While a number of qualified historians have studied the Mormon exodus to Utah, few have resulted in major, memorable interpretations.
Last night, in a lecture at Utah State University, the third in a new Mormon history lecture series named for the undisputed Dean of Mormon historians, Leonard J. Arrington, Richard E. Bennett did just that. He advanced what Arrington calls "a definitive interpretation."Bennett, holder of a doctorate in American History from Wayne State University, is head of the Department of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Manitoba. His lecture stirred the interpretive juices of his audience.
"More than merely following maps and overland trails, Brigham Young and others taught the Latter-day Saints that they would find their place if they would follow their God," Bennett said.
Bennett's book, "We'll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846-1848," with a handsome Albert Bierstadt painting, "Overland Trail," on the cover, was recently published by Deseret Book. In Arrington's view, the book is "certain to become a classic in Mormon and American history."
Bennett, who will join the faculty of religious education at BYU in January as a church historian, has already written "And Should We Die: Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852."
Bennett later explained that his USU lecture was an essentially new interpretation, remnants of which he first read in the works of Arrington, B.H. Roberts, and Jan Shipps.
But it was from Mormon diaries and letters not yet published, such as those from Horace K. Whitney, from which he gleaned most of the material for his book.
Bennett concedes that many historians of the Mormon trek have emphasized the importance of place.
"It was important to find the place, but it was more important to save the church," Bennett said. "The place was a means to an end, not an end in itself. And this matter of saving the church had everything to do with the covenant of obedience."
This "covenant of obedience" is the key to Bennett's interpretation. It is an issue the early Mormon leaders returned to consistently. Perceiving themselves as a modern Israel, they felt a tremendous obligation.
As Bennett said, "The outstanding example is Scottsbluff, where Mormons covenanted with upraised hands as to how they would live."
Bennett is referring to "the sermonizing thunder of Brigham Young" on the trail, especially the one given on May 29, 1847, which Bennett calls "Brigham's prairie-borne jeremiad."
This sermon was important not only because it contained "colorful chastisements, but more significantly for what it revealed about how they viewed their journey, how they would define success, and on whose errand they believed they were," he said.
Brigham Young, Bennett said, was convinced that "the success of their journey depended less on maps and wagons and more on personal obedience."
He believed they were on "a divine errand," and the saints had to rededicate themselves to God and his work to be successful.
Often, historians discuss Young's allegedly trivial concerns - his warnings against levity, card playing and dominoes, his temper tantrum over the loss of his spy glass, his continual habit of calling his flock to repentance - as examples of Young's human frailties and the rigors of the journey.
In Bennett's opinion, it was a much deeper concern. "It was really much more than dominoes and card playing that he was worried about, such as the activities of some notorious characters, like Porter Rockwell, Jackson Redden, and `the notorious Tom Brown,' a fugitive from justice. He was worried about some other Latter-day Saints who were involved in counterfeiting. He believed everyone had to toe the line, to act the part."
Young was also concerned about the tendency of some to engage in "wanton hunting and killing," and that many did not take the Word of Wisdom seriously enough. In his famous sermon, Young said there was nothing wrong with merriment as long as people knew when to stop.
It is clear from the documents that Young was most worried that the trek might be a repeat of Zion's Camp, Bennett said. He meant the 900-mile march of 200 Latter-day Saints, lead by Joseph Smith, from Kirtland, Ohio, to Jackson County, Mo., in the spring of 1834.
In spite of monumental effort, Zion's Camp failed in its objectives of lessening persecution and reclaiming Independence, Mo. In fact, by the time the expedition ended, 18 men had died of cholera.
It was Young's conviction that that mission failed not for military or political reasons but because of criticisms, infighting and disbelief of many of the Mormons themselves.
Young was determined that Zion's March of 1847 would not be a repeat of Zion's Camp of 1834. In Bennett's view, it was more than a march, it was a proving ground, a school, and the Lord was in charge. The final test would be the obedience of the people.
At the conclusion of the Scottsbluff sermon, Brigham called on the camp to raise uplifted hands and agree "to covenant, to turn to the Lord with all their hearts, to repent of all their follies."
Everyone did so, with no dissenting votes. According to William Clayton's account, the change was startling. He said, "the cloud had burst and we had emerged into a new element, a new atmosphere and a new society."
Bennett remains modest about the importance of his latest work, calling it "meaningful," but hesitating to label it a major revision. "Their whole perception of what they were doing is as important as what we think they accomplished."
Bennett retains great admiration for the many books and articles that have been written about the exodus. He has a very high regard, for instance, for "Wallace Stegner's wonderfully crafted study, `The Gathering of Zion.' "
Stegner's emphasis "was on humanizing the people, but missing from his work, was an attempt to understand their essential doctrinal beliefs. That's where I try to pick it up," Bennett said.
Appearing on the 150th anniversary of the Mormon trek, "We'll Find the Place," an undeniably faith-promoting story, is an important addition to Mormon studies.
As for Bennett, his work in Mormon history continues. Already, he is intrigued by his recent research in archival collections in Winnepeg, where he has learned what could have happened if the Mormon settlement in Utah had failed.
Bennett is studying correspondence between Church leaders and principals of the Hudson Bay Fur Company discussing possibilities for Mormons to settle on Vancouver Island.
There might be another book in it.