Unwrapping an Obstinate Enigma | The Essential Brigham Young with a Foreword by Eugene E. Campbell

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Who was this man who so completely filled the Mormon and western stage for thirty years? President Brigham Young—or “Brother Brigham” to the familiar faithful—stirred the emotions of both saint and sinner, friend and foe. 

His office journal suggests some of his interests. He showed an amateur’s interest in the microscope and telescope. Books on smelting and iron-making were read to him—and the next day he would hear his scribes read scripts for a proposed dramatic production. He briefly studied phonography (today we would say stenography), and for many years doggedly sought a revolution in English orthography. When time per mitted, he walked a half block from his office to ensure sobriety at the Social Hall or another few paces south to regulate the Salt Lake Theatre. One prominent actress thought him better informed on stage management than many eastern professionals. 

Then there were the moments when he mounted the podium. Richard Bur ton, the English traveler, recalled the scene: “That old man held his cough; that old lady awoke with a start; that child ceased the squall. Mr. Brigham Young . . . [leaned] slightly forwards upon both hands propped on the green baize of the tribune [and] addressed his followers” (City of the Saints [New York, 1963], 265). It was a scene re-enacted thousands of times in the Great Basin.

The “essential” Brigham Young will not be understood until his pulpit oratory is weighed and measured. By any measure, it was successful in motivating the Mormon disciple. Wrote Wil ford Woodruff in his diary: “Then President Brigham Young arose & delivered unto the saints one of the strongest addresses that was ever delivered to this Church & kingdom. .. . his voice & words were like the Thunderings of Mount Sina” (14 Sept. 1856). On the other hand, the uninitiated were often put off by his speaking. The bad press and negative image of nineteenth-century Mormonism owed a large measure to “Brother Brigham’s” stern images, hardy humor, exaggerations, folksy talk, and fiery jeremiads. 

Signature Books provides the mod ern reader with a sampling of President Young at the pulpit. It has collected twenty-five of his discourses from the hundreds available (over 400 alone were printed in the nineteenth-century series, the Journal of Discourses). These are introduced by a publisher’s preface, sketching Young’s public speaking themes and manner and giving the highlights of his life. The late western historian Eugene Campbell provides a foreword that considers the Mormon leader’s strengths and weaknesses. Professor Campbell’s essay was first delivered as a paper at the Mormon Historical Association several years before his death. 

The book will serve to introduce Young’s preaching and religious thought. Some of his more often quoted sermons are included: Young’s chastisement of the 1847 pioneer company; his preaching on blood atonement, the black curse of Cain, and Adam-God; his memories of Nauvoo, Emma Smith, and early Utah founding; and that improbable 1858 exhortation to the Saints to pick up their belongings and head South during the Johnston army invasion. (Perhaps no other man would have asked so much from his followers and perhaps no other large American nineteenth-century group would have responded so dutifully.) 

The Essential Brigham Young is the third volume of Signature Books’ “Classics in Mormon Thought Series,” which attempts to distill and republish mate rial that has molded the Mormon heritage. Perhaps this is why the publishers have chosen the sermons that they have. Many of those printed here have been the grist for showing Young at his most colorful or controversial—the kind of material, so common during the Mormon experience, that has served to create his unfavorable image. The publisher may be applauded for its forthrightness, not necessarily for its completeness. It acknowledges that it is primarily interested in Young’s theological discourses; consequently, other sermons that might have illustrated the wider range of Young’s ideas are not included. The selected discourses do not say much about the churchman’s hopes for Zion—the gathering and theocracy—nor do they give his expanded views on culture, economics, education, plural marriage, recreation, and social grouping. 

In a collection of this kind, there will always be a question about selection. Each compiler would likely choose differently. But in this case, the publisher’s decision to rely on the familiar may have been dictated by the hope of speeding publication. Certainly, the volume bears evidence of haste. Professor Campbell’s essay on Brigham Young’s life-long mission doesn’t seem to fit the narrower topic of his speeches. Its apparent virtue to the editors may have been its avail ability, not suitability. Of greater disappointment, no textual explanations are given to help the reader navigate the sometimes difficult-to-follow nineteenth-century sayings of Young. Readers are left to wander among them at their own peril. 

Nor does the publisher provide any kind of context for the speeches—places are rarely given and circumstances not at all. Did Young actually play a major role in the writing of the essay dated 1 January 1841, which lists Willard Richards as co-author, with all its heavily-larded scriptures, which were so un typical of Young? Wouldn’t the reader like to know that the discourse of 18 June 1865 was formally presented for the benefit of visiting U.S. vice-president Schuyler Colfax and was regarded by some Saints as a belabored flop—a comeuppance for Young’s putting on airs for a “foreign” dignitary? And isn’t it important to know that Young’s sermon on the resurrection, 8 October 1875, wasn’t delivered by the church leader at all, but was formally read by Counselor George Q. Cannon? 

The publisher acknowledges that it was not its intent to provide this kind of editorial apparatus, but merely to make available to readers an accessible collection of Young’s important sermons. For me, however, by the kind of the speeches selected and by providing no editorial assistance, the publisher limits its contribution. It provides important clues about the “essential” Brigham Young but unwraps only a layer or two of the obstinate enigma of his personality and thought. One suspects that the church leader would not be surprised. He seemed to cultivate the puzzle. “If any man inquires about Brigham,” he once said during one of his sermons, “tell them he is Brigham, yet only a little more so” (13 Nov. 1858, LDS archives). 

The Essential Brigham Young. Fore word by Eugene E. Campbell. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. 249 pp., index.