joseph smith at nauvoo.

may 15, 1844.

it is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: what historical american of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? and it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: joseph smith, the mormon prophet. and the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. history deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. the man who established a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the most high—such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. * * * the most vital questions americans are asking each other today have to do with this man and what he has left us. * * * burning questions they are, which must give a prominent place in the history of the country to that sturdy self-asserter whom i visited at nauvoo. joseph smith, claiming to be an inspired teacher, faced adversity such as few men have been called to meet, enjoyed a brief season of prosperity such as few men have ever attained, and, finally, forty-three days after i saw him, went cheerfully to a martyr's death. when he surrendered his person to governor ford, in order to prevent the shedding of blood, the prophet had a presentiment of what was before him. "i am going like a lamb to the slaughter," he is reported to have said; "but i am as calm as a summer's morning. i have a conscience void of offense and shall die innocent."

josiah quincy's "figures of the past."