Doctrine and Covenants 136
Historical Context
After the long and difficult journey across Iowa, the Saints sought refuge along the banks of the Missouri River. Their primary settlement, simply named “Winter Quarters,” became a temporary base of operations as the Saints searched for a new permanent home for Church headquarters. Several thousand Saints gathered and suffered together at Winter Quarters during the winter of 1846–47. They had arrived in the Nebraska wilderness without a firm idea of their next destination. In the squalid conditions of the camps along the Missouri, death and disease tested the limits of their faith and endurance. Yet for all its privations, this period in Church history witnessed the genesis of new organization, new direction, and new leadership for the Saints.
From the outset, Brigham Young and the other leaders of the Iowa trek knew the banks of the Missouri were not the ideal location to spend the winter. Leaders had hoped to press on to Grand Island that winter and send a party to the Rocky Mountains to identify a new refuge for the Saints. Brigham’s hopes evaporated amid the hardships and delays of the journey across Iowa. Concerns for refugees still fleeing Nauvoo led Brigham to conclude that it was time to regroup and reorganize before pushing further west.
The Saints’ location near present-day Florence, Nebraska, was not ideal. Fragile relations with the surrounding Indian nations, the swampy environment, and the onset of winter contributed to anxiety in the camps. Nevertheless, a settlement for the Saints was carefully plotted, and the plans included twenty-two wards organized with bishops appointed to look after the poor and needy. Available manpower for the settlement was strained when Brigham Young encouraged the recruitment of five hundred men for the Mormon Battalion.
In Winter Quarters, as well as in the string of temporary Latter-day Saint encampments along the Iowa trail, sickness prevailed. Louisa Barnes Pratt recalled, “The shaking ague fastened deathless fangs upon me [and] I shook till it appeared my very bones were pulverized. I wept, I prayed, I besought the Lord to have mercy on me.” Thomas L. Kane, a non-Latter-day Saint who observed the plight of the Saints, broke down and openly “sobbed like a child” when he saw the terrible conditions of the camps. Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal, “I have never seen the Latter-day Saints in any situation where they seemed to be passing through greater tribulations or wearing out faster then at the present time.” It is estimated that 723 deaths occurred in a population of 8,750 Saints, or a mortality rate of one in twelve.
The extreme adversity led many to question the judgment and leadership of Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve. Prominent Church leaders within the camps, most notably George Miller, opposed the route of the exodus, the destination in the West, and the management of the camps. James J. Strang, an apostate claiming to be the rightful successor to Joseph Smith, offered an alternative to disaffected Saints. Strang’s followers pointed to the suffering at Winter Quarters as evidence of Brigham Young’s folly.
To the faithful, however, there was no folly. On January 14, 1847, Brigham Young received a revelation titled “The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel” (D&C 136). The revelation provided answers to some of the difficult questions raised at Winter Quarters, such as the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. The Lord asserted, “It was needful that he [Joseph] should seal his testimony with his blood, that he might be honored and the wicked might be condemned” (D&C 136:39). The Lord specified that the westward trek was to take place “under the direction of mine apostles,” which left no doubt as to who was the Lord’s anointed (D&C 136:3). The Lord also declared, “My people must be tried in all things” and that they must “covenant and promise to keep all the commandments of the Lord” (D&C 136:2). The revelation directed the Saints to “praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving” (D&C 136:28).
Hosea Stout recorded in his journal that the revelation was “to me a source of much joy and gratification,” and he added, “this will put to silence the wild bickering and suggestions of those who are ever in the way and opposing the proper council. They will now have to come to this standard or come out in open rebellion to the will of the Lord.” George Miller and other opponents of Brigham Young disparaged the revelation. Most of the Saints heeded its counsel and looked forward to spring when they could organize themselves into companies for the westward trek. Section 136 was first included in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants by Orson Pratt, acting under the direction of Brigham Young.
View the earliest copy of Doctrine and Covenants 136.
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
D&C 126:1–4
1 The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West:
2 Let all the people of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God.
3 Let the companies be organized with captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens, with a president and his two counselors at their head, under the direction of the Twelve Apostles.
