The following comes from:
Daniel C. Peterson, “Notes on ‘Gadianton Masonry,’” in
Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J.
Hamblin (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies; Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 197-200, 220-21
But what of Dan Vogel’s assertion,
based upon Doctrine and Covenants 42:64, that fear of Masonic “secret combinations”
drove the Saints from New York to Ohio? First of all, we should note that Vogel
offers no evidence whatsoever for his contention. Furthermore, there are plenty
of reasons for the move other than invoking some supposed anti-Masonic paranoia
among early Mormons: For instance, directing members of the Church scattered across
several states was difficult for Joseph Smith; more members were in Ohio than
in any other state; membership in Ohio was growing more rapidly than elsewhere.
Finally, persecution and physical harassment were growing in New York. The move
thus seems quite a natural one.
But then, who were the “secret
combinations”? I think it likely that they were simply persecutors, the mobs
with whom Mormons would become so wearily well acquainted. [80] W. W.
Phelps, forinstance, writing in the Times and Seasons, 25 December 1844, not
many months afterthe martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, did not hesitate to
assign to persecution the same genealogy (back to Cain and Lamech) that the
scriptures give to secret combinations (see Helaman 6:27; Ether 8:15; Moses
5:29-41, 47-55). [81]
Remarks made in connection with the
1884 murder of two missionaries in Tennessee also suggest such a linkage. At
the funeral of Elder John Gibbs, held on 24 August of that year, Elder Moses
Thatcher of the Council of the Twelve said, “I remember distinctly the
impressions that were made upon the minds of some of our people when they first
learned of the organization of certain secret societies in the east, organized
with the intention, no doubt, of taking life; and it is my strong belief and my
rm opinion that the body which lies before us today, lifeless, is the result of
the operations of the secret societies which, we have been forewarned, would be
organized in the latter times.” [82] George F. Gibbs, a brother of the
murdered missionary and a ranking Church official in his own right, concurred.
“It was soon after the Anti-Mormon league in Cleveland was formed, that my
brother wrote and told me that the influence of that league had reached the
Southern States. He stated that he had met that influence in conversation with
and in the presence of mobocratic men, and I have no doubt whatever as to the
correctness of
Brother Thatcher’s remarks in this
respect.” [83] Perhaps signicantly, the perpetrators of the crime were
said to have been dressed in the robes of the Ku Klux Klan. [84]
Newel Knight (1800-1850),recalling
events in Missouri in July of 1833, described “the solemn covenant entered into
by the mob, wherein they pledged theirlives, their bodily power, fortunes and
sacred honors to drive the Saints from Jackson Co.” (Note the oath-bound
character of the group, at least in Knight’s perception.) This was, he says, an
“unholy combination.” [85] It was against precisely such persecutors
that Joseph Smith had invoked the Lord’s assistance in his prayer at the 1836
dedication of the Kirtland Temple. “We ask thee, Holy Father,” he had prayed,
“to establish the people that shall worship, and honorably hold a name and
standing in this thy house, to all generations and for eternity; that no weapon
formed against them shall prosper; that he who diggeth a pit for them shall
fall into the same himself; that no combination of wickedness shall have power to
rise up and prevail over thy people upon whom thy name shall be put in this
house” (D&C 109:24-26). [86]
Thus, to at least some Latter-day
Saints of the nineteenth century, “secret combinations” were simply those organizations
or mobs that persecuted the Saints of God, “condemning the righteous because of
their righteousness” (Helaman 7:5), acting in secret to carry out their evil
designs. And the Saints had abundant scriptural warrant for such a view. On the
other hand, there is no reason to suppose that the “secret combinations” alluded
to in the Doctrine and Covenants have any connection at all with Freemasonry.
