The Corroboration. Says Orgewsky Was Proud of Work". The New York Times. March 4, 1921. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
35. Conan, Éric (November 16, 1999), "Les secrets d'une manipulation antisémite"[The secrets of an antisemite manipulation], L’Express (in French).
36. Skuratovsky, Vadim (2001), The Question of the Authorship of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", Kiev: Judaica Institute, ISBN 966-7273-12-1.
37. Bronner 2003, p. ix, 56.
38. M. Hagemeister. The Non-Existent Manuscript. pp. passim.
39. Michael Hagemeister (2008). "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Between History and Fiction". New German Critique 103. 35 (1): 83–95. How can we explain that when it comes to the origins and dissemination of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the rules of careful historical research are so completely ignored and we are regularly served up stories
40. Richard S. Levy (2014). "Setting the Record Straight Regarding The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Fool's Errand?". In William C. Donahue and Martha B. Helfer. Nexus — Essays in German Jewish Studies. 2. Camden House. pp. 43–61.
41. Karasova, T; Chernyakhovsky, D, Afterword (in Russian) in Cohn, Norman, Warrant for Genocide (in Russian) (translated ed.).
42. Kadzhaya, Valery. "The Fraud of a Century, or a book born in hell". Archived from the original on December 17, 2005. Retrieved September 2005. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help).
43. Kominsky, Morris (1970), The Hoaxers, p. 209, ISBN 0-8283-1288-5.
44. Fyodorov, Boris, P. Stolypin's attempt to resolve the Jewish question (in Russian), RU.
45. Burtsev, Vladimir (1938), "4", The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Proved Forgery(in Russian), Paris: Jewniverse, p. 106.
46. Baldwin, N. Henry Ford and the Jews. The mass production of hate. PublicAffair (2001), p. 82. ISBN 1891620525.
47. Wallace, M. The American axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich. St. Martin's Press (2003), p. 60. ISBN 0312290225.
48. Singerman 1980, pp. 48–78.
49. Toczek, Nick (2015). Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far Right. Routledge. ISBN 1317525876.
50. Rivera, David Allen (1998) [1994], "5", Final Warning: A History of The New World Order.
51. Handwerk, Brian (September 11, 2006), "Anti-Semitic "Protocols of Zion" Endure, Despite Debunking", National Geographic News.
52. "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", Holocaust Encyclopedia, US: Holocaust Memorial Museum, May 4, 2009.
53. David 2000.
54. Carroll 2006.
55. Jenkins, Philip (1997), Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925–1950, UNC Press, p. 114, ISBN 0-8078-2316-3
56. Steed, Henry Wickham (May 8, 1920), "A Disturbing Pamphlet: A Call for Enquiry", The Times.
57. Friedländer, Saul (1997), Nazi Germany and the Jews, New York: HarperCollins, p. 95.
58. Liebich, A. The Antisemitism of Henry Wickham Steed. Patterns of Prejudice Volume 46, Issue 2, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
59. Szczesny, Joseph (27 May 2014). "Home Could Henry Ford Have Dreamed a Jew Would Run His Car Company?". Forward. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
60. "Henry Ford publishes the last issue of the Dearborn Independent". History.com. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
61. Wallace, Max (2003), The American Axis, St. Martin's Press.
62. Rosenbaum, Robert A (2010). Waking to Danger: Americans and Nazi Germany, 1933-1941. Greenwood Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0313385025.
63. Dobbs, Michael (November 30, 1998), "Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration", The Washington Post, p. A01, retrieved March 20, 2006.
64. Marsden, Victor E, "Introduction", The protocols of the learned Elders of Zion (English ed.).
65. Grose, Peter (1994), Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles, Houghton Mifflin.
66. Poliakov, Leon (1997), "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", in Roth, Cecil, Encyclopedia Judaica (CD-ROM 1.0 ed.), Keter, ISBN 965-07-0665-8.
67. Bernstein 1921.
68. Richard Breitman et al. (2005). OSS Knowledge of the Holocaust. In: U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. pp. 11-44. [Online]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available from: Cambridge Books Online doi:10.1017/CBO9780511618178.006 [Accessed 20 April 2016]. page 25
69. Lewis, Bernard (1986), Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, WW Norton & Co., p. 199, ISBN 0-393-02314-1
70. Hafner, Urs (December 23, 2005). "Die Quelle allen Übels? Wie ein Berner Gericht 1935 gegen antisemitische Verschwörungsphantasien vorging" (in German). Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Archived from the original on February 1, 2011. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
71. Ben-Itto 2005, chapter 11.
72. Fry, Leslie. "Appendix II: The Berne Trials". Waters Flowing Eastward. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
73. Lüthi, Urs (1992), Der Mythos von der Weltverschwörung: die Hetze der Schweizer Frontisten gegen Juden und Freimaurer, am Beispiel des Berner Prozesses um die "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" (in German), Basel/Frankfurt am Main: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, ISBN 978-3-7190-1197-0, OCLC 30002662
74. Lüthi 1992, p. 45.
75. Cohn 1967, p. 169.
76. Gellately, Robert (2012). Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe, ISBN 1448138787, p. 99
77. Hitler, Adolf, "XI: Nation and Race", Mein Kampf, I, pp. 307–8.
78. Nora Levin, The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933–1945. Quoting from IGC.org[permanent dead link]
79. Pipes 1997, p. 95.
80. Nora Levin (1968). The holocaust: the destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. T. Y. Crowell Co. p. 20.
81. Joel E. Dimsdale (January 1, 1980). Survivors, Victims, and Perpetrators: Essays on the Nazi Holocaust. Taylor & Francis. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-89116-351-0.
82. Michael Hagemeister (2011). "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in court: The Bern trials, 1933-1937". In Esther Webman. The Global Impact of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. London, New York: Routledge. pp. 241–253.
83. Michael Hagemeister, lecture at Cambridge University, 11 November 2014. video
84. Kellogg 2005, pp. 63–65.
85. Pipes 1997, p. 94.
86. Geheimnisse der Weisen von Zion (in German), Auf Vorposten, 1919.
87. Rosenberg, Alfred (1923), Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die jüdische Weltpolitik, Munich: Deutscher Volksverlag.
88. Valentina Pisanty (2006), La difesa della razza: Antologia 1938-1943, Bompiani
89. Jacobs & Weitzmann 2003, pp. xi–xiv, 1–4.
90. Katz, S. and Gilman, S. Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis. NYU Press (1993), pp. 344-5. ISBN 0814730566
91. Islamic Antisemitism in Historical Perspective (PDF), Anti-Defamation League, pp. 8–9, archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-07-05
92. "Hamas Covenant". Yale. 1988. Retrieved May 27, 2010. Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.
93. "Protocols of the Elders of Zion read aloud in Greek Parliament".
94. "Creationism Gets a Dash of Anti-Semitism". SPL center. 2001.

Bibliography

• Ben-Itto, Hadassa (2005), The Lie That Wouldn't Die: One Hundred Years of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, London; Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, ISBN 978-0-85303-602-9
• Bernstein, Herman (1921): The History of a Lie at Project Gutenberg
• Bernstein, Herman (1921), The history of a lie, 'The protocols of the wise men of Zion' (page images) (study), Archive, retrieved 2009-02-01.
• Bronner, Stephen Eric (2003), A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-516956-5.
• Carroll, Robert Todd (2006), "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", The Skeptic's Dictionary.
• Chanes, Jerome A (2004), Antisemitism: a reference handbook, ABC-CLIO.
• Cohn, Norman (1967), Warrant for Genocide, The myth of the Jewish world conspiracy and the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', Eyre & Spottiswoode, ISBN 1-897959-25-7.
• David (June 30, 2000), "What's the story with the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'?", The Straight Dope.
• Graves, Philip (August 16–18, 1921), "The Truth about the Protocols: A Literary Forgery", The Times, London.
• Graves, Philip (September 4, 1921b), "'Jewish World Plot': An Exposure. The Source of 'The Protocols of Zion'. Truth at Last" (PDF), The New York Times, Front p, Sec 7, archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2006.
• Graves, Philip (1921c), "The truth about 'The Protocols': a literary forgery", The Times (articles collection), London, archived from the original (pamphlet)on May 10, 2013.
• Hagemeister, Michael (2006), Brinks, Jan Herman; Rock, Stella; Timms, Edward, eds., Nationalist Myths and Modern Media. Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization, London/New York, pp. 243–55.
• Jacobs, Steven Leonard; Weitzman, Mark (2003), Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ISBN 0-88125-785-0.
• Kellogg, Michael (2005), The Russian Roots of Nazism White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945, Cambridge.
• Klier, John Doyle (2005). Imperial Russia's Jewish Question, 1855-1881. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521023815.
• Lüthi, Urs (1992), Der Mythos von der Weltverschwörung: die Hetze der Schweizer Frontisten gegen Juden und Freimaurer, am Beispiel des Berner Prozesses um die "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" (in German), Basel/Frankfurt am Main: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, ISBN 978-3-7190-1197-0, OCLC 30002662.
• Michelis, Cesare G. de (2004). The Non-Existent Manuscript: A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1727-7.
• Pipes, Daniel (1997), Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From, The Free Press, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-83131-7.
• Singerman, Robert (1980), "The American Career of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion", American Jewish History, 71.
• Webman, Esther (2011). The Global Impact of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Century-Old Myth. Routledge. ISBN 0415598923.

