In the November 1860 issue of The True Latter Day Saints’ Herald (a then-RLDS periodical) we read the following five months before the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in April 1861:
The newspapers often contain
predictions of Brigham Young, or of some of his colleagues, concerning the
dissolution of the American Confederacy, and the pouting out of the wrath of
God upon this nation, and many who read these predictions suppose that they
originated with these men.
Not long since, in the habitual
laudations to Brighamism, with which the Utah correspondence of the New York Herald
and Express abounds, it was stated that Orson Hyde had prophesied that
there would be a dissolution of the Union—that the Northern and Southern States
will be divided, and that the latter will call upon Great Britain for
assistance, etc. By Brighamite evidence we shall show that this prophecy did
not originate with Orson Hyde, nor with any of the Brighamite leaders. In 1851
the Publishing Department of the Brighamite Church in England published a work,
the title of which is, "The Pearl of Great Price, being a choice selection
from the revelations, translations, and narrations of Joseph Smith, first
Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. On the 35th page, this volume contains the following:
A
Revelation And Prophecy By The Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Joseph Smith.
Given
December 25th, 1832.
"Verily
thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass,
beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate
in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be
poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place; for behold, the Southern
States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States
will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called,
and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves
against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations. And
it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their
Masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war: And it shall come to
pass also, that the remnants who are left of the land will marshall themselves,
and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore
vexation; and thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the
earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes, and the
thunder of Heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the
inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation and
chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed, hath made a
full end of all nations; that the cry of the Saints, and of the blood of the
Saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the
earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and
be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly,
saith the Lord. Amen."
Will some of our friends send us
the name, volume and number of the periodical in which this revelation was
first published? (“A
FALSE SUPPOSITION concerning the origin of a prophecy in relation to a
division of the Northern and Southern States,” The True Latter Day
Saints' Herald 1, no. 11 [November 1860]: 265-66)
