Friday, September 8, 2023

Joseph Smith III on his Father’s “Civil War Prophecy” (D&C 87)

  

A Prophecy

 

I was born in the northern part of Ohio, near the hotbed of abolition sentiment in that State. Forty-nine days after that event, on December 25, 1832, my father, Joseph Smith the Prophet, is credited with having prophesied concerning the political troubles of the United States, stating distinctly that way would come and where and how started, and clearly defining the result or outcome. I desire to reproduce that prophecy here, just as it has been printed elsewhere

 

A REVELATION AND PROPHECY BY THE PROPHET, SEER, AND REVELATOR, JOSEPH SMITH. GIVEN DECEMBER 25, 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 upon other nations, even the nations of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other 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 marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation: and thus, with the sword, and by bloodshed, and inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightnings 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 that 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 Sabbaoth, 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.

 

I do not know where this document was placed or who had it in custody between the date of its delivery and its publication. It was published in 1851, in a book or pamphlet form called The Pearl of Great Price, and papers of that date are still extant in which it appeared. If this prophecy seemed premature when given in 1832, that criticism was not removed by its publication in 1851, which was till nine or ten years prior to the beginning of its fulfillment.

 

How this fulfillment was to be brought about was one question which greatly agitated all classes of believers in “Mormonism”—using the term to signify those who accepted the doctrine preached by Joseph and Hyrum Smith and their coworkers as they claimed to receive it by revelation together with the Book of Mormon. So far as I was able to discover through conversations with them, no one of these believers was able to see a solution of the political problem or the manner in which it would eventually be terminated. As the son of the man who had delivered so daring a prophecy concerning these matters, I was as anxious to know how it was to be fulfilled as anyone could be, although I may not have been so active as some were in searching the horizon for events that might be construed to connect it with the political affairs of the country.

 

Hancock County was strongly Democratic in sentiment, the “new party” not having achieved much standing there. I was aware there were a great many men in the county who would have liked a justifiable excuse to show their antipathy toward me and other church members, a contingency it seemed wise to avoid, if possible. It is only fair to me to state that while I was active in my public labors in the community, the course of firm repression of feeling and opinion which I had set for myself was not an easy one. I exercised my franchise without fear, even though my allegiance had swerved from a vote for Mr. Fremont in 1856 to one for Mr. Lincoln in 1860. This was a change I found consistent with my views upon the slavery question, even while I recognized the possibility that his election would bring the South into revolt and secession.

 

What followed is well known. My Lincoln received the votes of the people and soon thereafter one by one, the States of the South began their measures for seceding. Without question the movement started with South Carolina, just as had been predicted.

When the turmoil of internecine strife began, no one foresaw that the attempt at secession would result in the emancipation of Negro slaves. Even when the proclamation ordering their release was made, at a later date, it was considered, and so started, necessary as a war measure. It is quite probable that had the end been seen from the beginning, a good many more states would have declared for secession than did.

 

If Illinois could be judged by the feeling in Hancock County there would have ensued immediate and bitter division, for from the first we had “union” and “confederate” organizations in our midst. One of my cousins, Alvin Salisbury, told me he joined a band which he thought intended to take the field as a “Union” group but that he discovered in reality they had it in mind to plunder wherever and whenever opportunity offered. In this respect it was something like “Jayhawk” band and others which existed when Nebraska and Kansas sought admission into the Union.

 

When it became apparent that the South was bent upon destroying the solidarity of the United States, the Government set about the task of defending and preserving it. Some people thought it would be an easy task to overcome this rebellious notion and to restore unity and peace. That even President Lincoln and his advisers did not see the situation clearly is manifested by the comparatively small force of men at first ordered into the field. Some felt the Southerners would not fight, but recalling the war with Mexico and some splendid achievements of Southern men in that conflict, I was of the opinion they would not only fight but to it most gloriously, and that it would prove anything but play to conquer them. The man they chose as President of their confederated States, Jefferson Davis, had been colonel of a Mississippi regiment which, in one of the battles with the Mexicans, he boldly marched between the enemy and some shivering Indiana troops, not only saving the day for the United States, but averting serious defeat and consequent disgrace for the unit from the North. Thus I felt that with such capable and courageous men leading the seceding forces, there would be fighting, and plenty of it, I believed furthermore, that the struggle would not end until the march-mooted question concerning an oppressed and down-trodden race should also be settled in the appeal to arms.

 

Fulfillment

 

When the firing on Fort Sumter began, I was away from home, in Northern Illinois. When we heard that Major Anderson, in charge of that important fort in Charleston Harbor, was sustaining a heavy fire from the shore, authorized and directed by officers of South Carolina, I confess I thrilled from head to foot. I was swept with a conviction that every boom of the annon, reverberating across the land, was sounding a death knell to human slavery!

 

While nothing of this kind was being expressed by any speaker or newsmonger I heard, I was nevertheless strongly impressed with the thought that God was permitting the conflict for that purpose. I tried to explain this feeling on my part by attributing it to the latent belief I had doubtless cherished through the years that the prophecy uttered so long ago by my father would be fulfilled, and that the time would come when just such a movement was then beginning in the Southern States would result in “slaves rising up against their masters” and that the struggle would only cease when Negroes were given their freedom and franchise as human beings in a free country.

 

. . .

 

Some men expressed surprise at the conflict that opened with the firing of the guns at Fort Sumter, but my colleagues and co-officers in the church, then comparatively few in numbers, were fully persuaded that the house of rifling was past, and that the decree uttered by the Almighty through the voice of prophecy had gone forth. We believed that this was to be a land devoted to religious and civil liberty for all races of men alike, and that the fulfillment of divine decree was imminent, even if by bloodshed. We had an abiding confidence that this Government had been instituted of God for the accomplishment of his own wise purpose, and that the spirit of religious tolerance and political freedom designed for this country should prevail, should spread, and in time become universal throughout the world. ("The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith (1932) Edited by his daughter Mary Audentia Smith Anderson,” The Saints' Herald 82, no. 18 [April 30, 1935]: 559, 561)

 

If the time of God’s opportunity had now come and the land was about to be purged of this outstanding evil it had fostered, then the prophecy of 1832 was a true fore-shadowing of what would transpire, and as those events should occur in the passing of time and the prophecy be still further justified, his claim upon us as his sons would be definitely enlarged, the value and beauty of his life greatly enhanced, our faith in his message consciously increased, and our courage in defending the principles of truth for which he lived and died materially strengthened. We could with more certainty and greater assurance fight our way forward to the accomplishment of the task to which we were committed—the task of preaching to all men everywhere the ancient gospel of Christ, restored in a new vitality and purity, and that of reorganizing into an efficient, active, and smoothly-running unit, the scattered forces of the church of latter days, wherever such elements might be found. ("The Memoirs of President Joseph Smith (1932) Edited by his daughter Mary Audentia Smith Anderson,” The Saints' Herald 82, no. 19 [May 7, 1935]: 589)

 

Further Reading:

 

Resources on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies