THE MORMON COMMONWEALTH 



nothing survives save an occasional homely maxim, such 

 as, " Plough deep and plant alfalfa." Like all his sayings 

 and all his works, this marks the mind and method of 

 the materialist rather than of the idealist. Whatever 

 else he really thought of polygamy, he at least believed 

 it a capital method of increasing the population of a new 

 country, and that happened to be the particular work 

 upon which his effort and ambition were engaged. 



A leader of men ? Most emphatically, but of the grim 

 and masterful sort a Cromwell rather than a Lincoln. 

 While no orator, he had strong persuasive powers. These 

 were supported by splendid enthusiasm and optimism. 

 He could set men at work with the conviction in their 

 minds that success was certain, failure impossible. 



This man was successful in what he undertook to do. 

 He did not originate Mormonism. He added nothing 

 to its creed or its literature, though he added much to 

 its power. But finding the Mormons a despised and 

 hunted people, he set himself the task of extricating 

 them from intolerable surroundings, of leading them a 

 thousand miles across an almost unexplored country, 

 and of founding, in the midst of untried conditions, a 

 commonwealth where they could rear their homes and 

 temples and wax great and strong. Who can doubt that 

 if he had undertaken to build a transcontinental rail- 

 road, like Ames and Huntington ; to found a pork-pack- 

 ing business, like Armour ; or to lead an army, like Grant, 

 he would have commanded success ? He had all the 

 elements of a successful man in any of the greater walks 

 of life where pluck and brains, determination and vast 

 ambition, are the requisite qualities. If he was a relig- 

 ious fanatic, there never was another of his composition. 



73 