Further reading

• A Hoax of Hate, The Anti-Defamation League, 2002, archived from the original on 2005-12-28.
• Eisner, Will, The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ISBN 0-393-06045-4.
• Fox, Frank (1997), "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Shadowy world of Elie de Cyon", East European Jewish Affairs, 27 (1): 3–22, doi:10.1080/13501679708577838.
• Goldberg, Isaac (1936), The so-called "Protocols of the Elders of Zion": a Definitive Exposure of One of the Most Malicious Lies in History, Girard, KS: E. Haldeman-Julius.
• Hagemeister, Michael, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Between History and Fiction", New German Critique, 35 (1103), retrieved 2009-09-15
• Kiš, Danilo (1989), "The Book of Kings and Fools", The Encyclopedia of the Dead, Faber & Faber.
• Landes, Richard; Katz, Steven, eds. (2012), Paranoid Apocalypse: A Hundred-Year Retrospective on 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', New York: New York University Press.
• Shibuya, Eric (2007), "The Struggle with Right-Wing Extremist Groups in the United States", in Forest, James, Countering terrorism and insurgency in the 21st century, 3, Greenwood.
• Timmerman, Kenneth R (2003), Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, Crown Forum, ISBN 1-4000-4901-6.
• Webman, Esther, ed. (2011), The Global Impact of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A century-old myth, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-59892-3.
• Wolf, Lucien (1921), The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs or, The Truth About the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion, New York: Macmillan.
• Matussek, Carmen (2013), Carmen Matussek: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Arab world, World Jewish Congress website.

External links

• Public Statement (PDF), The American Jewish Committee, 4pp. A disclaimerpublished as a result of a conference held in New York City on November 30, 1920.
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Between History and Fiction, By Michael Hagemeister
• Protocols of the Elders of Zion; a fabricated "historic" document (PDF) (report), United States Holocaust Museum: Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 88th Congress, 2d Session, August 6, 1964, archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2008.
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jewish Virtual Library.
• Antisemitic Propaganda: "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, September 2004.
• "A Dangerous Lie", Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 2006.
• Dickerson, D (ed.), Protocols (Index of several resources), Institute for Global Communications, archived from the original on 2006-04-24.
• Dickerson, D (ed.), The protocols of the learned Elders of Zion (PDF), Marsden, transl., IGC, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-29.
• Eco, Umberto (August 17, 2002), "The poisonous Protocols", The Guardian, retrieved August 17, 2016
• Eshed, Eli (2005), The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, graphic novel by Will Eisner (review), IL: Notes.
• Rothstein, Edward (April 21, 2006), "The Antisemitic Hoax That Refuses to Die", The New York Times (exhibition review).
• Weiss, Anthony (March 4, 2009), "Elders of Zion to Retire", The Jewish Daily Forward (Purim spoof article).
• Wiesel, Elie (August 13, 2006), Nobel Peace Prize winner (audio)(talk)[permanent dead link].
• History of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, BCY, CA: Freemasonry.
• "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

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Anglo-Saxon Federation of America
by Metapedia
Accessed: 7/17/18

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The Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, was jointly founded by Howard B. Rand and William J. Cameron in 1930.[1] It is considered the oldest and largest British Israelism group in America. The group was originally based in Chicago but later moved to Massachusetts.

In 1928, Howard Rand, a lawyer and Bible student, started conducting a small Anglo-Saxon study group at his home. He met William Cameron, the founder of the newly created Anglo-Saxon Federation, together started the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America.

The group asserts that the Bible contains the past, present, and future history of Israel.

It determines exactly which group should take the name "Israel" based on which nation or race best fulfills the promises God made in the Old Testament. The Bible states that Israel was to be a powerful nation located to the northwest of Palestine that holds a great heathen empire in domination, is the chief missionary power in the world, and immune to defeat in war. It also has a group which split itself off from the parent "Israel" to become a great nation in its own right. They conclude that the only nation which meets the above criteria was Great Britain, and, by extension, the United States which separated itself from Great Britain later.

By the 1930s and 1940s, several groups affiliated with the federation could be found throughout the United States. However, by the mid 1970s, most of the group's membership had either died or left the group. Its magazine, Destiny Magazine, ceased publication in 1969, with the foundation publishing from that point a much more modest monthly newsletter.

The group does still remain active, publishing books and accepting new members.

See also

• Destiny Publishers
• British-Israel-World Federation
• S. A. Ackley
• Reverend C. O. Stadsklev
• Lineage of American nationalist organizations and individuals

References

Lewis, James R. The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. ISBN 1-57392-222-6.

Notes

Henry Ford and the Jews, by Neil Baldwin, page 267
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:30 am

Council of Fifty
by MormonThink
Accessed: 7/17/18

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On April 7th, 1842, Joseph Smith received a revelation instructing the establishment of a new organization parallel to the church. Since its inception, this organization has been referred to as the Council of Fifty, though the true name is quite different. It is an organization that has captured the fancy of many, both sympathetic and critical of Mormonism, yet it remains somewhat enigmatic for want of public documentation (1). In short, Joseph Smith ordained the council to be the governing body of the world, with himself as its King.

The name as revealed:

Verily thus saith the Lord, This is the name by which you shall be called, The Kingdom of God and His Law, with the Keys and power thereof, and judgment in the hands of his servants, Ahman Christ. (2)


The concept of a Kingdom of God, separate from the Church, remains somewhat familiar in Mormon discourse (3), but the idea that Daniel's rock hewn from the mountain never to be stopped is not the Church but a parallel organization is quite foreign. Moreover the original concepts have been modified to fit more keenly into a correlated perspective (4). Brigham Young, however, described the ultimate destiny of this kingdom. After rebuking the Saints by the Platte River for excessive frivolity, Brigham gathered the leadership around him and described their mountain destination. Wilford Woodruff recorded:

He then spoke of the standard & ensign that would be reared in Zion, to govern the Kingdom of God * And the nations of the earth. For every nation would bow the knee & every tongue confess that JESUS was the Christ. And this will be the standard: The Kingdom of God & his Laws & Judgment in {the [-] if [--] man Christ}. And on the standard would be a flag of every nation under heaven so there would be an invitation to all Nations under heaven to come unto Zion. (5)


Despite receiving the revelation in April 1842, Joseph waited until April 1844 to establish the kingdom. This wait was during Bennett's crusade against the church and while Hyrum and Emma had yet to be fully converted to all of Joseph's teachings. Once they were converted and the Fullness of the Priesthood was restored (with the associated capacity of King and Queen) the council was soon organized and Joseph publicly announced some of his views on World government (6).

Joseph established the Kingdom in secret and the business of the members was to remain so. Joseph purportedly initiated members into the council by covenant, password and penalty (7). Members included a wide demographic of Mormon hierarchy and non-Mormons. All members were chosen by the Prophet, which action required unanimous consent of the council. Though relatively few non-Mormons were included in the Council, the Lord revealed that non-Mormons would persist into the Millennium, and any just government would require their representation (8). Council members were organized into a hierarchy by age and Joseph was chairman and anointed Prophet, Priest and King over the Council and the world.

It is in this context that Joseph preached just days after receiving the revelation on the organization of the Council:

Although David was a King he never did obtain the spirit & power of Elijah & the fulness of the Priesthood, & the priesthood that he received & the throne & kingdom of David is to be taken from him & given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his linage (9)


Joseph taught that his first-born son in the covenant, David Hyrum – born after Joseph's death, would be this latter-day King over Israel (10), which teaching was widely recognized by 19th century church leaders (11).

Once the Council was organized, it adopted parliamentary “Rules of the Kingdom,” including those governing legislation:

To pass, a motion must be unanimous in the affirmative. Voting is done after the ancient order: each person voting in turn from the oldest to the youngest member of the Council, commencing with the standing chairman. If any member has any objections he is under covenant to fully and freely make them known to the Council. But if he cannot be convinced of the rightness of the course pursued by the Council he must either yield or withdraw membership in the Council. Thus a man will lose his place in the Council if he refuses to act in accordance with righteous principles in the deliberations of the Council. After action is taken and a motion accepted, no fault will be found or change sought for in regard to the motion. (12)


While affirmation or sustaining is required of members, it is interesting that all members were under covenant to voice dissent. There is tension in this legislative process as in the instance that no resolution could be passed, the chairman would attain the will of the Lord by revelation. It seems, however, that the Lord gave the people an ultimate veto. The council could not meet unless fifty percent of the members were in attendance. If a majority of council members did not favor pending legislation they could simply not allow any meetings to be held.

In reality, however, the Council never realized the measure of its prophetic capacity. In Joseph's day, it did send out ambassadors to foreign governments and lobbied the American government. It caused quite a stir when it usurped the Nauvoo High Council's authority and excommunicated William Law. It explored expeditions to Texas, Oregon and California for the emigration of the Saints and it was the foundation for Joseph's campaign for U.S. President.

While the Council was quite active during the duration of Joseph's life, his death was the beginning of its end. This secret Council of Fifty and Joseph's political kingship was one of the primary accusations of the Expositor. The Council did play a significant role in the succession crisis, but Brigham's later use of the council was quite perfunctory. And while there was a significant amount of Council activity from 1848 to 1850 while the civil government of the Utah Territory was established, the Council subsequently fell into disuse.

John Taylor aspired to re-kindle the council and is the last publicly recorded individual to be anointed Prophet, Priest and King, however all real power remained with the First Presidency and the Council continued to be a largely a figurative body until the death of its last member in 1945 (13).

As he left for Carthage, Joseph instructed his secretary to burn all the minutes of the council. Fortunately, William Clayton spared them by burial and they continue to reside, unmolested by foe and scholar in the vault of the First Presidency. Perhaps one day, these minutes, hundreds of pages, will inform our allegiance and educate those who seek to build up the Kingdom in the latter-days.

___________________

Notes:

1. While the official records of the Kingdom remain vaulted, many extant journals and secondary sources describe the workings of the Council of Fifty. The best information to date is catalogued in the works of Andrew F. Ehat and D. Michael Quinn:

o Quinn, D. M. (1980) The Council of Fifty and Its Members, 1844 to 1945. BYU Studies vol. 20 no. 2 pg. 163.

o Ehat, A. F. (1980) “It Seems Like Heaven Began on Earth”: Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. BYU Studies vol. 20 no. 3 pg. 253

o Ehat, A. F. (1982) Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Succession Question. Master's thesis, Brigham Young University.

o Quinn, D. M. (1994) The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates. Salt Lake City.

