Friday, May 12, 2023

Daniel C. Peterson on the Problems with the "Freemason" Interpretation of the "Secret Combinations" for D&C 42:64

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.

 

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