Today in Mormon History - May 18

[TodayInMormonHistory]

On this day in Mormon History
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-- 180 years ago today - May 18, 1846 --

At seven o'clock [am] the President [Brigham Young] called the captains of tens to his wagons and gave a pretty severe lecture. He referred to some who had left meat on the ground and would not use it because it was not hind quarter. Some would murmur because a fore quarter of meat was allotted to them, etc., which is not right, for God has given us a commandment that we should not waste meat, nor take life unless it is needful, but he can see a disposition in this camp to slaughter everything before them, yea if all the buffalo and game there is on our route were brought together to the camp, there are some who would never cease until they had destroyed the whole. (1)
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Brigham Young first arrives at Mount Pisgah on the day the Constitution for the State of Iowa is adopted in convention. Most of the proposed Deseret Constitution was copied from the Iowa ConstitutionPeter Crawley notes that "Fifty-seven of the sixty-seven sections are taken from the Iowa constitution, in most cases word for word .... The constitution for the state of Deseret was generated - lifted, almost - from the Iowa constitution in the summer of 1849. The document was first printed in Kanesville, Iowa, by apostle Orson Hyde at the Frontier Guardian office in September 1849, an action taken to support the petition for statehood carried by Almon Babbitt." (2)
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Brigham Young establishes Mt. Pisgah on the middle fork of the Grand River as a second temporary way station along the Mormon Trail in Iowa.
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-- 170 years ago today - May 18, 1856 --
[Brigham Young]
"Our sisters feel themselves fettered they suffer the privation of corrupting themselves. I feel to have mercy on them. I see some as corrupt as the bowels of hell come to the sacrament. You know you ought to be hewn down, for fearfulness does lay hold of the hypocrite in Zion. to falter in the faith is a marvel to me. I will not take away the agency of a single individual. they must choose or refuse for themselves. you who would lay the sword to my brethrens throats, you who know that you ought to have your throats cut - I will give you flour enough to get you out of this territory - now try me - if we suffer the spirit of apostasy to creep into us then we are in danger." (3)
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-- 145 years ago today - Wednesday, May 18, 1881 --

City Hall, Salt Lake City

I spent the day in Council <of Fifty>. We discussed the subject of the Coming Elections. (4)
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-- 115 years ago today - May 18, 1911; Thursday --

I was app[oin]t[e]d to Brigham [City, Utah] for funeral, to Logan [Utah] for Sunday peace meeting. (5)
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-- 70 years ago today - May 18, 1956 --
[J. Reuben Clark]
"President Richards telephoned, quite literally puffing for breath, saying there was one matter of business he felt he must take up with me. While in New York Elder George Q. Morris and President George H. Mortimer of the New York Stake said they had confidentially learned that Tammany Hall [an influential New York City political organization] had recently held a "powwow" (President Richards did not use this term) and had determined that they had a vulnerable point on every member of the Cabinet except Secretary Benson, and as to him, the only point they had found was the attitude of the Church on the negro question, for which, of course, Benson stood.

"President Richards indicated to them that he was not too much impressed by the fact that Tammany Hall might have reached such a decision, and he pressed President Mortimer on the point that perhaps it was the Republican Party that was really raising the question, and Brother Mortimer finally admitted that that was true, that it was Brother Mortimer's party and not Tammany Hall that was urging it.

"President Mortimer wondered if we couldn't issue a statement making clear our position on the negro question. President Richards replied that we were governed by revelation and that nothing contradictory had ever been received. We could not very well change the revelation to meet some political exigency (in the latter part of the conversation he stated that he did not see how we could undertake to change a revelation because of political exigency and I said I wholly agreed with him.) President Richards pointed out what our traditional position on the negroes was as based on the revelation. Brother Mortimer raised the question as to whether or not the Prophet Joseph did not ordain a negro. President Richards stated that he was not sure about that. I told him I thought it was true, but I also understood that that ordination was made before the revelation was received. However he promised that he would let Brother George Q. Morris know in Washington whether or not we felt we
could do anything.

"I did not understand from Brother Richards that Brother Benson or any other responsible person in the Republican Party had made any overtures in the matter.

"President Richards and I agreed that perhaps we were not in a position to make any changes and that we so advise Brother Morris addressing him in care of J. Willard Marriott. (6)
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-- 45 years ago today - May 18, 1981-Monday --
[Leonard Arrington]
David Lawrence McKay came in to the office this morning and Davis Bitton was in on the conversation. He wanted to discuss the preparation of a biography for [his father] President David O. McKay. ... I told him if he wished to do it that way [do it privately through the Mormon History Trust Fund] that :

... The family would have to get approval from the First Presidency and the History Department for us to have access to the papers and if any papers are still with the family we would need to have access to those.

3. The family would have to agree to the preparation of an "honest" biography-well rounded, relatively intimate showing the warts as well as the positive side of President McKay.

Brother McKay said he would talk this over with the family and get back with us. ...

He talked as though all the McKay papers including diaries and scrapbooks are upstairs in the History Department. [Former secretary] Claire Middlemiss has copies of the diary-which is really her diary-but the original is upstairs. Brother McKay said he has access to the McKay papers and he might designate us as his agents in having access to them. ... (7)
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-- 40 years ago today - May 18, 1986 --

A Church News announcement instructs Mormons not to "be parties to" rumors that "the Proctor and Gamble Co. has some connection with satanism and devil worship, based on the firm's moon and stars trademark." (8)
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1 - William Clayton Journal pp 156-157, quoted in Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)
2 - Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source; "The Constitution of the State of Deseret," Provo, Utah: Friends of the BYU Library Newsletter, Vol. 19, 1982; Two-Millionth Volume Keepsake
3 - Thomas Bullock Minutes, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses
4 - Wilford Woodruff diary, 8:32, as quoted in Jedediah S. Rogers (editor), The Council of Fifty: A Documentary History, Signature Books (2014)
5 - Charles W. Penrose, Diary
6 - The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition, Salt Lake City, Utah 2015
7 - Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018
8 - The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database (http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase)]