2. See Ehat's “It Seems Like Heavan on Earth,” pg. 254.

3. See commentary on Isaiah 2:3, “Out of zion shall go forth the law . . . the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” E.g., Smith, J. F., Doctrines of Salvation. vol. 3 pg. 69-71.

4. E.g., Bruce R. McConkie states in Mormon Doctrine. (1966, pg. 499) that:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on earth; it is the kingdom which shall never be destroyed or left to other people; it is the kingdom which shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms; and it shall stand forever. But for the present it functions as an ecclesiastical kingdom only.

With the millennial advent, the kingdom of God on earth will step forth and exercise political jurisdiction over all the earth as well as ecclesiastical jurisdiction over its own citizens.


5. 29 May, 1847. Wilford Woodruff's Journal, Kenny, S. eds. vol. 3, p. 188. Spelling corrected.

6. Joseph Smith wrote the following in the Times and Seasons, vol. 5 no. 8. ( April 15, 1844) pg. 510:

As the “world is governed too much” and as there is not a nation or dynasty, now occupying the earth, which acknowledges Almighty God as their law giver, and as ‘crowns won by blood, by blood must be maintained,' I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely, for a THEODEMOCRACY, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness. And where liberty, free trade, and sailor's rights, and the protection of life and property shall be maintained inviolate, for the benefit of ALL. To exalt mankind is nobly acting the part of a God; to degrade them, is meanly doing the drudgery of the devil. Unitas, libertas, caritas esto perpetua!

With the highest sentiments of regard for all men, I am an advocate of unadulterated freedom.


7. Quinn, D. M. The Mormon Hierarchy. pg. 128-129.

8. John Taylor received a revelation that stated that the Lord instructed Joseph to include nonmembers that they “be admitted to the right of representation. . . and have full and free opportunity of presenting their views, interests and principles, and enjoying all the freedom and rights of the Council.” Revelation dated 27 June 1882 in notebook collection of John Taylor revelations, Church Archives. Cited in Ehat's “It Seems Like Heaven on Earth,” pg. 257. Entire revelation also available on the New Mormon Studies CD-ROM

9. The Words of Joseph Smith. pg. 331

10. Brigham related in a 7 Oct. 1863 sermon that Joseph said: “I shall have a son born to me, and his name shall be David; and on him, in some future time, will rest the responsibility that now rests upon me.” LDS Archives, as cited in Quinn, D. M. (1975) The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844. BYU Studies vol. 16 no. 1 pg. 229. For Biblical reference to this latter-day David see 2 Samuel 7:8-29, 37:21-28; Zechariah 3; Isaiah 55:3-5; Jeremiah 30:4-9; Psalms 89:1-4; and D&C 113:5-6 (scriptural references taken from footnote 29 of the preceding WoJS citation).

11. Esplin, R. K. (1981) Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve: a Succession of Continuity. BYU Studies vol. 21 no. 3 pg. 336-338; see also Origins of Power pg. 231-232.

12. Ehat, A. F. “It Seems Like Heaven on Earth,” pg. 260

13. President Heber J. Grant was the last living member of the Council, of which there is public documentation.

Reference:

Theodemocracy
Wikipedia
Council of Fifty Quotes - very interesting Mormon quotes on the Council of Fifty
Book: Quest for empire;: The political kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty in Mormon history
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:44 am

The Mormon Council of Fifty: What Joseph Smith’s Secret Records Reveal
by Benjamin E. Park
September 9, 2016

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Council of Fifty minutes (Courtesy of the Joseph Smith Papers Project/Photograph by Welden C. Andersen)

In 1844, the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith surrendered himself to state authorities after destroying an anti-Mormon printing press in Nauvoo, Illinois. When he was sent to nearby Carthage, the county seat, and charged with treason, he knew there was a strong chance he would never escape alive. Before he left he whispered instructions to his secretary, William Clayton, “to burn the records of the kingdom, or put them in some safe hands and send them away or else bury them up.”* Clayton, a British convert who became a keeper of Smith’s most important documents, chose the latter option and, according to his later account, “put the records in a small box and buried them in my garden.” The records were too important to burn, despite their scandalous contents. Five days later, on June 27, a mob killed Smith while he was held prisoner at Carthage Jail.* The events shocked all Mormons, both those gathered in Nauvoo, the Church’s then-headquarters, as well as those scattered throughout America and Britain. But Clayton, undaunted, made sure to dig up “the records of the kingdom,” which entailed detailed minutes from dozens of clandestine meetings held over the previous months, and months later he transcribed their contents into a small volume he titled, “Record of the Council of Fifty or Kingdom of God.”

This “kingdom,” colloquially referred to as the “Council of Fifty,” was an organization founded only a few months before Smith’s death. It was designed to be a theocratic government-in-embryo—a “literal kingdom of God,” in Smith’s own words, that would govern the world based on divine dictates and prophetic authority. While an early goal was to orchestrate Smith’s election to the American presidency as a last-ditch effort to save the country, the prophet’s death cut the final strings that attached the Mormon people to any form of political allegiance. The American government had failed them, and so it was time to cast sovereignty to a more righteous and virtuous body. Participants in the council spoke openly of their nation’s demise, plotted ways to escape the United States’ borders, and envisioned a post-American future. It was obvious why Smith desired to keep the record secret.

And secret these minute books remained for more than a century and a half. Scholars knew about the documents due to external references, but the LDS Church kept them out of the hands of all researchers and historians. And the longer the records remained secret the larger their legend grew. But in 2010, the Joseph Smith Papers Project, a scholarly team that is working to produce editions of all documents created by and for Mormonism’s founding prophet, received permission to access the minute books in preparation for their volumes. Shortly afterward, and much to the surprise of onlookers, they announced their intention to publish the entirety of the minutes as a stand-alone volume. That book, The Joseph Smith Papers, Administrative Records: The Council of Fifty, Minutes March 1844 – January 1846, is officially released this month.

Readers will find ample evidence of the deep distrust and disappointment Mormons held toward the American government, as well as their disillusionment with the American democratic experiment in general. “[The United States government] is a damned wrotten [sic] thing,” apostle Lyman Wight proclaimed to the council, “full of lice, moth eaten, corrupt, and there is nothing but meanness about it.”
But careful observers will find a lot more than shocking quotations. Historians of American religion, especially, will encounter potent examples of democracy’s discontent during the mid-nineteenth century, a reminder that notions of religious freedom, minority rights, and balanced interests were far from decided during the antebellum period. Democracy was still an unproven commodity. And in 2016, when the national election has featured stern protest candidates and tangible frustration with established democratic institutions, these anxieties appear more present than past.

THE MONTHS LEADING UP to the Council of Fifty were both the busiest and most bombastic in Joseph Smith’s prophetic career. Dissension within the Church, mostly connected to Smith’s secret practice of polygamy, and pressure from without, usually over the Church’s bloc voting habits, left the Mormons scrambling to find a new sense of stability. Nauvoo’s city council drafted a petition to Congress asking the federal government to declare Nauvoo a distinct territory and assure their protection with federal troops. Smith corresponded with five prominent presidential candidates to ask how they would help the Mormon population, and when he didn’t receive any satisfactory responses he announced his own candidacy and sent out hundreds of “electioneering” missionaries. Once things looked bleak within America’s boundaries, they began considering potential outposts for new settlement, including the still-independent Republic of Texas as well as the contested territory of Oregon. To manage all these interweaving initiatives, Smith organized a new, secret, and theologically powerful council.

The council, Smith explained as recorded in the records, was based “on an eternal principle after the order of God.” Members were “bound to eternal secrecy,” prohibited from mentioning it “even to our wives,” and warned that anyone “who broke the rule should lose his cursed head.” Weekly meetings, which continued even after Smith’s death and through the church’s westward exodus, followed a distinct and regimented pattern, with everyone sitting in a semi-circle according to age and allowed to speak in order from “the oldest down to the youngest.” All decisions had to be unanimous, as “the most perfect harmony” must prevail. This council was not to be like the contested and divisive halls of Congress. Everyone “agreed to look to some place where we can go and establish a Theocracy,” whether it was in Texas, Oregon, California, or somewhere else on the western frontier.

Although the council oversaw a number of projects and petitions, a special focus was given to creating a new, perfect constitution. Two years earlier, Smith had published an editorial in the church’s newspaper, Times and Seasons, that declared that the earth was “rent from center to circumference, with party strife, political intrigue, and sectional interest” because no nation or kingdom acknowledged the role of divine rule. The solution, according to the Council of Fifty’s minutes, was to “amend that constitution & make it the voice of Jehovah and shame the U.S.” They “resolved to draft a constitution which should be perfect, and embrace those principles which the constitution of the United States lacked.” This effort was not a novel concept in America at the time. Both abolitionists and women suffragists argued for amendments to the constitution, and William Lloyd Garrison even believed the entire founding document had to be scrapped. But the Mormon constitution was to be unique: It aimed to be based on the laws of God and implement a form of theocratic governance.

When a draft was finally presented weeks later, the preface had a familiar ring: “We, the people of the Kingdom of God,” it began. The Mormon constitution sacralized political governance. It declared that no government “acknowledge[d] the creator of the Universe as their Priest, Lawgiver, King and Sovereign, neither have they sought unto him for laws by which to govern themselves,” nor did they “grant that protection to the persons and rights of man.” After a lengthy preface, the first article declared God the ruler of heaven and earth, the second articulated God’s prophet as His mouthpiece in governance, and the third dictated that God would retain the “power to appoint Judges and officers in my kingdom.” While the document was still incomplete, its message was clear: Sovereignty was based in God’s law, authority was vested in God’s prophet, and citizens’ rights were tethered to subscribing to God’s will. Yet even this draft was too static to capture heavenly commandments: A week later Smith recorded a revelation declaring that the entire council was “my constitution, and I am your God, and ye are my spokesmen.” Divine law was too sacred to be formalized on paper, but rather must be dictated through authorized servants.

