UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 131 



protection from oppression, by those passing through their midst, 

 were not made in vain ; and I know of at least one instance in 

 which the marshal of the State was despatched, with an adequate 

 force, nearly two hundred miles into the western desert, in pur- 

 suit of some miscreants who had stolen off with nearly the whole 

 outfit of a party of emigrants. He pursued and brought them 

 back to the city, and the plundered property was restored to its 

 rightful owner. 



While, however, there are all the exterior evidences of a govern- 

 ment strictly temporal, it cannot be concealed that it is so intimately 

 blended with the spiritual administration of the church, that it 

 would be impossible to separate the one from the other. The 

 first civil governor under the constitution of the new State, elected 

 by the people, was the president of the church, Brigham Young ; 

 the lieutenant-governor was his first ecclesiastical counsellor, and 

 the secretary of state his second counsellor : these three indi- 

 viduals forming together the " presidency" of the church. The 

 bishops of the several wards, who, by virtue of their oflBce in the 

 church, had exercised not only a spiritual but a temporal authority 

 over the several districts assigned to their charge, were appointed, 

 under the civil organization, to be justices of the peace, and were 

 supported in the discharge of their duties, not only by the civil 

 power, but by the whole spiritual authority of the church also. 

 This intimate connection of church and state seems to pervade 

 every thing that is done. The supreme power in both being lodged 

 in the hands of the same individuals, it is difficult to separate their 

 two official characters, and to determine whether in any one in- 

 stance they act as spiritual or merely temporal officers. 



The establishment of a civil government at all, seems to me to 

 have been altogether the result of a foreseen necessity, which it 

 was impossible to avoid. As the community grew in numbers and 

 importance, it was not to be expected, as has been before remarked, 

 that the whole population would always consist solely of members 

 of the church, looking up to the presidency, not only as its spiritual 

 head, but as the divinely commissioned and inspired source of law 

 in temporal matters and policy also. It became necessary, there- 

 fore, to provide for the government of the wliole^ by establishing 

 some authority which could not be disputed by any, and would 

 exercise a control over them as citizens, whether they were mem- 

 bers of the church or not; and which, being acknowledged and 

 recognised by the Government of the United States, would be sup- 



