As president of the Church in Ohio, Smith's communistic ambitions were mingled with hier archical schemes. Besides the United Firm and the Safety Bank, in 1833 he dedicated to the Lord the printing office of the Latter-Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate. In 1834 he organized the First High Council of the Church of Christ, with himself, Rigdon, and Williams as the First Presidency. In 1835 he chose the Twelve Apostles, among whom were Brigham Young, the Lion of the Lord; Parley Pratt, the Archer of Paradise: and Lyman NVright,the Wild Rain of the Mountain. In 1836 Smith instituted the several quorums or executive bodies of the Church, first the Presidency, then the Twelve, and the Seventy, also the counselors of Kirtland and Zion. 1837 he set apart Apostles ball and Hyde to go on a mission to England, the first fo•eign mission of the Church.
In 1832, as a prophet of woe urging the Saints to sell all they had and flee from the wrath to conic, Smith brought the mob upon 'himself and Rigdon at the town of Hiram. In the great apostasy of 1836 the Church lost sonic of its pillars. The three witnesses to the Book of•dlor mon were soon cut off. In the hull of excom munication David Whitmer, the anti-polygamist, was compared to Balaam's ass; Martin Ilarris was called a negro with a white skin, while all the "dissenters," says the Prophet, "are so far beneath my contempt that to notice any of them would be too great a sacrifice for a gentleman to make." While the Saints were yet in Ohio there is evidence that polygamy was both practiced and sanctioned by those highest in authority. The Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints under the leadership of the Prophet's son, Joseph Smith, 3d. has claimed that the doctrine of 'spiritual wifery' was introduced, not by the Prophet, but by the older men, notably HurIburt, Bennett, and Rigdon. The real acts of these scapegoats may never be known, for their testimony as to Smith's implication in their practices was de clared unprintable. Hence what remains of the evidence against the Prophet is merely circum stantial, and is to be counterbalanced by his early attempts at ostensible suppression. In October, 1831, Smith admonished William E. McLellin through a revelation: "Commit not adultery. a temptation with which thou bast been troubled." In .July, 1833. Smith wrote to the brethren in Zion to "guard against evils which may arise from accounts given of women." In 1835 the Book of Doctrine and Covenants declared: "In asmuch as this Church of Christ has been re proached with the crime of fornication, and polyg amy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband." The third place of settlement by the Saints was Missonri. Smith's order to Oliver Cowdery to go and establish the Church among, the Lamanites brought four Mormon missionaries to .Taekson County as early as 1831. The town
of Independence was declared the new city of Zion and a site for a temple was chosen there in August. The converts poured in from the Middle Atlantic States and Canada with such rapidity that the non-Mormons were somewhat alarmed. The printing of the Book of Com mandnur1f.c with its revelations the Saints calling :11i-souri "the land of your inheritance, \Odell is now the land of your enemies." led to acts 4I hostility from the citizens of daekson Count}'. The burning of and the shoot ing into 'Mormon houses at night was followed by for the removal of the llornons from the country within a reasonable time, and for the prohibition of future 111ormon settlement therein. The element of border ruffianism was doubtless responsible for the speedy destruction of t he I quireli print ing office, and for the tarring and feathering of Bishop Partridge. yet the Saints themselves were not without fault. Their agree merit to depart. within eight months was written, as flt4.y :alleged. "supposing that before the time arrived the molt would see their error and stop the violence." Since Governor Dunklin was loath to call out the militia, the mob drove at least fifteen hundred :Mormons across the Alissouri, the women and eltildren terrible hard still), in 1114. November storms. The negotiations for financial redress proved fruitless, for, as the Governor himself confessed, conviction for any committed against a 7.‘lornion could not be 11:141 in Jaekson Comity. Until IS3S the town I if Far West was materially prosperous and on good terms with its neighbors, but the Prophet's arrival in that year there arose dis sensions within and without. The Presidency urns deposed on a charge of misappropriating trust funds and Oliver Cowdery expelled for counterfeiting. \Vitli the further defection of 'flionnis R. Marsh. president of the Twelve, and Orson Hyde, one of the original Apostles, there ea 111e the establishing of an organization called ultimately the I )allit e I land, and known popu larly as the .Avenging _Angels. Bound to seereey by blood oaths, obeying behest of the Clinrch against properly or life, this variety of thugs (me(' its origin to Smith's revelation of it. enemy is in thine hands, and if thou reward hint according to his work, thou art justified; if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him. thine 1.111'111y is in thine hands and thou art justified." The year 183s also saw the establishment of the tithing system. Forty years afterwards the annual tithing were estimated at a million dollar', appropriated, according to Brigham Young. to church ereetion, emigration, and poor relief.