Mormons couched these theocratic proposals in democratic language. Smith declared that the council’s “political title,” which he believed to be its motto, was “Jeffersonianism” and “Jeffersonian Democracy,” meaning that Smith believed their theocratic principles fit within America’s democratic tradition. Yet he revised the definition of democracy in a way that incorporated theocracy, calling it “theodemocracy,” a neologism that captured his blended purpose. Individuals still had liberty, but that liberty merely enabled them to follow divine counsel. Perhaps most radical was Joseph Smith’s own role within this divine kingdom: One month after the council’s inauguration, it was moved “that this honorable assembly receive from this time henceforth and forever, Joseph Smith, as our Prophet, Priest & King, and uphold him in that capacity in which God has anointed him.” The vote was unanimous.

These actions may seem extreme to contemporary ears. And indeed, they were quite unique and radical in their day. Yet the tensions and anxieties that underwrote these activities drew from much broader cultural currents. The very concept of a “Kingdom of God” came directly from the Bible, and though American Protestants had mostly forfeited the political language of divine monarchy in favor of republican discourse, Christians had long maintained the supremacy of divine laws. And though fervent faith in democracy has become an American mainstay, the validity and reliability of democratic order was severely questioned during the mid-nineteenth century. European nations during this period typically became more hierarchical, not less. The Anglican Church in Britain and the Catholic in Church in France, still reacting to the revolutionary tumults decades before, rallied behind conservative reform movements to curtail enthusiasm. In 1870, less than two decades after Smith was named “prophet, priest, and king,” the First Vatican Council formalized papal infallibility and declared the supremacy of their leader’s words over the relativism and division in the world at large. The common man was deemed too untrustworthy to empower.

Even in America, feelings toward democracy were often ambiguous. A few decades earlier, New England Federalist Fisher Ames bemoaned “the mire of democracy” which “pollutes the morals of citizens before it swallows up their liberties.” Religious ministers drew from the fear and doubt that permeated political culture in order to bolster their own authority. As the early Republic turned into the Age of Jackson, and as suffrage was extended only to white men, the anxiety still remained, especially for those on the margins of society. Proponents of abolition and women’s rights argued that democracy’s “excesses” led to a perversion of natural rights and the necessity for a stronger federal structure. The abolitionist Garrison burned the American Constitution in a public demonstration of the nation’s failed covenant. In the religious world, many turned to ecclesiastical forms that strengthened modes of obedience and curtailed disorder. Ministers during the Second Great Awakening, for instance, spoke to the downtrodden segments of society who had been left behind. Democratic governance threatened perpetual chaos, and religion provided one avenue to stabilize society.

AT THE CENTER OF the Mormon critique of American democratic governance, especially after the death of their beloved prophet, was their belief that the nation was neither strong enough or willing enough to protect minority groups. In this the Mormons believed they would find an unlikely ally: the indigenous populations who had been forced into Western territories. Indeed, some observers proposed the same solution for both Native and Mormon populations. One non-Mormon neighbor in Illinois wrote a letter to Mormon leaders, which was then discussed in the council, that suggested the federal government should establish a “Mormon reserve” in Wisconsin Territory in order to separate members of the faith, just as they had done with Indians. Such a proposal was predicated on the belief that it was impossible for groups with such dissimilar interests to live together. Though Mormons were reticent to forfeit the rights of white Americans, they sympathized with the concept of separate spheres. Council of Fifty member Orson Spencer, in endorsing the reservation idea, argued “that men of congenial religions or other interests, should separate themselves from those of adverse faith & interests and pair off, each to each.” Spencer believed the “promiscuous intermixture of heterogenous [sic] bodies for the purpose of unity & strength is alike distant both from pure religion & sound philosophy.” America’s democratic society was not equipped to manage disparate groups.

But more than seeing Native Americans as fellow victims of American injustice, Mormons also saw them as militant colleagues. Once Brigham Young was in charge, the council worked feverishly to devise a plan to join with Native tribes in bringing vengeance to the American nation that had wronged them. They naively assumed that large numbers of indigenous leaders would swiftly accept their message of redemption, unify into one body led by Young and the Council of Fifty, and then establish a “standard of liberty”—a theocratic empire ruled by the government of God. “Our object,” noted George Miller, is not just “to unite all the Indian tribes from north to south and west to the Pacific Ocean in one body,” but to also “include ourselves in that number.” One councilman, Reynolds Cahoon, envisioned scrawling “liberty” on “an old squaws blanket on a kite tail” that they would then raise as a banner of war and force their oppressors to “flee.” Though this paternalistic vision was predicated upon the extermination of Native society and mirrored the very cultural colonialism that they themselves decried, the Mormons believed this interracial union would overturn years of oppression.

The Comanche, Cherokee, and Choctaw Indians, all of whom were targeted by the Mormons for this newfound union, were unsurprisingly not as interested in such an alliance. While denouncing an American nation that they felt overlooked their own interests, Mormons dismissed the interests of these tribes. But the determination to base a government on shared interests was a common refrain in antebellum politics. Only a decade earlier, South Carolinian proponents of nullification like Robert James Turnbull argued that “the interests” of some groups within the nation were “diametrically opposed” to others, and as a result the democratic system was crumbling. John C. Calhoun believed that the “diversity of interests in the several classes and sections of the country” put many minority groups (in his mind: slavemasters) at risk. In response, northern abolitionists, like Theodore Parker, argued that the constitution was designed to try to protect the “interests” of enslaved people and that it was time to take violent action. Everywhere Americans turned, they witnessed political debates that sought to prioritize the interests of one group of citizens over others. So when Mormon councilman Lyman Wight declared that the only “government worth asking for” is one drawn “from those whose interests are identified with ours,” his inclination was far from the margins.

The Council of Fifty’s meetings increasingly focused on westward migration throughout 1845. Facing escalating pressure from their Illinois neighbors, the Mormons were forced to consider cutting the cord on their American experiment earlier than expected. Democracy had failed them in the United States and they now set their sights on Mexican territory—and what would eventually become Utah after the Mexican-American War the following year—where they could finally establish God’s true kingdom. The Council of Fifty played a central role in organizing this exodus, but it met only infrequently once the church was settled in Utah when new territorial and ecclesiastical organizations obtained more control. The council never met as often or with as much authority after Nauvoo. But for their two-year heyday, they were an especially poignant embodiment of America’s democratic paradox. At one of their final gatherings before the trek west, the council decided to publish a definitive account of the nation’s mistreatment of the beleaguered saints. The proposed title satirically struck at the irony of their situation: “The Beauties of American Liberty: The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave, the Assylum for the Opprest.” They wished to highlight the disparity between the nation’s ideals and realities. Though no doubt ignorant of the fact, and obviously without equal validity, the tenor of their accusations mimicked the powerful accusation of Frederick Douglass three years earlier: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

These tensions at the heart of a democratic culture had already been identified and dissected by its greatest critic, Alexis de Tocqueville. “The moral empire of the majority,” he wrote in Democracy in America, “is also founded on the principle that the interests of the greatest number ought to be preferred to those of the few.” This was the threat of what he called the “omnipotence of the majority,” and the consequences of this culture could be “dire” and “dangerous” for those on the margins of society. We are still struggling with that tenuous battle in our increasingly pluralist society today, and the past contests give context to continued anxieties. Even as the nation has progressed in providing rights to previously marginalized communities like LGBT Americans, the presidential nominee for one of our two major political parties has based his campaign upon the ostracizing and disenfranchising of minority groups. Recent protests aimed to remind our culture that #BlackLivesMatter are testaments to the limited nature of American justice and liberty. The Mormon experience in the 1830s and 1840s demonstrates that the radical extensions of the majority’s rule has a significant and sobering context, and the Council of Fifty presented only one radical response. In an irony befitting for our national history, Joseph Smith’s theocratic vision proved to be an important moment in America’s democratic experiment.

Benjamin E. Park is an assistant professor of history at Sam Houston State University. He is currently working on a book manuscript that explores Mormon Nauvoo as a moment of Democratic crisis. Follow him @BenjaminEPark.

*These sentences have been updated to correct the first name of William Clayton and the month of Joseph Smith’s death.
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

Postby admin » Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:43 pm

Coming to Zion
by William G. Hartley
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
LDS.org
Accessed: 7/18/18

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YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


The old folks -- embraced the new faith immediately, and prepared for removal to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the nucleus of the new church, the "Zion" given by revelation to Joseph Smith as the gathering-place of the Saints....

Notwithstanding all that had taken place in Missouri, some of the more enthusiastic Saints believed that it was the promised land, and that some time they should come in and possess it. Indeed, that belief has prevailed among some of the older Mormons until within a very short time. Brigham has preached it and promised it; but now he says very little about it, and when he does he is wise to add, "if the Lord shall will it so." The present indications are, that the Lord will not "will it so," and all the Saints have contentedly accepted Utah as "Zion," in the face of "revelation." ...

Missionaries were sent to Europe, and converts flocked from thence to Zion. Never were missions crowned with greater success than those that were established in Europe by the Mormon Church. The elders went first to England, from there to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, France, and they even attempted Italy, but with so little success that the mission there was speedily abandoned. Indeed, the southern countries of Europe did not seem to have taken kindly to the new doctrine of the Saints, and evinced but slight interest in the establishment of a "spiritual kingdom on the earth," and paid no heed whatever to Joseph's revelations. But hundreds of converts were made among the English and Scandinavian people, and they all evinced a strong desire to "gather to Zion," and considered no sacrifice too great to be made to facilitate their emigration....

The first public announcement Joseph ever made of his belief in the plurality of wives was at Nauvoo, in 1840. In a sermon one Sunday he declared that it was perfectly right in the sight of the Lord for a man to have as many wives as he pleased, if he could evade the laws of the land. Said he: "People of polygamous nations will be converted to the church, and will desire to, gather with the Saints to Zion; and what will they do with their wives? We must have polygamy among us as an established institution, and then they can bring all their wives, with, them." ....

