Remarks by Andrew Jenson

My brethren and sisters and friends: I am afraid my voice can not reach the people who are standing way off in front of the Assembly Hall. I have never posed very much as an outdoor speaker. I prefer to speak under a roof. But nevertheless, I desire, on this occasion, to be true to my appointment and endeavor to say a few words, trusting that most of you can hear what I have to say. ¶

I am representing the historical department of the Church, and I have for many years had a kind of a mission of my own. In this connection I have to a certain extent been alone in my class — not but what others have also worked faithfully in the same line, but it has been my privilege for many years to devote nearly all my time, and the best of my mental faculties, to writing, compiling and gathering together material for a somewhat complete history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the Nineteenth Century. It is expected that younger historians will write the histories of later years. ¶

I find, my brethren and sisters, that the very first thing which the Lord said to his Church, after it was organized on the 6th of April, 1830, was that a record should be kept among the members. Several years later Joseph Smith (in an epistle that he wrote from Nauvoo) stated something like this, "Whatsoever you record on earth, shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever you do not record On earth, shall not be recorded in heaven." The Prophet, in writing this, ¶

alluded to baptism for the dead, but the rule holds good, if I judge right, in other matters as well. ¶

Now, in perusing the Bible, I find that the very first thing, the very first line in the sacred volume, is history : It says : "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The first paragraph in the Book of Mormon is also history, as it reads : "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents : therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father." The very first passage in the Pearl of Great Price is of a similar nature. We find these words : "The words of God, which he spake unto Moses, at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceeding high mountain. And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses ; therefore Moses could endure his presence." Continuing on, the narrative explains how the Lord wanted to reveal to Moses the early history of this world. The Lord said that there were many other worlds, but that Moses could not comprehend the extent of God's creation, and therefore he proceeded to tell Moses about the beginning of this world — the world "upon which thou standest." ¶

I allude to these things to show you the importance of records. I am convinced that no one historian, nor four or five historians, can possibly do justice to everything that ought to be written on Church history at the present time. Nor can the stake clerks, the ward clerks, the clerks of the different quorums of priesthood, nor the clerks of the different auxiliary organizations, do all the recording necessary. You must help do it. All of you must assist in this great work whereby the memory of men and women of prominence and of integrity can be perpetuated, and their history be handed down, so that their glorious examples may shine for the benefit of those who follow through future generations. ¶

We do not as a people desire to boast of what we have done, or are going to do, in fact, we are not boasting at all when we occasionally allude to what the Latter-day Saints have done and what they intend to do. Nor do we wish our friends to imagine that we are egotistic when we allude to what we think the future has in store for us. But we are proud, as historians, to occasionally refer to the fact that the Latter-day Saints have already done something worthy of them. The gospel has already been preached by us in the different nations of the earth to an extent that gives us* great satisfaction. True, we have not covered the whole earth yet with our preaching, though our elders have visited almost every land and clime. But there are many countries where the people would not receive us as missionaries, where the governments have banished us the moment we have shown our faces to testify. of the restored gospel. Consequently, the majority of the inhabitants of these countries cannot be held responsible, as they have not heard enough of the true gospel of Jesus Christ either to save them or damn them. But in such countries where we have had access, we have diligently preached the gospel to the best of our ability and are just a little bit pleased with our records of the past in this regard. ¶

We are somewhat satisfied with the missionary work we have done in the past and with what we are doing now. However, we have had more missions in years gone by than we have at the present time; that is to say that several missions were established at an early day which are not in existence now. We are thankful to our heavenly Father for the work enjoined upon us as Latter-day Saints, namely, to preach the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, to gather in the elect from the four quarters of the earth and to organize them into stakes of Zion and into wards and settlements by locating them in the land which God has designed for his Saints to gather to. ¶

