"Yes, we had a large steam flour and saw mill and a store. It would have been the smart thing to do, to remain quiet, sell our property without noise for what we could get and move away. That would have been smart, but I wasn't cool and smart then. I wanted to do my duty and nothing else, and didn't care for the consequences, not a bit. Many friends advised me to be smart and remain quiet, but I would not hear of it and spoke my mind whenever an opportunity offered. When the Smiths saw that we were against them, then they applied to us their usual system, that is, to freeze us out. Secret orders went out that nobody could buy property without the permission of Joseph Smith, Hyrum or the authorities, as they called them, so our property was practically worthless. Yes, my brother Wilson stood to me like a man, fully, fearlessly. He died, here in Shullsburgh, of a stroke of apoplexy, after an illness of three days, ten years ago. He was a very fine and tremendously strong man. He wrestled with Joe in Nauvoo and threw him on his back." - William Law 1887

I've always loved William Law for some reason -- he comes off as being very honest, which didn't mix well with being in the 1st presidency.

That interview with William Law I read five years ago--it was one of the last nails of the coffin my dying testimony was in. :-) He seems to have been an upstanding man who was trying to do the right thing. He didn't start his own church or cult afterwards either.

I agree with you, he was admirable.

For the record, he did start an alternate church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter_Day_Saints

He was president of the new church, with no claims of being a prophet. His offshoot disavowed the practice of polygamy.

Think of how many times you have heard someone back in the 1800's state that "I wasn't cool" . Never --It was not a common idiom or manner of speech, and was not introduced until about the late fifty's or early sixty's, by the mod or rock and roll kids.

"Cool daddyo"

JB

He meant the opposite of "Hot Headed", not like the Fonz cool. Think cool tempered.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2010 04:32PM by jon1.

Your moniker is ill-chosen. It should read "Just bullshippin'"

The only reason I linked the MRM post was it was the most readily available. Originally, the interview was available on a local site here that included a reprint of the original Tribune interview.

Here you go; I'm not in the habit of citing myself, but I did work really hard on this one... Note that Wyl's interview of Law is reviewed on a paper posted on BYU's website. That writer accepted it as legitimate, and it's assinine to think that if there was the possibilty of fakery the BYU crowd, including Richard Bushman, wouldn't have been all over it.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,5317,5317,quote=1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2010 04:49PM by SL Cabbie.

Just Browsing Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Think of how many times you have heard someone
> back in the 1800's state that "I wasn't cool" .
> Never --It was not a common idiom or manner of
> speech, and was not introduced until about the
> late fifty's or early sixty's, by the mod or rock
> and roll kids.
>
> "Cool daddyo"
>
> JB

The word cool dates back 1,000 years.

"Cool" as in "cool and collected" was in use long before Happy Days.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-coo1.htm

"One slang sense is “controlled, cautious or discreet”, which was fashionable in the early 1950s in the phrase stay cool. This is first recorded near the end of the nineteenth century, but it’s really a subtle transformation of a standard English form that goes back to Beowulf, in a rather literary metaphor for being unexcited, calm or dispassionate. This turned up in the eighteenth century in the slangy expression cool as a cucumber that is still with us, and in the mainstream language as keeping a cool head — being unemotional or in total command of oneself."

Nope, "cool" does not discredit this account.

once finding out about polygamy with little girls, he could not accept Joseph Smith as a prophet, and he knew he had been duped. Enough was enough.

I had always viewed the Expositor as words of Satan, as a TBM.

Then, I read the history, from LDS sources, then read the full contents of the Expositor article that got the newspaper scattered and destroyed, and I was blown away by its honesty and accuracy.

Most history treats William Law as a villain (since most history on this topic is published by Mormons, of course). I view him as the best of the good guys, one of my heroes, after all the studies I've done.

Thanks so much for the link to the interview of William Law that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune Jul 1887. My spouse and I read the entire article tonight and thought it was great to "see" JS,Emma, and Hyram through William's eyes from his personal dealings with them. This is rich!

Oh,that members of the family would read this interview!...along with other publications like Frank Cannon's book, The Prophet in Utah, and Fannie Stenhouse's book, Tell it All.After 55 years of faithful membership, and reading those two books, my life view changed, and I knew I could NEVER believe again.

That one is marvelous, too... Thanks for the reminder...

http://www.archive.org/stream/brighamyoungandh00cannuoft#page/n7/mode/2up

Just click on the right page to move forward through this one; I promised Will Bagley this would be the next book I read, and that's the excuse I'm sticking to since I had to admit on another thread that I hadn't read either of President Obama's books yet even though I have copies of both...

Yes indeed, a fine counterbalance to George Q's articulate excesses...

I love him most of all for seeing how disgusting and wrong polygamy was when asked to live it, and refusing without hesitation. Of course, also for being willing to expose JS and others living this practice in his Nauvoo Expositor. He is a hero!

He outed JS and his cronies from a position of some authority, having been in the First Presidency. He's indeed a hero. Just goes to show tho' that the Church is not going to away due to some big revelation - even if for example the Manuscript Found document were discovered with the names Nephi, Lehi, etc. - people continue to believe and most in the Church largely remain ignorant of the true facts and problems with the Church, listening to their leaders who will "never lead them astray".