After three years of remunerative labor, during which time he had got his business fairly established, he concluded to leave it and join the Saints at Nauvoo; he and my mother both -- the latter more especially -- desiring to be once more in Zion with the "chosen people."...

How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion
Shall lie down together without any ire,
And Ephraim be crowned with his blessing in Zion,
As Jesus descends with his chariots of fire.
We'll sing and we'll shout, with the armies of heaven:
Hosanna! hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
For ever and ever. Amen and Amen."...

It is a significant fact that most of the persons who thus perished were Gentiles, apostates, or people who, for some reason or other, were suspected by, or disagreeable to, Brigham Young; and it came presently to be noticed that if anyone became tired of Mormonism, or impatient of the increasing despotism of the leader, and returned to the East, or started to do so, he invariably was met by the Indians and killed before he had gone very far. The effect was to discourage apostasy, and there was no one but knew that the moment he announced his intention of leaving Zion and returning to "Babylon," he pronounced his death sentence....

[A]ny one who displeased the Prophet was "sent on a mission" as a punishment. Did the polygamous Prophet fancy a man's wife, he was sent to the farthest possible point from Zion, to "enlist" souls for the Mormon Church....

Seventy-five families were ordered to abandon their homes, and take their departure for a new and almost unknown portion of the Territory [Las Vegas]. They expended thousands of dollars in building, fencing, and every way beautifying and improving their new homes; and just as they were getting nicely settled, and had made their new homes habitable and comfortable, the Prophet pronounced it an utterly unsuitable place for a "Stake of Zion," and ordered them all back again; so that the years passed there, and all the expenditures, were a total loss....

The United States government was beginning to trouble itself a little about Utah; and in order to make the church as strong as possible, in case of an invasion, Brigham was anxious to increase the number of emigrants, and requested Apostle Richards to send as many as he possibly could. To do this, the elders counselled all the emigrants, who had more money than they needed, to deposit it with the Apostle Richards for the purpose of assisting the poor to Zion. The call was instantly and gladly obeyed, and the number of Saints bound Zion-ward was thereby nearly doubled. In the face of the disaster which attended it, it has been the boast of some of the missionaries and elders that this was the largest number that ever was sent over at one time. So much greater, then, is the weight of responsibility which rests upon the souls of those who originated and carried out this selfish design, made more selfish, more cruel, and more terribly culpable for the hypocrisy and deceit which attended it from its conception to its disastrous close....

When, after a while, the Apostle Taylor's imperative personal business allowed him a moment in which to think of the unhappy emigrants, he started them for Iowa City, where they arrived only to experience a repetition of their New York sufferings, and see another illustration of apostolic neglect. Nothing had been prepared for them either in the way of shanties or tents, and they were compelled to camp in the open air, their only roof a sky that was not always blue. While in camp, there were several very severe rain-storms, from which, as they had no shelter, there was no escape; they got completely drenched, and this caused a great deal of severe illness among them. They were unprotected alike from burning sun and pitiless, chilling rain, and it is no wonder that fevers and dysentery prevailed, and that hundreds of longing eyes closed in death before they beheld the Zion of their hopes. It would have been strange if the faith of some had not wavered then; yet none dared complain. There was nothing to do but to go on to the end. They were thousands of miles from home, with no means of returning, and they were taught, too, that it would be a curse upon them to turn their backs on Zion. So there they remained through the long summer days, waiting helplessly until they should be ordered to move onward....

When the relief train reached Captain Willie's company, they were camped on the Sweetwater, near the Rocky Ridges. They had eaten their last provisions, and death was staring them pitilessly in the face. The camp was filled with dead and dying. There was no help for the latter, and the poor souls had lost all desire to live. They were waiting, with almost apathetic indifference, for release, while those dearest to them were doubly agonized because they must see the loved ones perish, and they were helpless even to bring comforts to them, or make life easier while it lasted. Those who were strong enough, dug one large grave in which all the dead were laid together. It was the best they could do; but their hands were no less tender and loving, their hearts no less sore, than if the last rites had been as imposing as those of royalty itself. The only thing they could do to prepare their dear ones for the grave was to close the eyes, the loving eyes that, to the very last, had turned longingly Zion-ward; to fold the pulseless hands over the silent hearts that, through all the hardships and toil, had kept their trust firm and their faith bright; to straighten out the tired feet that, bleeding and sore, had yet toiled joyfully along the rugged path that led to the fair Canaan of their dreams; to smooth the tangled hair away from haggard faces, where the lines of care lay heavily, and yet through which the light of peace divine shone serene and pure; to arrange as decently as possible the tattered garments, which were their only clothing for the tomb, and to lay them, coffinless, in their cold bed in the Rocky Mountains, in their last, long sleep; then to go away and leave them there, with the relentless winter storms beating upon them, and no stone to mark their resting-place. The road from Winter-Quarters to Salt Lake was a via dolorosa indeed....

Among the emigrants was a very wealthy gentleman of the name of Tennant. He and his wife were among the early converts, and were very earnest Mormons. They had for a long time been resolved to come to Zion, and when the Hand-Cart scheme was introduced they decided to join that company. Humble followers of Christ, they thought they could in no better way show their love for Him and their devotion to their religion, than by such an act of self-sacrifice as this. Possessed of ample means to have crossed the ocean and travelled in the most comfortable and even luxurious manner, they nevertheless chose to go in this way, with the poorest of the Saints, and share with them all the hardships and dangers which should attend this toilsome, perilous journey.

Mr. Tennant gave liberally to the emigration fund, in order that as many poor Saints as possible might make the long-anticipated pilgrimage to Zion, and both himself and his wife provided liberally for the comfort of their poor fellow-travellers. A short time before the emigrant company left England, the Apostle Richards, in one of his eloquent dissertations on the "plan" and its divine origin, said that in order to assist the poor to emigrate, President Young had given to the Emigration Fund Society an estate in Salt Lake City, to be sold for its benefit. He dilated largely upon the disinterested generosity of the Prophet, and his desire that as many as possible of his faithful followers should be gathered to Zion during that season. Fired by this act of extreme kindness on the part of his revered leader in the church, Mr. Tennant at once bought the property, and paid, it is said, thirty thousand dollars down for it. There is little need, perhaps, of saying that that was immensely more than its real value; but that fact its purchaser was not aware of, as it was glorified by all the apostolic eloquence bestowed upon it, quite beyond recognition.

On the voyage and during the journey across the States, and the tiresome waiting time at Iowa City, no one was more beloved than Mr. Tennant and his gentle, estimable wife. Sharing alike with the poorer Saints, no word of complaint ever passed their lips. They never for a moment seemed to regret their decision to emigrate at this particular time, but accepted every fresh hardship as a trial to their faith, sent by God Himself to test them, and prove their worthiness to enter His glorious kingdom on earth. They moved among their companions with kindly faces and words of cheer and comfort. They encouraged endurance by their example, and made the forced discomforts of some of the party seem easier to bear by their voluntary assumption of them. As far as they could they alleviated the distress which prevailed, and were always ready to perform any deeds of kindness.

The journey with the hand-carts was doubly hard for them, unused as they were to exertion; and day after day the wife saw the husband slowly succumbing to fatigue and disease, and she powerless to assist him. But, though his strength waned and his health failed him, yet his courage and his faith remained steadfast and fixed. Whatever came he believed would surely be right, and though he struggled manfully to keep up until he should reach Zion, yet he was overcome, and died at O'Fallon's Bluffs, literally of exhaustion. His last thought was for his sorrowing wife, and his last word was of comfort and consolation to her. He had one thought to make the parting easier -- he had provided a home for her in Zion; Brother Brigham held it in trust for her, and she would find the comforts to which she was used, and rest and peace in the Valley with the chosen people.

The bereaved wife clung wildly to her husband's remains, with the most heart-broken lamentations. To have him die was a misery in itself; but to see the slow, cruel torture which he underwent, and to watch him slowly dying such a horrible death, was almost unbearable. For a time it seemed almost as though she must be left there with him; that her soul would follow his. Happier would it have been for her had that fate been hers. The cold earth and pitiless winter storms would not be so cold and so pitiless as the world was to her, after this loving protecting arm was taken from her. A woman, unused to toil and hardship, nurtured in luxury, reared in tenderness and love, she was left alone to battle single-handed with the world. And such a world! whose ruling passion was avarice, and whose delight was another's torture; the world of Mormon Sainthood — ruled over by a grasping, lecherous, heartless tyrant, who laughed at a woman's sorrows and flouted at her wrongs. I think if she had known all that was to follow, she would have lain down on the plain by the side of her dead husband, and endured the torture of a horrible, slow death, rather than have gone on to the years of suffering which lay before her.

It is fortunate, indeed, that the future is so closely veiled to us; else we should all lose heart and courage in this unequal struggle called life, and lay down our weapons, convinced that it is of no use to struggle longer. Providence deals wisely with us, after all, and we are forced to admit it at every step of our lives.

The hurried funeral rites were over, and the man who had been so great a benefactor to the people among whom he had cast his lot, was left sleeping his last sleep in a strange land, and the sorrowing party resumed their weary way, saddened by this affliction. On the arrival at Salt Lake Mrs. Tennant at once proceeded to look after her property. The "magnificent estate" for which her husband had paid so fabulous a price, was a small wooden house, inconvenient and out of repair, and worth not a tenth part of what had been paid for it.

She was shocked and troubled at what seemed such a piece of swindling on the part of the President and the church authorities, although at first she was inclined to exonerate Brigham Young and blame Apostle Richards for misrepresentation; but an audience with Brigham soon convinced her that he was at the bottom of the whole affair, and she felt bitterly enough towards the man who, under the guise of religious benevolence, would be guilty of such a piece of trickery. Even this poor shelter was not left her very long. The place, and, indeed, most of the valuable things which her husband had sent to make their home in Zion more comfortable, were taken for tithing and on other pretences, and in a very few months this woman was compelled to go out to daily labor to earn her bread, her rightful property going to fill the already overflowing coffers of the "Prophet of the Lord." Indeed, the entire Hand-Cart expedition was a good speculation for the President, and helped replenish the prophetic pocket....

