Episode 135: Mormon Reformation, part one

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:21)
All right, kids, who's ready for spiritual boot camp that nobody signed up for, but everyone has to attend? Anyone? Bueller? No?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:30)
Just the ancestors.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:33)
So last episode, we gave you some background on Jedediah Grant, the father of the Mormon Reformation. We're gonna finish up his story today, and then in the next episode or two, we'll dig into the details of the Mormon Reformation.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:44)
Hopefully, the outline of Jeddi's life gives you the bones for how the Reformation is going to play out. But just in case this is your first time tuning in, make sure you catch up on the last episode.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:56)
In that one, we talked about the overzealous Jedediah Morgan Grant, joining the Saints West, living the secret polygamy, and being really hardcore about everything. And no, it's not a euphemism.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:25)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:27)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:29)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:56)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:01)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:09)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
After the Saints head west, Jedediah is starting to gain some real prominence and power in the new shiny tin can corridors at the Quorum of the Twelve. Jeddiah's got his hands full. He's now the very first mayor of the GSL. At first, he's the president of the 70 He served a crap ton of missions, and he's Brigham's little screwdriver. Damn it. That is not a euphemism.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:52)
I think you meant Sledgehammer. He's Brigham Young's Sledgehammer.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:56)
I said what I said. He's like 5'2.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:00)
Quote, according to Paul Peterson, we have several descriptions of Brigg's little screwdriver. Quote, he was, observed a New York Times reporter, a tall, thin, repulsive looking man, of a cute, vigorous intellect, a thorough-paced scoundrel, and the most essential black guard in the pulpit. Oh, geez.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:20)
That's a blackguard.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:22)
Is that how you say it?

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:23)
Blackguard? If you're British. Let's at least call that one a blackguard.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:27)
Blackguard, says the Utah lady. Mormon apostle Fanny Sennhaus said he was, quote, an enthusiast of the wildest kind, a man without education or mental discipline of any description. And this is not unusual. An earlier historian, Norman Furness, called Grant, quote, a fearless, brawling and loose-tongued fighter, and a man that had an excitable nature and was uncontrollable. You know what? Sounds good. Let's put him in Mormon leadership.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:53)
Let's put him in charge of injecting more zeal into Mormons.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:57)
You know what? Mormonism in the frontier needs more zeal.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:00)
Yeah. As mayor and a leading figure in the church, Jedediah Grant had his hands full, bouncing from one Mormon settlement to another, keeping the rapidly expanding communities in check, sort of. But underneath all that travel and administration, political tensions are brewing like a pot of strong frontier coffee.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:18)
Before it was outlawed by Jedediah's son, Heber J. Grant later on.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:22)
In the times of the seventh president. The summer of 1851 saw federal officials roll into Utah and they're not exactly thrilled with the local customs, particularly, I don't know, polygamy. These outsiders, unacquainted with the peculiarities of Mormon life, butted heads with the local leadership. And Grant, he finds himself smack dab in the middle of the fray. The July 24th celebration meant to honor the pioneers turns into a verbal showdown, with speeches that left the US government feeling more criticized and celebrated. Safe to say the event didn't exactly smooth things over.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:57)
The tensions culminated into a bitter exchange during a church conference in September of 1841 when Judge Perry E. Brockes, newly arrived from Alabama, publicly criticized the Saints and their practice of polygamy, provoking a fierce response from Brigham Young.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:12)
I would love to have a time machine camera on Brigham's face while he's talking. I have to think Brigham did not have a good poker face. He would have, he was pissed and he would have, it would have been obvious. He said the Bracchus was either, quote, powerfully ignorant or corruptly wicked, one of the two. And then there's an unclear section in the transcript. We consulted the shorthand transcript because that's what we do for you, where he just refers to cutting of throats. He then kicks it up a notch by saying, we love the government and the Constitution, but we do not love the damned rascals that administer the government. Then-