him if roads are opened and canals constructed it will please him. From these practical visions come actions, and on a Sunday the great high-priest rises in the tabernacle and says: "God has spoken. He has said unto his prophet, ' Get thee up, Brigham, and build me a city in the fertile valley to the south, where there is water, where there are fish, where the sun is strong enough to ripen the cotton plants, and give raiment as well as food to my saints on earth. Brethren willing to aid God's work should come to me before the bishop's meeting.'" "As the prophet takes his seat again," says an eye-witness, "and puts on his broad-brimmed hat, a hum of applause runs around the bowery, and teams and barrows are freely promised."
To whatsoever Brigham applied himself he directed his whole strength, provided his whole strength was necessary to the accomplishment of his purpose. There were others in the field against him, aspirants for the late prophet's place, besides Sidney; but directing his efforts only against the most powerful of them, the president of the twelve summoned the quorum and the people, as we have seen, crushed Rigdon and his adherents by one of the master-strokes which he was now learning, declared the revelations of Rigdon to be of the devil, cut him off, cursed him, and was himself elected almost without a dissenting voice, giving all ostensibly the fullest liberty to act, yet permitting none of them to do so, and even causing ten to be tried for dissenting. Henceforth none dared to gainsay his authority; he became not only the leader of the Mormons, but their dictator; holding authority for a time as president of the twelve apostles, and finally in the capacity of the first presidency, being made president of the whole church in December 1847.
Brigham Young was now in his forty-third year, in the prime of a hale and vigorous manhood, with exuberant vitality, with marvelous energy, and with unswerving faith in his cause and in himself. In stat-