After Howard was well out of the way (in England, I think), Brigham started the distillery again in the "church's" interest, which, as he represents the church, meant himself. And over the door he placed as a sign the All-seeing eye, with the inscription, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD. ZION'S CO-OPERATIVE MERCANTILE INSTITUTION. WHOLESALE LIQUOR-DEALERS AND RECTIFIERS."...

He [Brigham Young] is met outside of every settlement which he visits by a company of cavalry; and a little farther on, just outside the entrance to the town, he is met by another procession,— sometimes of the children alone, but oftener, in the large settlements, where they are ambitious to "do the thing up in shape," of the entire population who are able to turn out, men, women, and children, headed by a brass band, all ranged along to give greeting to the Prophet. They are arranged in different sections, each section having its appropriate banner. The elderly and middle-aged men are all together under the banner "Fathers in Israel." The women of the same ages are ranged under their banner, Mothers in Israel." The young men are proud enough of the inscription which theirs carries, "Defenders of Zion;" and the young girls are fresh and lovely under their banner, "The Daughters of Zion, —Virtue;" while the little wee bits, that are placed last of all, are "The Hope of Israel." Other banners bear the inscriptions, "Hail to the Prophet;" "Welcome to our President;" "God bless Brigham Young;" "The Lion of the Lord;" and others of a similar nature are seen along the line of the procession....

He is as eloquent now, when talking on the subject of giving, with this exception in his style of address, that he now demands instead of asks, and it is disastrous to refuse him. He begs for the missionaries, and the poor men never get a cent of the thousands of dollars that are raised for them. He begs for the Temple, which is his pet subject, whenever there is nothing else to beg for, and the amount of money which he has raised for the building ought to have erected several very imposing edifices.

Many years ago he levied contributions upon the English Saints for the purchase of glass for the Temple windows. The sum desired must be collected at once. The Lord was soon coming to enter upon his earthly kingdom, and the place must be prepared for him. Missionaries preached, and laymen exhorted; they astonished even themselves by their eloquence, as they dwelt upon the beauty of Zion, the city of the Lord, and the glory that was to descend upon his chosen people. Those who were not moved by their oratory were impelled by their command; but, for the most part, the money was given voluntarily. Working men and women took a few pennies from their scant wages, and gave them with wonderful readiness, and then suffered from cold and absolute hunger for days after. But they suffered with painful joyousness and devotion, since they were giving it to the Lord, who had chosen them out of all the world for his very own people, and who would make their self-denials here redound to their glory and grace when at last they should arrive in his presence.

At that time, the foundation walls of the Temple were barely above the ground, and the work has progressed very slowly since. At any rate, the glass has not been bought, and there seems very little probability of window material being needed at present; and if the Lord is not to visit the Saints until his home is completed, even the younger members of the present generation will not be likely to see Him....

Brigham is shrewd enough to see that "revelation" is not one of his strong points, and he rarely attempts it; less frequently now than formerly, even. The catch-words, "Thus saith the Lord," are not nearly so potent as they were before the Saints came so much in contact with the Gentile world, and unconsciously lost some of their superstition. They do not openly laugh at Brigham's prophecies, but a few of the more honest and far-seeing venture to criticise him very quietly, although they submit to his rule, and are seemingly as good Saints as ever. They are not ready to apostatize; their interests and associations bind them to the church, and they do not wish to leave it. Some cling to it, like George Q. Cannon, through ambition; for that young apostle dares to cast his eyes toward Brigham's position, and has expressed the belief that he might ultimately succeed him. Others, like Orson Pratt, are so closely identified with it, that they cannot and would not cut themselves adrift from it. The church is their life, and they will only leave one when they are compelled to give up the other. Another class, to which Brigham's sons notably belong, stay because their pecuniary interests demand it. It "pays" to be a Mormon. But when once the present ruler is taken, they will have nothing to hold them, and they will do openly what they have long since done in their hearts, repudiate Mormonism, and all its superstitions and practices. And I am morally certain that the first one to take advantage of his newly-obtained liberty will be John W. Young, who is even now known as "the Prophet's Apostate Son," and who yet, in spite of his apostasy, holds the position of "President of the Salt Lake State of Zion," with the rank of bishop.

-- Wife No. 19, the Story of a Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy, by Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's Apostate Wife


More than 80,000 converts came from Europe between 1840 and 1900 in what one historian called “the largest and most successful group immigration in United States history.”1 In addition, other thousands in this century have come on their own from all over the world to make their homes among the Saints.

During the 19th century, “gathering” to Zion was the second step after conversion. The phrase comes from a revelation given shortly after the Church was organized in 1830 to New York members:

“Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice. …

“Wherefore the decree hath gone forth from the Father that they shall be gathered in unto one place upon the face of this land.” (D&C 29:7–8.)

At Kirtland five years later, Joseph Smith received from Moses “the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth.” (D&C 110:11.)

Converts first gathered from the United States and Canada, following Church headquarters successively from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois. To Nauvoo in 1840 came the first overseas converts from the newly opened mission field in England, and six years later nearly 4,000 British immigrants were part of the Latter-day Saint exodus from Illinois. Once relocated in the far west, the Church encouraged and assisted large-scale immigration.

The gathering had two major purposes. First, Zion needed to be built up. Repeatedly persecuted and driven, the Church needed a strong, permanent base with a strong population to occupy the territory and make it economically self-sufficient. Also, the pure in heart needed a place of refuge from persecution and sin. “Zion,” however, could not be equated with an easy life. As a contemporary hymn taught:

“Think not when you gather to Zion,
Your troubles and trials are through,
That nothing but comfort and pleasure
Are waiting in Zion for you:
No, no, ‘tis designed as a furnace,
All substance, all textures to try,
To burn all the ‘wood, hay, and stubble,’
The gold from the dross purify.”
(Hymns, no. 21)


By 1847, a decade after missionaries first preached the gospel in England, 250 branches and 30,000 members functioned there, more members than there were in the Salt Lake Valley. Within another decade thousands of converts joined the Church throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia after 1850, and the spirit of gathering also touched Utah Saints to assist those who desired to come.

Of central importance was the Perpetual Emigration Fund, sometimes called the “Poor Fund.” Established at first to help Nauvoo exiles move to Utah, it became a revolving fund raised in Utah and Europe by donations of money and goods to finance part or all of the immigrants’ journey. “We expect,” wrote Brigham Young in 1849, “that all who are benefited by its [Fund] operations will be willing to reimburse that amount as soon as they are able.”2 Such repayments would fund the next immigrants.

Due to fund limitations, leaders usually selected those on whose behalf Utah relatives had made donations, converts with needed skills, or converts of ten years or more. Peak usage of P.E.F. funds and equipment came in the mid-1850s when one out of every three immigrants was fully subsidized by the Church. Although the loan monies were exhausted by 1857, the P.E.F. Company continued to provide purchasing and organizational benefits until it was dissolved by Congress in 1887.

Thousands found other means to finance their migrations. Many received help from relatives and friends. Anders Eliason, a well-to-do Swedish landowner, helped send 100 immigrants. Others made the journey to Zion in two laps, stopping along the way to earn money. Also, Utah settlements and European branches raised special immigration funds; Utah contributed $70,000 in 1868. Despite Church programs and donations, however, many Saints had to wait—sometimes 15 to 25 years—before finding means to gather to Zion.

U.S. historian H. H. Bancroft stresses the difficulty of reaching pre-railroad Utah: “Excepting perhaps some parts of Soudan,” he wrote, “there were … few places in the world more difficult to reach than the valley of the Great Salt Lake.”3 For immigrants, the journey across ocean, plains, and mountains totaled 5,000 miles. But thanks to Church organizational skills and resources, most immigrants avoided many hardships and mistakes that usually plagued inexperienced travelers.

Liverpool, England, served as departure point for Latter-day Saint British and European immigrants (75 percent of whom traveled as families—unlike general European immigration). There, Church agents chartered ships, in whole or part, for the long Atlantic voyage and purchased tinware, wagon cover and tent materials, and other necessary provisions. Once aboard ship, the immigrant companies, ranging in size from a dozen to 800 souls, were organized into wards. Eight hundred emigrants aboard the William Tapscott in 1862, for example, were divided into 19 wards. Often, nationality wards were formed: the Nevada in 1872 had one British and six Scandinavian wards. The 700 Saints aboard the S.S. Wisconsin in 1877 spoke eight languages among them.4 Supervising the Latter-day Saint companies were presiding elders, experienced travelers who were typically missionaries returning to Utah.

The Saints employed their time sewing together tent and wagon covers, teaching schools for children and adults—English classes were popular for continental Saints—and hearing lectures on such subjects as astronomy and agricultural improvements. Although most voyages produced a marriage or two, aboard the William Tapscott in 1849 there were 19: five English, one Swiss, and 13 Scandinavian.

Church meetings kept the spirits up. Sabbath and weeknight meetings frequently attracted nonmember passengers and crewmen, resulting in some interesting baptisms in barrels or over the side from platforms.5

Until 1854, the ships docked at New Orleans where Latter-day Saint immigration agents helped the travelers book passage on steamboats that took them upriver to St. Louis, Missouri. From there Church wagons transported the foreigners to outfitting points in Iowa and Missouri. After 1854, to avoid river diseases, Latter-day Saint companies from Liverpool docked at Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, where Church agents arranged for railroads to take the immigrants to frontier outfitting points. Following the Civil War, steamships cut the trans-Atlantic crossing time to ten days from five or six weeks for a sailing ship.

At outfitting camps on the plains, the travelers found their teams, purchased by Church agents, ready to receive them and their luggage. Often ten people shared one wagon and one tent. The wagons—the covers of which, like the tents, were sewn of English twilled cotton en route at sea—came supplied with flour, sugar, bacon, dried fruit, and other necessities.

