Zachary Taylor is dead and gone to hell, and I am glad of it: I prophesy , in the name of Jesus Christ, and by the power of the priesthood that is upon me, that any other President of the United States who shall lift his finger against this people, will die an untimely death and go to hell.”
Those were quite the days, weren’t they?
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
What great American, of whom his biographer wrote, “he was a servant and follower of Jesus Christ, in whom he believed as God,” said the following about President Abraham Lincoln?
“The President is no more than a well-meaning baboon. I went to the White House directly after tea, where I found “The Original Gorilla”, about as intelligent as ever. What a specimen to be at the head of our affairs now.”
Tracy Hall Jr
hthalljr’gmail’com
There seems to be a big difference between a criticism of a president’s intelligence, and a hate filled speech that includes claims of prophetic word.
Jeremy, to be fair, Idaho became a state in the turbulance of hate-filled speech by the “Gentiles”, too. The father of our state was taking down Mormons right and left back in the days. Everyone was against the LDS people. And I mean everyone.
If Mitt Romney becomes the next President of the United States, it will be a complete reversal of the wild, wild, wild political scene that birthed Idaho.
From the days of the “Test Oath” to the Presidency . . . imagine the movies that would hit the big screens in America.
Todd, I agree about the complete reversal. But doesn’t history show that the Mormons of those days were a very different people than they are now? At the very least, the issue of polygamy. But there were many other issues within the character of early Mormonism that led the “Gentiles” to be much harsher than they are today. My point is that it may be true that everyone was against the LDS people back in the day, and not nearly as much now. But this is primarily due to the fact that the LDS have changed in their character since their founding. If that’s true, why is that?
Todd, what’s a good reading source that you’ve found for the early establish of Idaho and the relations with the early LDS?
1. Back in those days of Mormonism, at the turn of the last century, an LDS Apostle, Reed Smoot, became a U.S. senator. At that time, you had a welding together of LDS hierarchy with American political office – a General Authority/U.S. Senator. Obviously, this created intense public fears of a state church and religious oppression. But today, LDS church news seeks to stifle these fears by posting their political neutrality.
The biggest reason for change is Mormonism’s stance on open canon and progressive revelation. Whereas Christ Church up in Moscow looks back to the ancients in history and fixed biblical propositions, the LDS looks chiefly to the guidance of the modern elders and contemporary reasoning.
1. History of Idaho (Vol. 1) by Leonard J. Arrington (general Idaho history in the early days)
2. The Making of A State by Fred T. Dubois (you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth)
3. ***** Let the Eagle Scream by Deana Lowe Jensen (fast reading biography of Dubois) – I thought this local author did a great job.
4. Captain Bonneville’s County by Edith Haroldsen Lovell
5. Glimpses From the Life of Rebecca Brown Mitchell
It would be interesting to trace the saga by researching the data from the two distinctly separate centers:
1. Idaho State University Press (or even University Press of Idaho up in your town)
2. University Press – BYU – Idaho