We have done something also by way of colonizing, and that is another thing* with which we are somewhat pleased. We commenced our first colonization way down in Jackson County, Missouri, as early as 1831, and we are anxious that a true and faithful record should be made of what we did there to be handed down to future generations. We desire our children to know what the Latter-day Saints were doing at the beginning on the borders of the United States (on the western edge of the country) as pioneers and colonizers. Among other things we established a printing office 120 miles further west than any other printing office in the United States, as early as 1832. We founded a settlement near the banks of the Missouri River which would undoubtedly have grown to great dimensions, had we been permitted to continue our efforts, and instead of a Kansas City we might perhaps have built a strong "Mormon" headquarters in Jackson county. Perhaps we would have called it Zion, the New Jerusalem, or the capital of the world, from which the law should go forth in the Lord's own due time to all the nations of the earth. Jackson county, Missouri, is the one locality about which the Lord said, "Zion shall not be moved out of its place," and while we are now here in these mountains and Salt Lake City contains our central stakes at the present time, Jackson county, Missouri, will nevertheless be a capital, a headquarters, the place where a great temple shall be built unto which Christ shall come in his own due time. ¶

We are proud, also that we did not become discouraged because we were driven from our first location. For after the mobbers had robbed us of our homes in Jackson county, we had courage enough to cross the Missouri river and try again, and thus we became successful colonizers also in Clay county, Missouri, in 1833-1836. ¶

Then speaking of what we did a little later, we are quite satisfied with our achievements in the upper counties of Missouri. We can truthfully say that in going into an open prairie country, where there were only four families living at the time, in the course of three years we had between twelve and fifteen thousand Latter-day Saints, occupying Caldwell, Daviess, Ray and other neighboring counties. We turned the naked prairie into fertile and thickly populated farming districts. We founded the city of Far West which, at the time of its prosperity, contained something like two thousand inhabitants. We also commenced the city of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and purchased the town of ¶

De Witt, in Carroll county, besides building quite a number of villages in that part of the country. I will venture to say that we are a little proud of our pioneer achievements in the state of Missouri. ¶

We are also a little proud when we think of Kirtland, Ohio, to which place Joseph Smith, the Prophet, moved early in 1831. He found there only a few families, but in the course of a few years the Saints had two thousand souls gathered in Kirtland, and built their first temple, which still stands. ¶

We are even more satisfied with what we did as pioneers and colonizers in Illinois. When the Saints, who had been driven out of Missouri, robbed and plundered by mobs, came to the little village of Commerce, they found a few inhabitants, who were struggling in vain to build up a town on the banks of the Mississippi river, but had only succeeded in building up a graveyard on the side of the hill, although they had plenty of means wherewith to establish a settlement in the western country. The Saints, who followed these people feel pleased and satisfied when they consider the labor that was done there by them through the blessings of the Lord. ¶

And let me not forget to add that in all these instances it was not only our Christian endeavor and our union, that caused success to come to us, but we sincerely believe that God was on our side. We were a God-fearing people ; we prayed to the Lord then as we pray new invoking his blessings upon our labors, and it seems to me that the Lord took special delight to prove to the world that it mattered but little whether his Saints were located in a desolate or a good country, for he would take care of them anywhere ; he could temper the elements for their sake and make them prosperous. And thus it came to pass that right there in Hancock county, Illinois, where the rich people who preceded us as settlers had not been able to build up a village, the Saints, in the course of five or six years, built up the beautiful city of Nauvoo, with a-million-dollar temple in the center of it; it was at the time of its prosperity the largest city in the state of Illinois. By what I have said, it will be seen that we had considerable experience as pioneers before we were driven westward and before we came to the Rocky Mountains. ¶

We are very well satisfied also with the history of the Mormon Battalion. The Saints who were exiled from Nauvoo, in 1846, had expected to reach the Rocky Mountains that year, but did not succeed in carrying out their plans because a call came from Washington, D. C, for five hundred of the "Mormon" men to go into the war with Mexico; and it seemed that this was a great sacrifice and a number of our co-religionists could not understand why the Saints should respond to a call to fight for a government which had neglected to defend them against mobs; but good counsel prevailed, and the battalion marched west ; and among many other things connected with the history of the Church with which we are pleased is the achievements of the Mormon Battalion, and the way these "Mormon" boys ¶

behaved themselves as Christians and soldiers. The effect which their good example had upon the civilization of California at an early date is most remarkable. It is a chapter of Church history that we like to write, and while it is already partly written, it will be written in more detail hereafter. ¶