4 And this shall be our covenant—that we will walk in all the ordinances of the Lord.
Doctrine and Covenants 136:1–4 reflects two major events that occurred early in the exodus of the Saints to the western regions of North America. First, even as the Saints prepared to leave their homes in Nauvoo, they completed work on the Nauvoo Temple. Brigham Young and the other Church leaders who had already received their temple ordinances rushed to provide temple blessings to all the Saints who desired them. They were working against a deadline—they knew that the temple in Nauvoo would have to be abandoned when they left the area. By February 1846, when the first Saints began to leave Nauvoo, more than six thousand of their number received their blessings in the temple. Their sacred temple covenants sustained the Saints in difficult years as the Church searched for a new home. Sarah Pea Rich later said that “if it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that Temple,” the trip across the Great Plains “would have been like one taking a leap in the dark.”
The covenant explained in verse 4, “to walk in all the ordinances of the Lord,” includes the sacred commitments Saints make in the temple to live the law of consecration. The commitment to live this law became both a vital part of the trek west and a large part of its success. Even while administering the temple ordinances, Brigham Young worked to prepare the Saints for the sacrifices that would be necessary for crossing the plains. During a general conference held in Nauvoo on October 6, 1845, the Saints made a covenant to “take all the Saints with us, to the extent of our ability, that is, our influence and property.” This covenant not only affected the Saints in Nauvoo but bound the Saints together in the ensuing decades as they helped converts from all over the world gather to the new home of the Church in the Rocky Mountains.
This principle of living the ordinances of the gospel by assisting others in the journey was illustrated in a dramatic way in 1856 when word reached Salt Lake City that the Martin and Willie handcart companies were trapped on the high plains of Wyoming with deadly winter weather closing in on them. Brigham Young arose in a general conference meeting, called for volunteers to rescue the stranded companies, and declared to the Saints, “I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains. And attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties. Otherwise, your faith will be in vain. The preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to Hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you.”
Temple covenants bound the Saints of 1847 together in a commitment to find their new home. These covenants also bound the Saints to rescue the suffering handcart pioneers of 1856. The same covenants bind Latter-day Saints in our time to consecrate their gifts to rescue their brothers and sisters.
D&C 136:5–11
5 Let each company provide themselves with all the teams, wagons, provisions, clothing, and other necessaries for the journey, that they can.
6 When the companies are organized let them go to with their might, to prepare for those who are to tarry.
7 Let each company, with their captains and presidents, decide how many can go next spring; then choose out a sufficient number of able-bodied and expert men, to take teams, seeds, and farming utensils, to go as pioneers to prepare for putting in spring crops.
8 Let each company bear an equal proportion, according to the dividend of their property, in taking the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those who have gone into the army, that the cries of the widow and the fatherless come not up into the ears of the Lord against this people.
9 Let each company prepare houses, and fields for raising grain, for those who are to remain behind this season; and this is the will of the Lord concerning his people.
10 Let every man use all his influence and property to remove this people to the place where the Lord shall locate a stake of Zion.
11 And if ye do this with a pure heart, in all faithfulness, ye shall be blessed; you shall be blessed in your flocks, and in your herds, and in your fields, and in your houses, and in your families.
Doctrine and Covenants 136 was received after the Saints had already made a difficult trek across the state of Iowa. This first phase of their exodus presented a steep learning curve for the Saints as they encountered the challenges of the trail. The main body of the “Camp of Israel” took 131 days to cover the three hundred miles of Iowa that made up the first part of the exodus. By contrast, a year later, the vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley took only 111 days to cover the 1,050 miles from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. Unusually wet weather in Iowa, a lack of preparation, and general disorganization led to discouragement among the leaders of the Church. One journal entry from Brigham Young during this period captures the overwhelming burden resting on his shoulders: “Unless this people are more united in spirit and cease to pray against Counsel, It will bring me down to my grave. I am reduced in flesh so that my coat that would scarcely meet around me last Winter now laps over twelve inches. It is with much ado that I can keep from lying down and sleeping to wait the resurrection.”
