Some may think that plans to establish a settlement in Texas meant that Joseph Smith never believed (let alone prophesied) the Saints would settle in the Rocky Mountains. However, the settlement was never meant to be the headquarters of the Church. As Ronald K. Esplin noted:
One
of the first items of business in the Council of Fifty was to discuss planting
a Mormon settlement in Texas. Bishop George Miller and Apostle Lyman Wight,
leaders of a Wisconsin work colony supplying lumber for the Nauvoo Temple, wrote
to the Prophet requesting authorization to found in Texas, where they already
had connections, “a place of gathering for all the South.” George Miller
arrived in Nauvoo March 8 with the proposal. Two days later the presidency and
Quorum of the Twelve discussed it with Bishop Miller and the following day, March
11, formally organized the Council of Fifth—and continued discussions on Texas.
The
Texas proposal dovetailed nicely wit the Prophet’s expansive plans. The time
had come, he felt, to move beyond Nauvoo. After the election the West would be
explored; in the meantime, if there was an opening in Texas, it should be
followed up. Although there may have been in Texas the potential for unique
advantages—and the idea of a regional stronghold there was certainly in harmony
with the ultimate goal of expansion throughout the continent—there is no
evidence that Joseph Smith and his associates looked to Texas as the location for
a new Church headquarters. For that, it seems clear, they continued to look to
the isolated mountains of the West. The Council of Fifty, therefore,
concluded both to initiate contact with Sam Houston and the Texas government to
seek support from Congress for the proposed venture in the Far West. (Ronald K.
Esplin, “’A Place Prepared’: Joseph, Brigham and the Quest for Promised Refuge
in the West,” Journal
of Mormon History 9 [1982]: 94-95, emphasis added)
In a footnote to the above,
Esplin noted that
.
. . Texas seems never to have been viewed as a suitable place for a
headquarters. Instead of isolated refuge, they offered the same liabilities as
laces the Saints had already settled. Regardless of initial welcome, these
widely publicized lands already attracted other settlers, including,
especially, according to Orson Hyde, in the case of Texas, many of “our old
enemies, the mobocrats of Missouri.” Orson
Hyde to Joseph Smith and Council, April 25, 1844, in Smith, History of
the Church 6:372. (Ibid., 95 n. 43)
Further Reading:
