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158 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT

of J o s e p h Smith and his new religion iden- or as defending republican virtues like tified themselves with republican virtues. Winn, both studies are indications that Yet, Exiles in a Land of Liberty may lose early Mormon history is being skillfully some of its impact, at least with Mormon analyzed by today's historians. readers, because Winn never assigns any Chapter 3 of Exiles in a Land of Liberty, validity at all to the religion's claim about "Social Disorder and the Resurrection of its divine origins. This is not to imply that Communal Republicanism among the only so-called faith-promoting history is ," must be noted. Here Winn acceptable, simply that and really draws together his understanding his believing followers must be taken at of Joseph Smith's success —which was, face value, and Winn sometimes fails to after all, phenomenal. Finding strong do so. For example, in discussing events roots for in Christian primi- surrounding the coming forth of the Book tivism, Winn contends that when converts of Mormon, Winn focuses on the "trou- accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet of bled financial condition" of J o s e p h Smith, God, "their religious confusion and dis- Sr.'s family, suggesting that his son Joseph tress ended" (p. 51). Joseph Smith's reve- wrote the book for monetary gain (p. 15). lations gave them a religious security, a Furthermore, Winn finds the Book of self-confidence in being identified with Mormon to be but a mirror of republi- God's chosen people and an assurance that canism and disallows any possibility that they now had true religious knowledge. it was what Smith claimed. Whether writ- The similar reactions of many late ten just for profit or as a skillful inter- twentieth-century Mormon converts mag- pretation of republicanism, the book still nify the importance of these insights. comes off in Winn's analysis as a clever Readers of Exiles in a Land of Liberty fraud. In many ways Kenneth H. Winn's will also increase their knowledge of work is reminiscent of Fawn Brodie's Mormonism's opponents. Like the Saints, No Man Knows My History. That path- these opponents were well-intentioned breaking book, like Exiles in a Land of folk, but they simply disapproved of what Liberty, provided solid, stimulating history they perceived as fakery and fraud. Those but was marred, in places, by overt dis- who could not, or would not, comprehend belief and cynicism. Yet, as scholars like Mormon consecration and communalism Jan Shipps or Larry Foster have demon- saw Smith as the ultimate con man. They strated, one need not be a believing Latter- were convinced that more than one of his day Saint to write Mormon history with- timely revelations smacked of deception. out appearing to imply culpability. I hope Perhaps Exiles in a Promised Land will serve this shortcoming will not discourage poten- as a reminder that all who opposed early tial readers from considering Winn's book, Mormonism, or even the Church's more for it contains much thought-provoking recent adversaries, were not simply evil material. people. That alone would seem a mighty Winn casts Joseph Smith as the con- contribution. servative defender of an older, crumbling Winn's synthesis of early Mormonism America. Whether one treats Smith and is worth reading. He has done yeoman his disciples as reacting to growing ante- duty in offering yet another way of look- bellum American pluralism, as does ing at Mormon roots. The serious student Marvin Hill in his recent Quest for Refuge of the first two decades of Mormonism (: Signature Books, 1989), will do well to note this book. A Teenager's Mormon Battalion Journal

The Diary of Azariah Smith University of Utah Press, 1990), 159 pp., edited by David L. Bigler (Salt Lake City: $17.50. Reviews: Reviews 159

Reviewed by Allan Kent Powell, a his- enlisted in July 1846 as members of the torian at the Utah State Historical Soci- Mormon Battalion. ety, Salt Lake City, Utah. Azariah's diary covers four significant periods in the saga of the Battalion: the SINCE THE PUBLICATION of the Hosea Stout march from to Santa Journals in 1964, the University of Utah Fe and on to California; the occupation Press has made a significant contribution of California as federal soldiers; the dis- to the study of western history by pub- charge and subsequent participation in the lishing a number of important diaries, discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill; and the journals, and letter collections. The Gold journey from the gold fields to the Salt Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith, ably Lake Valley in the summer of 1848, in edited by David L. Bigler, follows this which Battalion members opened the valuable tradition and is a fine addition Mormon- Emigrant Trail that as volume 7 in the Publications in Mor- would be used by tens of thousands of mon Studies Series edited by Linda King gold rushers in subsequent years. Newell. While the journal has been used by Born in Boilston, Oswego County, students of the Mormon Battalion for some New York, on 1 August 1828, Azariah time and does not disclose any new or Smith marched into Fort Leavenworth on extraordinary information about the Bat- his eighteenth birthday in 1846 as one of talion, it does reveal the wonder, inno- five hundred volunteers for the Mormon cence, and homesickness that was the Battalion. Though one of the youngest experience of one young man during the members of the Battalion, Azariah Smith two-year sojourn. It is a refreshing and has become one of its most significant insightful glimpse of a young man's ini- members since he was one of only two tial encounter with the West. On the members who kept diaries about their near the Arkansas River experiences. The other diarist, Henry Wil- in Kansas, 15 September 1846, Azariah liam Bigler, was thirteen years older than noted: "We travailed today 15 miles, and Smith. The Bigler diary has been avail- crossed the river and camped by it on the able to historians for over a century and other side, haveing to go a mile and a has been published in various versions, half after wood, I got on a mule and went notably the 1932 volume of the Utah His- after some. I got a stick on my shoulder, torical Quarterly and a 1962 University of and got on the muel, but the mule threw California Press volume edited by Erwin me off and went to camp; it hurt me G. Gudde entitled Bigler's Chronicle of the some, but not Seriously. Comeing back I West: The Conquest of California, Discovery of saw a rattlesnake, which is the first one I Gold and Mormon Settlement as Reflected in have saw on the road" (p. 26). Henry William Bigler's Diaries. With the After reaching Santa Fe, Azariah and publication of the Smith diary, these two his father attended Catholic mass, which important sources about the Mor- Azariah describes with a good measure mon Battalion experience and the historic of tolerance and wonder: "They had a discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill are now great many Images which [were] most available to the public. beautifull; the Priest acted with great rev- Azariah Smith begins his account with erence, bowing and kissing the Images, a brief biographical sketch noting that his and all sorts of motions. They also had parents, Albert and Esther Dutcher good music. The people dispersed with- Smith, joined the Mormon church in 1839 out much cerimony" (p. 32). and that he was baptized in 1841 at the Impressed by the Catholic services, age of thirteen. The Smiths lived in Ohio, Smith returned again the next week and Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois before mov- reported, "After the me[e]ting I stayed to ing to Council Bluffs where Azariah, his see the Ladies, some of which looked very father, and his uncle Thomas P. Dutcher prety, others looked like destruction" (p.