Compared to other plains traffic, Latter-day Saint wagon companies generally were larger than outfits heading for California or Oregon; for many of these inexperienced travelers, plains travel was a rapid learning experience. For example, one group of Scandinavian Saints tried to use Danish harnesses instead of the recommended American yokes, but “No sooner were these placed on the animals than they, frightened half to death, struck out in a wild run. … Crossing ditches and gulches in their frenzy, parts of the wagons were strewn by the way side.”6

The Church tried to reduce the expense of wagon trains with conveyances such as handcarts; between 1856 and 1860 3,000 Saints came to Utah in ten handcart companies. Then, during the 1860s Church team trains, consisting of mules, wagons, drivers, and supplies requisitioned from wards and stakes, made round trips from Utah to bring the immigrants to Zion during summer months. After Union Pacific tracks reached Ogden in 1869, rail travel replaced Church-sponsored transportation schemes for crossing the plains. To allow immigrant companies to travel together on westbound trains, Latter-day Saint agents at eastern ports reserved train coaches whenever possible.

Finally reaching Salt Lake City by wagon, handcart, team train, or railroad, travel-weary European Saints gladly accepted local aid in establishing new homes. Frequently Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter or President Young personally greeted newcomers as part of official Church welcoming ceremonies. Valley Saints provided temporary food and shelter while Church leaders offered religious counsel and recommended various settlement possibilities. Friends and relatives helped some immigrants relocate, while others camped in the Salt Lake area for a time, many finding temporary employment on Church public works projects. Bishops, instructed to locate land and jobs in their wards for the new arrivals, provided important assistance as this description in the 1860s demonstrates:

“An emigrant train had just come in, and the bishops had to put six hundred persons in the way of growing their cabbages and building their homes. One bishop said he could take five bricklayers, another two carpenters, a third a tinman, a fourth seven or eight farm-servants, and so on through the whole bunch. In a few minutes I saw that two hundred of these poor emigrants had been placed in the way of earning their daily bread.”7

The trek across sea, plain, and mountains took faith, beginning with leaving homes, employment, and sometimes unconverted family members behind. Along the way hardly an immigrant company escaped illness or death, particularly among older people and children. For example, 21 children and two adults succumbed to measles aboard the Clara Wheeler in 1854. That same year cholera struck down hundreds of Saints on the plains, including 200 Scandinavians. Two years earlier a tragic explosion aboard the Mississippi steamboat Saluda killed a score of Saints. Early snows killed hundreds in the handcart tragedy of 1856. Travel rigors and weak faith produced some dropouts along the way, while others became disillusioned upon reaching Zion, and “back-trailed” to the States or Europe.

During the last half of the nineteenth century, federal census takers noted increasingly larger numbers of the foreign-born living in the Utah Territory. The largest block was British-born, totaling perhaps 50,000 immigrants by 1900 from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Language, except to the Welsh, was no barrier to assimilation; although unfamiliar customs, attitudes, geography, and economics caused other problems. Most British immigrants, coming from towns numbering at least 2,500 inhabitants, lacked agricultural experience and many had to become farmers when there was no way to use their urban skills.8

By contrast, Scandinavians—with Danes accounting for more than half the 20,000 reaching Utah by 1900—included a high percentage of farmers who fit well into Utah’s agrarian economy. Language differences created nationality settlements, so that Icelanders, for instance, clustered in Spanish Fork and Danes in Sanpete County. Similar enclaves were established by German, Swiss, Dutch, and French immigrants, 6,000 of whom had settled in Utah by the turn of the century.

In 1870, one of every three Utah residents was foreign-born, a higher percentage than found in any states or territories of the Union. A third of Salt Lake Stake’s 20 bishops in 1876 were foreign-born, while two of the stake presidents had come from England and the other was born in Scotland. From 1874 to 1931 the First Presidency always included at least one member born outside the United States, and over 30 members of the General Authorities are or have been foreign-born.

Year / Total Population / Foreign-born

1850 / 11,380 / 1,990

1860 / 40,273 / 12,754

1870 / 86,786 / 20,702

1880 / 143,963 / 43,994

1890 / 207,905 / 53,064

1900 / 276,749 / 53,777


Nineteenth-century persecutors of the Church resented the annual arrivals of foreign converts. An 1881 Harper’s article denounced the Church for consisting of “foreigners and the children of foreigners. … It is an institution so absolutely un-American in all its requirements that it would die of its own infamies within twenty years, except for the yearly infusion of fresh serf blood from abroad.”9

Yet this so-called “un-American” Church vigorously encouraged the “Americanization” of immigrants. Brigham Young instructed newcomers to first learn to make a living, then, “the next duty, for those who, being Danes, French, and Swiss, cannot speak it now—is to learn English; … the language of the [translated] Book of Mormon, the language of these Latter Days.”10

To ensure legal title to property and to protect the Latter-day Saint vote, immigrants were repeatedly admonished to take out citizenship papers, and a high percentage did.

By the turn of the century the Church ceased encouraging immigration of foreign converts. Mormon settlements, it was felt, no longer could support and absorb large numbers of newcomers. Further, emigration, by sapping overseas branches of strength, hampered proselyting efforts. European Saints therefore were requested to “stay and build up the work abroad,” a policy still in effect.11

On a much more modest scale, individuals still migrate to the United States without Church encouragement or assistance. Nearly 1,400 Swedes, for example, came to America between 1905 and 1955. Many California stakes have welcomed clusters of Latter-day Saint Polynesians, while numerous Latin American Saints now live in southwestern states from California to Texas. Individual converts in Japan and the Far East likewise have become United States residents. Following both World Wars thousands of European Saints found new homes in Utah—one thousand from Holland alone between 1945–1950. But the tide has turned—the Church officers now urge members to stay in the area where their language and customs can help build the Church abroad.

In our own generation an amazing international spread of Mormonism is occurring. Since 1960 approximately 100 non-United States stakes have been created, and stakes now are found on every continent of the world. Such current Church strength, however, is due in no small measure to faithful converts who, since 1840, left homes and families to build up a United States base from which the international Church of today could prosper.

_______________

Notes

1. Maldwyn A. Jones, American Immigration, Chicago, 1960, p. 126.

2. Andrew Jenson, “Church Emigration,” Contributor, 13 (December 1891), p. 82.

3. Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah, San Francisco, The History Company, 1889, p. 418.

4. Deseret News, 18 July 1877, p. 1.

5. Jenson, p. 345.

6. Jenson, p. 459.

7. William H. Dixon, New America, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1867, 1:252–253.

8. The best one-volume study of British Latter-day Saint emigration is P. A. M. Taylor, Expectations Westward: The Mormons and the Emigration of Their British Converts in the Nineteenth Century, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1966.

9. William Mulder, Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1957, p. 275.

10. Dixon, 1:210.

11. Millennial Star, 69 (23 May 1907), p. 329.

William G. Hartley, historical associate in the Church Historical Department, serves as counselor in the Salt Lake Granger North Stake fifth quorum of elders.
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Re: Mormonism in The New Germany, by Dale Clark

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Elder (Latter Day Saints)
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This article uncritically uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them. Please help improve this article by adding references to reliable secondary sources, with multiple points of view. (December 2010)

Elder is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Office of the Melchizedek Priesthood

In the LDS Church, "elder" is considered the introductory—or lowest—of five offices of the Melchizedek priesthood. Every person who receives the Melchizedek priesthood is simultaneously ordained to the office of elder; this may be done to male members who are at least 18 years old. In order to be ordained, the member must be determined to be worthy by his local bishop and stake president.[1] The consent of the priesthood holders of the stake is also required before the ordination is performed, and this is usually done at a semiannual stake conference or an annual general stake priesthood meeting.[1] Ordination is accomplished by the laying on of hands and with the stake president's approval, may be performed by any holder of the Melchizedek priesthood.

Responsibilities of an elder

According to the LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants, the duty of an elder is to "teach, expound, exhort, baptize, and watch over the church."[2] Elders have the authority to administer to and bless the sick and afflicted, to "confirm those who are baptized into the church, by the laying on of hands for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost",[3] to baptize and give others the Aaronic or Melchizedek priesthoods as directed by priesthood leaders, and to take the lead in all meetings as guided by the Holy Spirit.[4] An elder may ordain others to the priesthood offices of deacon, teacher, priest, or elder.

In practice, elders may be responsible for many of the day-to-day operations of a ward. They are called to serve in a variety of positions throughout the ward, such as Aaronic priesthood quorum advisors, Young Men leaders, scout leaders, ward mission leader, and Sunday School leadership. Elders and high priests (assisted by teachers and priests) are also responsible for ministering opportunities to serve the needs of assigned respective households in the ward.

Organizational Structure

Elders are organized into quorums that may contain no more than 96 elders. A quorum president, along with two counselors, is called and set apart under the direction of the stake presidency, and generally serves for a number of years. A secretary is also called to assist the president and his counselors.

All adult men in the ward who are not presently serving in callings that require the ordination of high priest are assigned to the elders quorum.

The Title of Elder

The title "Elder" is not normally used as a personal title (e.g., Elder Evans, Elder Johnson), except by the LDS Church's general authorities, area seventies, and full-time male missionaries. Often, full-time missionaries serving within a ward are referred to by the members as "the elders."

References

"Ordinance and Blessing Policies", Handbook 1: Stake Presidents and Bishops (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church, 2010) § 16.
Doctrine and Covenants, section 20:42
Doctrine and Covenants, section 20:41
Doctrine and Covenants, section 46:2
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[Elder] George Reynolds (Mormon)
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Accessed: 7/18/18

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George Reynolds
First Council of the Seventy
April 5, 1890 – August 9, 1909
Personal details
Born January 1, 1842
Marylebone, London, United Kingdom
Died August 9, 1909 (aged 67)
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Resting place Salt Lake City Cemetery
40.777°N 111.858°W
Spouse(s) Mary A. Tuddenham (m. 1865)
Amelia J. Schofield (m. 1874)
Mary Goold (m. 1885)
Children 32
Parents George Reynolds
Julia A. Tautz

George Reynolds (January 1, 1842 – August 9, 1909) was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a longtime secretary to the First Presidency of the LDS Church, and a party to the 1878 United States Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States, the first freedom of religion case to issue from that court.

