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Introduction In Prospect Who Were the Morrisites? In his classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell describes an antiutopian society called Oceania.1 One of the most important divisions within the government of Oceania is the Ministry of Truth, and in the Ministry of Truth is the Records Department. It is the business of the Records Department to see that reports of events are properly edited so as to appear congruent with governmental policy at any given time. Since Oceania’s governmental policy is anything but consistent, the Records Department is primarily occupied with deleting, adding, rewriting, or otherwise manipulating its documents. The department’s control over government records and the media is so complete that with impunity it can manufacture history to suit the needs of government. Or it can literally erase all records of persons or events so that nothing of them remains—so that they have no history and consequently (for all practical purposes) no existence whatsoever. Perhaps only in fiction could such complete manipulation of history be carried out. Yet the disturbing fact remains that persons, events, or even entire societies may be lost to history and might just as well have never existed if no written recollections, artifacts, or other records about them are known. Although not quite such an extreme case, the Morrisites came very close to real as well as historical extinction during the hundred years following their organization. Whether by design, ignorance, or oversight, histories of times, places, and events of which the Morrisites were a part completely overlooked them or afforded them little more than a footnote. Yet the Morrisite movement was, in fact, a matter of some concern to the nineteenth-century Mormons and did have its own impact on the history of the West. The Morrisite movement acquired its name from that of its principal leader, Joseph Morris, an English convert to Mormonism who migrated to 1 George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company , 1949). 2 Introduction Utah in 1853. By 1857 he had gained something of a reputation in the Provo area as a fanatic ne’er-do-well who was openly critical of certain Mormon doctrines and local church leaders. The leaders, in turn, censured him and removed him from the office of teacher in the church. Soon Morris became convinced that God had spoken to him and had selected him to be a prophet. Before long he was preaching that it was his destiny to supersede Brigham Young—to become prophet, seer, and revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this respect Joseph Morris was not entirely unique, for numerous contenders had emerged from time to time among the Mormons intent upon wresting the church leadership for themselves or establishing a following of the disaffected. This had been especially true around the time of the death of Joseph Smith, the first Mormon prophet, in Illinois in 1844, when no fewer than six factions developed.2 Brigham Young assumed presidency of the largest faction in 1847 and was chiefly responsible for establishing the Mormons in the Rocky Mountains. Brigham Young’s success at colonization and attracting converts so overshadowed the efforts of the other contending leaders that he became regarded by most Mormons and non-Mormons alike as the leader of Mormondom. Yet he never was able to bring all Mormons into his fold. And even in the Great Basin, where his rule was virtually supreme, his leadership was occasionally questioned even before the appearance of Joseph Morris. Nevertheless, Morris began his campaign for spiritual leadership at a time when the Brighamite Mormons were experiencing numerous political and spiritual crises that at the very least made Young’s leadership less absolute than it had been at any time since arriving in the Rocky Mountains ten years earlier. By 1857 the Mormons were established in much of the Great Basin, and their influence was felt from St. Louis on the east to San Bernardino, California, on the west and from the Salmon River country of Idaho to the lightly watered valleys of Arizona. The Brighamite Mormons had literally retreated to the mountains from the more populous East and Midwest, where they had endured numerous acts of persecution and forced expulsion . In the West they hoped to escape persecution, develop their own way 2 In addition to the followers of Brigham Young, factions developed under the leadership of Lyman Wight, Charles B. Thompson, Samuel Brannan, James J. Strang, and Sidney...

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