When we speak of Winter Quarters, located near the present site of the city of Omaha, we are just a little pleased to know that Winter Quarters was the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now the State of Nebraska. We were successful there, as is well known, in building up a Christian community in an Indian country. We had a Church organization there with twenty-two wards, in which for a couple of years (1846-1848) we had great success, comparatively speaking; and, as I say, it was the first Anglo-Saxon civilization in that part of the United States. ¶

A majority of the members of the Mormon Battalion, marching westward, reached California in due course of time, but others became worn out with fatigue on the long journey. There were sick men among them, besides women and children, who were considered unable to cross the great, sandy American deserts, through what is now Ntw Mexico and Arizona and the eastern parts of California; hence, some of the Battalion boys were sent northward and camped during the winter of 1846-1847 on the Arkansas river, at a place called Pueblo; and we are just a little pleased to think that that little AngloSaxon settlement, formed by the sick detachment of the Mormon Battalion, and a small company of Saints from the State of Mississippi, etc., was the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now the State of Colorado. ¶

We are satisfied also with what we did after our arrival in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, the next year, 1847, we being the founders of this beautiful city, the like of which there is none in the United States, nor in all the world. Some of us have circumnavigated the globe, and I wish to say this to you : Go where you may in the different lands and climes on earth, and you will not find a city just like our own beloved Salt Lake City, with its broad streets, its majestic temple, its unique tabernacle, its attractive assembly hall and many other things that adorn our city, which are not to be found elsewhere in the whole world. And we are more than pleased to think that our city was founded by a God-fearing people, men and women who put their trust in God, and who sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, relying' upon the promise that other things should be added unto them. This city, the most beautiful city in the world, and a number of other cities and towns existing in this Rocky Mountain region, testify of temporal blessings that have come to a people who have faith in God. ¶

After we had been in this central valley a while, we extended our settlements north, south, east, and west. We are quite pleased to think that when Thomas S. Smith, of Farmington, was called, in 1855, ¶

to go north and locate a settlement among the Indians near the Salmon river, he and his company of pioneers became the first Anglo-Saxon settlers in what is now the State of Idaho. We are pleased with the labors of Apostle Orson Hyde, in the year 1853, when he and others were called to settle Fort Supply, near Green river, which was the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now the state of Wyoming. We are quite pleased also to think that we were the first settlers in Nevada. Our boys, who had served in the Mormon Battalion, in returning from California to join their families in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, found that beautiful valley in which Carson City, the capital of Nevada, now stands. Enoch Rees and others were called by President Brigham Young to settle there as "Mormon'' pioneers, and afterwards Orson Hyde organized a stake of Zion which flourished for a while in that part of our country. ¶

It also gives us considerable satisfaction to think that in the year 1846, some of the Saints who resided in or near the cities of New York and Boston, and others as far east as Maine, decided to embark on a long voyage in order to reach the new gathering place of the Saints, instead of crossing the great continent of America. They chartered the ship Brooklyn, set sail from New York, doubled Cape Horn, touched the Hawaiian Islands, and arrived in the Bay of San Francisco one year before President Young and his .pioneers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley. We are just a little proud to think that these same Latter-day Saints, about 230 strong, almost immediately after their arrival in California changed a little, insignificant Spanish village, called Yerba Buena, into an Anglo-Saxon town, the present San Francisco. We are also a little pleased to know that the beautiful San Joaquin Valley, in California, was first settled by Latter-day Saints. Some of those who arrived in California on the Brooklyn were farmers who came from the rural districts of New England, and as they could not see any opportunity for successful farming on that sandy stretch on which San Francisco is built, they naturally looked into the interior of the country, and there found the place where the two rivers, the San Joaquin and the Stanislaus, join together, and here they established Port Hope, the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in that beautiful valley of California, which now contains seven of the most flourishing counties of that state. ¶