Early life

Reynolds was born in Marylebone, England to George Reynolds and Julia Ann Tautz. He spent much of his childhood under the care of his maternal grandmother. His grandmother employed a maid, Sarah White, who invited nine-year-old Reynolds to attend a meeting of the LDS Church with her. Reynolds received permission from his grandmother to do so; Reynolds attended a sacrament meeting of the Paddington Branch of the church with White, and almost immediately decided that he wished to become a member of the LDS Church.

However, Reynolds's parents refused to allow him to be baptized a member of the church. Often, he would evade his parents' wishes and attend the Sunday meetings in Paddington. When Reynolds was 14 years old, he attended the Somers Town Branch of the church, where he was unknown, and asked to be received into the church by baptism. Not knowing that Reynolds' parents had forbidden the action, the president of the branch, George Teasdale, baptized him on May 4, 1856; Reynolds was confirmed a member of the church by Teasdale on May 11, 1856.

In December 1856, Reynolds was given the Aaronic priesthood and ordained to the office of deacon. In this capacity, he was responsible for opening the doors to the Sunday meetinghouse for the Somers Town Branch and organizing the seating in preparation for sacrament meeting. In May 1857, at the age of 15, Reynolds was ordained to the office of priest. In this calling, Reynolds engaged in open-air preaching in the streets of London, usually with an adult elder of the church. After Reynolds began street preaching, his parents discovered that he had become a "Mormon".

In August 1860, Reynolds was given the Melchizedek priesthood and ordained to the office of elder. In May 1861, he was called to be a full-time missionary of the church in London. In 1863, Reynolds was reassigned as a missionary to the Liverpool area to work as a clerk for church apostle and mission president George Q. Cannon. When Cannon returned to the United States later that year, Reynolds retained his position as a clerk under the new mission president, apostle and counselor in the First Presidency Daniel H. Wells. As mission clerk, one of Reynolds's primary responsibility was organizing and coordinating the church's efforts to assist European members of the church in emigrating to Utah Territory, where the headquarters of the church were located. While acting as mission clerk, Reynolds was asked to serve as the branch president of the Liverpool Branch of the church.

Life in America

In May 1865, Reynolds was released as a missionary and invited to emigrate to Utah Territory. He traveled to Salt Lake City with fellow elders of the church William S. Godbe and William H. Sherman, arriving on July 5, 1865. On July 22, 1865, mere weeks after his arrival in Utah, Reynolds married his first wife, Mary Ann Tuddenham. Soon afterwards, LDS Church president Brigham Young hired Reynolds as secretary to the First Presidency of the church. Reynolds was ordained to the priesthood office of seventy by Israel Barlow on March 18, 1866.

In February 1869, Reynolds was elected by the legislature of the Utah Territory to be a member of the board of regency of the University of Deseret, which was later renamed the University of Utah. Reynolds was re-elected to this position by the legislature a number of times.

In May 1871, Young asked Reynolds to return to England to assist apostle Albert Carrington in the publication of the Millennial Star, a church newspaper for British Latter-day Saints. Reynolds did so, and in September of that year Carrington was required to return to the United States, leaving Reynolds as the de facto president of the church's European Mission. However, Reynolds was suffering from ill health due to a severe case of smallpox, and when Carrington returned in May 1872, Reynolds was sent home to Utah to recover.


Like many early Latter-day Saints, Reynolds practiced the religious principle of plural marriage. On August 3, 1874, Reynolds married his second wife, Amelia Jane Schofield. At this time, Young continued to employ Reynolds as the secretary to the First Presidency and also appointed him to be the manager of the Salt Lake Theatre. In 1875, Reynolds was elected as a member of the Salt Lake City Council.

Party to polygamy test case

In 1874, strong efforts were being made to prosecute Latter-day Saints who practiced polygamy in violation an 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act. Confident that the law would be declared to be an unconstitutional violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the leaders of the church agreed to furnish a defendant for a test case. Brigham Young asked Reynolds if he would be willing to serve as the test defendant. Reynolds agreed and was indicted for bigamy by a grand jury on June 23, 1874.

Because it was a test case that the church wished to pursue before the United States Supreme Court, Reynolds cooperated with investigators and the trial court, supplying the witnesses and testimony that proved he was married to two women at the same time. Reynolds was found guilty by a jury on April 1, 1875, and was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and a fine of five hundred dollars. On appeal, the indictment was overturned by the Utah Territory's Supreme Court because the grand jury had not been empanelled in compliance with the Poland Act. Thus, for the test case to proceed, Reynolds had to be reindicted and retried.

On October 30, 1875, Reynolds was indicted a second time; he was found guilty of bigamy by a jury on December 9 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment at hard labor and a fine of five hundred dollars. On June 13, 1876, the Utah Supreme Court upheld the conviction. The stage was set for the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.


Reynolds v. United States

Arguments were heard in Reynolds's case before the Supreme Court on November 14, 1878. On January 6, 1879, the Court issued its unanimous decision for Reynolds v. United States. The court rejected Reynolds's argument that the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage was protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Thus, Reynolds's conviction was upheld, as was the constitutionality of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act. (The court did rule that the hard labor clause of Reynolds's sentence was not permitted by law; as a result, this clause of Reynolds's sentence was lifted.)

Imprisonment

Reynolds had been imprisoned in Utah since his second conviction was confirmed by the Utah Supreme Court in June 1876. After his failed appeal to the Supreme Court, Reynolds was transferred from a jail in Utah to the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, where he became U.S. Prisoner Number 14 and was appointed to be the bookkeeper in the knitting department. Reynolds only remained in the Nebraska penitentiary for 25 days, after which he was transferred to the Utah Territory Penitentiary, where regulations were more primitive and vermin more abundant. Reynolds reported that the prisoners were not permitted to have a fire for fear that the prison would burn down; as a result, on many winter mornings he would awake and his beard would be one solid mass of ice. Reynolds was released from prison on January 20, 1881, having served his full sentence, less five months for good behavior. He was pardoned in 1894 by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.[1]

Life after release from prison

Upon his release from prison, Reynolds resumed his position as secretary to the First Presidency of the church; he also became an active organizer within the Deseret Sunday School Union (DSSU), acting as the editor of and writing many articles for the Juvenile Instructor, a publication of the DSSU. From 1899 until his death in 1909, Reynolds was a first or second assistant to three general superintendents of the DSSU: From 1899 to 1901, he was the second assistant to George Q. Cannon; in 1901 he was first assistant to Lorenzo Snow; and from 1901 until 1909 he was first assistant to Joseph F. Smith.

On April 25, 1885, Reynolds married his third and final wife, Mary Goold. His first wife Mary Ann died on December 17, 1885, following the birth of a child.

In 1890, LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff asked Reynolds to become one of the seven members of the First Council of Seventy, a calling in the church hierarchy that ranked just below the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Reynolds agreed, and on April 10, Reynolds was set apart to this position by Lorenzo Snow, who was then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Reynolds continued in this position and as the secretary to the First Presidency until his death in 1909.

Reynolds was a gifted writer and after his release from prison he became active in writing church literature. His most famous works are his Story of the Book of Mormon (1888), which was intended for children; Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon (1900); and Dictionary of the Book of Mormon (1910).

Reynolds suffered a nervous breakdown in 1907 as a result of stress incident from overwork. He died from meningitis at Salt Lake City on August 9, 1909, at the age of 67.[2] Reynolds had a total of three wives and 32 children. One of his daughters married Joseph Fielding Smith.

Published works

• —— (1868). "Man and His Varieties: The Negro Race". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 3 (20): 157–58. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
• Reynolds, George (1879). The Book of Abraham: Its Authenticity Established as a Divine and Ancient Record: With Copious References to Ancient and Modern Authorities. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret New Printing & Publishing.
• —— (1883). The Myth of the "Manuscript Found," or, The Absurdities of the "Spaulding Story". Salt Lake City, Utah: Juvenile Instructor Office.
• —— (1888). The Story of the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Jos. Hyrum Parry. p. 494.
• —— (1900). A Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.
• —— (1891). A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon: Comprising its Biographical, Geographical and Other Proper Names. Salt Lake City, Utah: Jos. Hyrum Parry. p. 364.
• ——; Janne M. Sjödahl (1955). Commentary on the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.
• ——; Janne M. Sjödahl (1965). Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.
• —— (1882). "Internal Evidences of the Book of Mormon: Showing the Absurdity of the 'Spalding Story'". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (15–16): 235–38, 251–52. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• —— (1882). "The Originator of 'The Spalding Story'". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (17): 262–63. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• —— (1882). "The Book of Mormon and the Three Witnesses". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (18): 281. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• —— (1882). "Joseph Smith's Youthful Life". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (19): 299–302. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
• —— (1882). "Time Occupied in Translating the Book of Mormon". Juvenile Instructor. LDS Church. 17 (20): 315–317. Retrieved 2007-04-05.

See also

• 1890 Manifesto
• Alice Louise Reynolds
• Edmunds Act
• Edmunds-Tucker Act
• Reed Smoot hearings
• Ruth H. Funk
• Second Manifesto

Notes

1. [1]
2. State of Utah Death Certificate Archived 2009-03-20 at the Wayback Machine.

References

• Jensen, Andrew (1901), Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 1, Andrew Jensen History Co., 206.
• Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.) (1992). "Encyclopedia of Mormonism". New York: Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 0-02-879602-0..
• Van Orden, Bruce A. (1992), Prisoner for Conscience' Sake: The Life of George Reynolds, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book.

External links

• Works written by or about George Reynolds at Wikisource
• Media related to George Reynolds (Mormon) at Wikimedia Commons
• Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: George Reynolds
• George Reynolds at Find a Grave
• George Reynolds papers, MSS 10 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
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