Before embarking on the next phase of the exodus, the Saints received specific and direct guidance about how the next phase of the trek would be organized. The work of assisting the poor, the fatherless, the widows, and the families of the men who left with the Mormon Battalion was equally distributed among different companies (D&C 136:8). The model used in Iowa—organizing the Saints into companies, with captains appointed over hundreds, fifties, and tens—was used over a decade earlier when Joseph Smith organized Zion’s Camp in 1834. One historian noted, “The revelation [D&C 136] helped transform the westward migration from an unfortunate necessity into an important shared spiritual experience.” The revelation also provided the basis for organizing the next twenty years of Latter-day Saint emigration to the western regions of North America. During the time from the first vanguard company in 1847 to the coming of the railroad in 1869, it is estimated that sixty to seventy thousand Latter-day Saint pioneers made the trek across the plains. All of these companies based their conduct around the principles found in Doctrine and Covenants 136.
D&C 136:12–27
12 Let my servants Ezra T. Benson and Erastus Snow organize a company.
13 And let my servants Orson Pratt and Wilford Woodruff organize a company.
14 Also, let my servants Amasa Lyman and George A. Smith organize a company.
15 And appoint presidents, and captains of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens.
16 And let my servants that have been appointed go and teach this, my will, to the saints, that they may be ready to go to a land of peace.
17 Go thy way and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies; for they shall not have power to stop my work.
18 Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time.
19 And if any man shall seek to build up himself, and seeketh not my counsel, he shall have no power, and his folly shall be made manifest.
20 Seek ye; and keep all your pledges one with another; and covet not that which is thy brother’s.
21 Keep yourselves from evil to take the name of the Lord in vain, for I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.
22 I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; and my arm is stretched out in the last days, to save my people Israel.
23 Cease to contend one with another; cease to speak evil one of another.
24 Cease drunkenness; and let your words tend to edifying one another.
25 If thou borrowest of thy neighbor, thou shalt restore that which thou hast borrowed; and if thou canst not repay then go straightway and tell thy neighbor, lest he condemn thee.
26 If thou shalt find that which thy neighbor has lost, thou shalt make diligent search till thou shalt deliver it to him again.
27 Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art his steward.
Latter-day Saint pioneers were known for their organization and piety on the trail. The rules given in Doctrine and Covenants 136:17–37 were adapted by different companies as they made the journey across the plains. In the early spring of 1847, Brigham Young led the Vanguard company of 143 men, 3 women, 2 children, 72 wagons, 93 horses, 66 oxen, 52 mules, 19 cows, 17 dogs, and several chickens out of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, on their way to the Rocky Mountains. Brigham was passionately committed to the principles found in Doctrine and Covenants 136 and used them as his guide on the trail. In fact, in late May, Brigham read the company “the Word and Will of the Lord” to caution them “that they were forgetting their mission.”
For the most part, the journey passed peacefully. Near Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, however, Brigham became irritated over the excessive levity in camp. He delivered a stern rebuke to the pioneers, telling the company, “If you do not open your hearts so that the Spirit of God can enter your hearts and teach you the right way, I know that you are a ruined people and will be destroyed.” He added, “Unless there is a change and a different course of conduct, a different spirit to what is now in the camp, I go no further.” Brigham’s words were perhaps a manifestation of his intense anxiety, for he commented privately, “We are the pioneers for the whole Church of God on the earth, seeking for a place to establish the kingdom, but we have not found it yet.”
A few weeks later, on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and the main body of the Vanguard Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Wilford Woodruff summed up Brigham’s reaction to seeing the valley by penning, “President Young expressed his full satisfaction in the appearance of the valley as a resting place for the Saints and was amply repaid for his journey.” Wilford then recorded his own reaction: “This is an important day in the history of my life and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After traveling from our encampment six miles . . . we came into full view of the great valley or basin of the Salt Lake and land of promise held in reserve by the hand of GOD for a resting place for the Saints upon which a portion of the Zion of GOD will be built.”
D&C 136:28–33
28 If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.
29 If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.
30 Fear not thine enemies, for they are in mine hands and I will do my pleasure with them.
31 My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.
32 Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear;
33 For my Spirit is sent forth into the world to enlighten the humble and contrite, and to the condemnation of the ungodly.
During their difficult stay at Winter Quarters, the Saints still managed to find joy and fellowship in each other’s company. It is somewhat surprising that the Lord advised the Saints to “praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving” (D&C 136:28). In nineteenth century America, dancing was often thought of as an immoral form of entertainment. Brigham told the company: “There is no harm [that] will arise from merriment or dancing if brethren, when they have indulged in it, know when to stop” and “never forget the object of this journey.”