I could continue my historical narrative but the time is limited, because there are other speakers. I refer to these incidents of history, my brethren and sisters, to inspire you with courage, and to impress upon your minds the fact that it is not alone what we intend to do — though we believe we have a far greater future than we have had a past — but that we have already done certain things in the past which should encourage us and our children. When our children learn what their parents and grandparents have done, they should naturally place more confidence and reliance on the Lord, and believe that he will sustain them and bless them and give them success, as he has ¶

given their parents before them success ; for we are destined to fill up America with settlements of the Saints and stakes of Zion. North and South America is the land of Zion itself, and when we have President Pratt presiding over this open-air meeting today, we must not forget that he is also presiding over a mission that is perhaps destined to become one of the greatest and most important missions of the Church. The Mexican mission, when it flourishes, will be able to produce an element that can fulfil every prediction we have in the Book of Mormon concerning the Lamanites. We may perhaps be forced to acknowledge that our nomadic Indians in the United States have disappointed us to a certain extent; for they have not embraced the gospel in such numbers as we had expected, and some of those who did embrace it, after our missionaries had spent the best part of their lives among them, did not remain faithful. But there are millions and millions of another class of Lamanites, more civilized, in the South, and we hope the time will come when they will embrace the gospel in large numbers, and thus be able to fulfil everything contained in the Book of Mormon by way of prediction concerning that race. And not only do we expect the Mexican mission to become most successful, but we also expect in the near future to preach the gospel in Russia, in the Balkan peninsula, in Persia, India, and all over the world. Nationalities which formerly closed their doors against us will undoubtedly, sometime in the future, allow us to enter their countries and declare to the people, as we have done for these many years in the United States and in other countries, that God indeed has spoken from heaven in these last days and has raised up a great AngloSaxon prophet to restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth once more. The name of that prophet shall yet be known by millions throughout the world. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, we would like you to understand that you belong to the greatest gospel dispensation that has ever been commenced upon the face of the earth; every other dispensation of God's Providence has come to an end, but in this particular instance, when God restored the Priesthood in our day, it was understood that it should remain upon the earth forevermore. I believe sincerely that the time will never come when historians shall write the history of the Latter-day Saints as a people who once flourished on the earth, but are no more, for we shall remain for ever, and out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will eventually come forth the Kingdom of God, which shall govern the whole world in righteousness. Let us hope for a great future ; let us hope for better times than those we now have. Let. us hope that men may become better Christians than they are now or have been of late years. Let us hope for the time to come when we Latter-day Saints may be more faithful than we have been in the past. Yet after all, our greatest success will come when Christ shall reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. In the meantime, we must try to the best of our ability to extend the borders of Zion, build stakes where there are no stakes now ; and ¶

then look forward to the time when Christ shall personally acknowledge us as his people. Then comes the glorious time of which we think when we sing, "Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah," and when "millions shall know Brother Joseph again." ¶

And now, by way of conclusion, my brethren and sisters, let me allude once again to what I sa'd in the beginning of my remarks ; Keep your own records, you heads of families ; do not rely altogether upon anything that we historians may do. You may rely upon us 10 a certain extent, but not altogether, because you are too numerous. We cannot reach every individual, and yet every faithful man and woman in the Church has a history that is worth writing and is worthy to be handed down to future generations, for the benefit of thousands who should profit by their experience. And so my instructions, my advice, my pleadings with you are to the effect that you will not overlook this fact, that record-keeping is a matter of the greatest importance, and that you should keep your ow|n records. All members of the Church should know when they were baptized, when they were confirmed, when they were ordained to the Priesthood, etc. We have a way of tracing the Priesthood held by every man in the Church back to Peter, James and John, but unless you help us in this matter by giving us your personal record we may not be able to reach you. Again I say, make your own individual records ; find out who ordained you, who baptized you, who baptized your children, etc., and then, if you find it necessary, come to the Historian's Office, and we will try to connect you up with the past, so that every man who bears the holy Priesthood, and every man or woman who has a membership in the Church, will be able to prove by written documents that they are members, that they have been baptized and blessed by "one having divine authority," and that they have been ordained by those who held the Priesthood before them. If you will observe this word of counsel, you shall rejoice at some future day. Let us all feel interested in bequeathing to our children truth, true history, facts that cannot be successfully contradicted. God bless you. Amen. ¶