rmons, authorized the enlistment of a battalion of volunteers, who received $20,000 pay in advance, were marched to their destination, and dismissed with their arms.
This act of sympathy, gratefully acknowledged at the time, was afterward basely misrepresented as a cruel and malignant persecution.
Brigham Young arrived at the site of Salt Lake City with a small detachment, July 24, 1847; and, leaving a colony, returned to lead forward the main body from their winter-quarters near Council Bluffs, Iowa.
On the 24th of December, 1847, by a second coup d'etat, he had himself chosen first president of the church, and thus succeeded to the place and power of Joseph Smith.
Henceforth, as prophet, priest, and king, he ruled as absolute monarch of the Mormons — a Grand Lama, or incarnate deity.
In 1848 he led his people to the valley of Salt Lake.
The city he built there he proclaimed the Zion of the Mountains.
In his explorations, and as the pioneer leader of a mixed multitude in
emoval of his people to the Rocky Mountains, and at last declared a revelation to that effect.
In February, 1846, the advance-guard crossed the Mississippi, Nauvoo was abandoned, and that toilsome pilgrimage began, which ended in the valley of Salt Lake.
Nauvoo was said to contain 15,000 inhabitants, and it was entirely deserted.
The sudden exodus of such a population from the midst of enraged neighbors was marked by every form of hardship, privation, and affliction, and their migration acrent of the church, and thus succeeded to the place and power of Joseph Smith.
Henceforth, as prophet, priest, and king, he ruled as absolute monarch of the Mormons — a Grand Lama, or incarnate deity.
In 1848 he led his people to the valley of Salt Lake.
The city he built there he proclaimed the Zion of the Mountains.
In his explorations, and as the pioneer leader of a mixed multitude in their passage over the desert, Brigham Young appears at his best.
He showed great energy, skill, and dec