The Saints also found strength in other spiritual experiences. At Winter Quarters, Brigham reported several dreams, or what he called “visions,” in which he conversed with the Prophet Joseph Smith. According to Brigham, in one dream Joseph told him “to be sure and tell the brethren that it is all important for them to keep the spirit of the Lord, to keep the quiet spirit of Jesus.” Joseph “explained how the spirit of the Lord reflected on the spirit of man and set him to pondering on any subject, and he also explained how to know the spirit of the Lord from the spirit of the enemy.”
In addition to revelations and visions, temple ordinances were practiced among the Saints at Winter Quarters, including a peculiar iteration of the doctrine of eternal families called the law of adoption. Brigham, for instance, adopted several individuals into his family and held meetings to provide family instruction. In one such meeting, he declared, “Those that are adopted into my family . . . I will preside over them throughout all eternity and will stand at their head.” Other Apostles, including John Taylor, Willard Richards, and Heber C. Kimball, adopted large numbers of men and women into their families. The desire to gather as families in Winter Quarters provides a valuable insight into the mindset of the Saints in the winter of 1846–47.
D&C 136:34–42
34 Thy brethren have rejected you and your testimony, even the nation that has driven you out;
35 And now cometh the day of their calamity, even the days of sorrow, like a woman that is taken in travail; and their sorrow shall be great unless they speedily repent, yea, very speedily.
36 For they killed the prophets, and them that were sent unto them; and they have shed innocent blood, which crieth from the ground against them.
37 Therefore, marvel not at these things, for ye are not yet pure; ye can not yet bear my glory; but ye shall behold it if ye are faithful in keeping all my words that I have given you, from the days of Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Jesus and his apostles, and from Jesus and his apostles to Joseph Smith, whom I did call upon by mine angels, my ministering servants, and by mine own voice out of the heavens, to bring forth my work;
38 Which foundation he did lay, and was faithful; and I took him to myself.
39 Many have marveled because of his death; but it was needful that he should seal his testimony with his blood, that he might be honored and the wicked might be condemned.
40 Have I not delivered you from your enemies, only in that I have left a witness of my name?
41 Now, therefore, hearken, O ye people of my church; and ye elders listen together; you have received my kingdom.
42 Be diligent in keeping all my commandments, lest judgments come upon you, and your faith fail you, and your enemies triumph over you. So no more at present. Amen and Amen.
It is often assumed that the exodus of the Church to western North America was filled with sorrow and tragedy. However, the number of deaths among the companies on the trail was less than three percent. The Vanguard Company, as well as fully one third of the companies that traveled the trail, experienced no deaths. Many Latter-day Saints today remember the exodus through reenactments of the handcart pioneers that focus on the tragedy surrounding the Martin and Willie Companies. However, there were ten handcart companies in total, and most of them suffered relatively few deaths. The leading cause of death on the trail was sickness, such as cholera and diarrhea. The second most common cause of death came from accidents and events related to the weather. While the loss of life was less than is commonly imagined, this does not undercut the valiant efforts and sacrifice of the pioneers. The suffering endured by the Saints at Winter Quarters and on the trail created a sacred narrative that still inspires and unites new generations.
John R. Young referred to Winter Quarters as “the Valley Forge of Mormondom.” Like George Washington’s army decades earlier, the Saints at the Missouri endured a crucible of testing and refining in harsh conditions. They emerged from the grim winter more confident, united, and secure. After receiving the “Word and Will of the Lord” in January 1847, Brigham Young announced that “he had no more doubts nor fears of going to the mountains, and felt as much security as if he possessed the treasures of the east.” On April 7, 1847, the day after general conference, Brigham organized the first wagon train of Saints to travel west and locate the new home of the Saints. Winter Quarters was soon abandoned as the Saints moved across the Missouri to create a new hub for their migration—Kanesville. In the end, Winter Quarters was just a stopping place for the Saints on their journey to the West. But the sacrifice, suffering, and sanctification of Winter Quarters lingered forever in their collective memory.
Footnotes
