| 183 Brigham Young's attaining to the presidency. We should be quite willing to grant all that truth will bear us out in yielding to the genius of President Young; but before we can admit the statement as true, we wish one or two facts to be considered. Joseph Smith, the martyr, in an article written for publication, in 1844, just before his death, estimates the number of communicants belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Europe and America, at from one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred thousand. This aggregation of numbers had been accomplished in the short space of fourteen years, from the organization of the church, April, 1830, to June, 1844. During this period of propagandizing, the dogma of spiritual wifery, or polygamy, was not taught, and no increase in numbers was counted as from this source. In 1876 the church under the leadership of President Young, according to information furnished by one who had good opportunity to know, numbered in Utah, one hundred eleven thousand, and abroad, not gathered, fifteen thousand, making a total of one hundred twenty-five thousand, twenty-five thousand less than the number of the church communicants in 1844. This result accrues to the church in Utah, under the rule of President Young, after the stupendous efforts of the hosts of missionaries constantly sent abroad by that church, during a period of thirty-two years, or from June, 1844, to December, 1876, a period of time more than twice as long as the one intervening between the rise of the church and the death of the martyrs. And to help make the contrast, that portion of the time occurring between August, 1852, and December, 1876, twenty-four years, the increase in numbers had the benefit of the preaching and practice of the plural marriage, that must, of course, greatly augment the ratio of increase or the principle is shorn of one of its strongest arguments.
Now, any one who is curious enough to figure it out can tell exactly what the rate of progression has been. If the elders of the church-the first elders-without the aid and benefit of the teaching of the tenet referred to, did succeed in baptizing the number of one hundred fifty thousand (we take the smaller number), in fourteen years; what has been the ratio of increase where the elders under the lead of President Young, with the aid of the teaching and practice of that tenet, have succeeded in losing twenty-five thousand of the number of the communicants that the church had at the time the Twelve and President Young took charge, after diligent ministerial and missionary effort for twenty-four years; that is, from August, 1852, to December, 1876; or of thirty-two years, from June, 1844, to December, 1876, granting that from June, 1844, to August, 1852, polygamy was not a tenet of the church publicly taught; as the record shows that it was not.
Here are the different sums going to make up the problem, for whoever may attempt to solve it. We are not anxious to detract from the just fame of President Young; but the army of missionary laborers, who have been so industriously engaged in "building up the kingdom," both by the legitimate
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