What is more, a proclamation Joseph
Smith issued on 25 March 1843 in his capacity as mayor of Nauvoo clearly shows
that the Prophet, who had by now been a Mason for somewhat over a year and who
had introduced the full endowment ceremony on 4 May 1842, was still entirely
capable of denouncing “secret combinations,” and without any reference to
Freemasonry whatsoever:
Whereas it is reported that there now
exists a band of desperadoes, bound by oaths of secrecy, under severe penalties
in case any member of the combination divulges their plans of stealing and
conveying properties from station to station, up and down the Mississippi and
other routes: And whereas it is reported that the fear of the execution of the
pains and penalties of their secret oath on their persons prevents some members
of said secret association (who have, through falsehood and deceit, been drawn into
their snares,) from divulging the same to the legally constituted authorities
of the land: Know ye, therefore, that I, Joseph Smith, mayor of the city of
Nauvoo, will grant and insure protection against all personal mob violence to
each and every citizen of this city who will freely and voluntarily come before
me and truly make known the names of all such abominable characters as are
engaged in said secret combination for stealing, or are accessory thereto, in
any manner. [87]
This document is of the deepest
interest, for it shows Joseph Smith using the term “secret combination” — he
later declared that his intention was “to ferret out a band of thievish
outlaws from our midst” (emphasis mine; the word “band” is frequently used in
the Book of Mormon with reference to the Gadianton movement) — many years after
the anti-Masonic agitation of the 1820s and in a context that clearly has
nothing to do with the Masons. Furthermore, Joseph Smith the practicing Mason
is the one who here decried the secret oaths of the thieves that bound them to
one another in wickedness, and he did so on the basis of intelligence his
long-time Mason brother, Hyrum, supplied: “In the office at eight, a. m.; heard
a report from Hyrum Smith concerning thieves; whereupon I issued the following
Proclamation.” [88]
Is there any reason to doubt that
neither the secret society Joseph and Hyrum denounced in their 1839 letter to Quincy,
nor the “secret combination” they referred to in this proclamation of 1843, had
the slightest connection with Freemasonry? And is there any reason, therefore,
to suppose that the “secret combinations” of the Book of Mormon do?
Furthermore, is it not apparent that the Book of Mormon’s negative attitude
toward “secret combinations” continues to be shared by Joseph Smith not only
thirty-one months before, but also more than a year after, his public
involvement with Freemasonry? Where, then, is the evidence of his alleged
conversion from anti-Masonry in the late 1820s (during the translation of the
Book of Mormon) to pro-Masonry in the 1840s (when he was revealing the
ordinances of the temple)?
Notes
for the Above:
[80] It is striking that the modern Greek translation of
the Doctrine and Covenants renders the “secret combinations” of 42:64 by mystikai
synotnosiai, using the same word (synotnosia) as that used for the
“conspiracy” to murder Paul that Acts 23:12-14 describes. The oath-bound nature
of that conspiracy — the Greek word itself has for its roots syn
(“together with”) and omnumi (“to swear”) — is perfectly appropriate for
“combinations” in the Gadianton manner, as is its desire to murder a prophet
and apostle of God.
[81] Times and
Seasons 5:757.
[82] JD 25:281.
[83] JD 25:283.
[84] See Truman G.
Madsen, Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story (Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1980), 145. This is the same kind of “secret combination,” I think,
as that considered in the case of Lyon v. Pollock, alluded to above. In view of
their location, period, and apparent intent, the so-called “Knights of the
Golden Circle” were most likely a Klan-related group. Although I have as yet
located nothing specifically on them, Klan offshoots with names like Knights of
the Air, Knights of the Flaming Sword, Knights of the White Camelia, Knights of
the Great Forest, Knights of the Black Cross, Knights of the Flaming Circle,
and Knights of the Golden Dawn, are well-documented.
[85] See “Newel
Knight’s Journal,” in “Scraps of Biography,” as reprinted in the anonymously
edited Classic Experiences and Adventures (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft,
1969), 79.
[86] See also Messenger
and Advocate 2 (March 1836): 278.
[87] B. H. Roberts,
ed., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols.
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978), 5:31011. The text of the proclamation is
also in Joseph Fielding Smith, ed., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938), 285. I am indebted to my friend and colleague
Kent P. Jackson for bringing it to my attention.
[88] HC 5:310.
