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Show 4o enemies; throw down their tower and scatter their watchmen. "29 Brigham Young also saw potential violence for the Saints in the last days. In I858 he announced that "twenty-eight years ago it was revealed to me that I should live to see the world arrayed against this people. "30 ihe f^y o f t h e l a st days was building, and it seemed that the Saints might be in the midst of it. Political independence for Zion would have been a welcome development in the course of millennial progression, but it was by no means the purpose of the organization of the church or the Council of Fifty. Joseph Smith was laying the foundation, and, in its own due time, the kingdom would rise to take its place at the head of world government. Not long after the revelation of the political kingdom was received, another startling prediction was made. On August 6, 1842 Joseph declared: the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty 31 people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Removal to the Far West became the first item of business for the Council of Fifty. Three months after the Council's organization, Joseph was forced to flee Nauvoo. His last words to his friends were, "Be ready to start for the Great Basin in the Rocky Mountains."32 The fortunes of the millennial kingdom were again set back when Smith was assassinated by an armed mob in Carthage, Illinois on June 27, 1844. Brigham Young assumed the leadership of the church by virtue of bis presidency of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second highest governing body in the church. Despite a brief power struggle, he consolidated his position and laid plans to |
