[Brigham Young]
... My remarks in the first place will be upon
the cause of the introduction of slavery. ... Now, says the
grandfather, I will not destroy the seed of Michael and his wife, and
Cain, I will not kill you nor suffer anyone else to kill you, but I will
put a mark upon you. What is that mark? You will see it on the
countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth
or ever will see. Now I tell you what I know, when the mark was put
upon Cain, Abel's children were in all probability young; the Lord told
Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the Priesthood, nor his
seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the
Priesthood, until the redemption of the earth. If there never was a
prophet or apostle of Jesus Christ [that] spoke it before, I tell you,
this people that are commonly called Negroes are the children of old
Cain. I know they are; I know that they cannot bear rule in the
Priesthood, for the curse on them was to remain upon them until the
residue of the posterity of Michael and his wife receive the blessings,
the seed of Cain would have received had they not been cursed, and hold
the keys of the Priesthood until the times of the restitution shall
come, and the curse be wiped off from the earth and from Michael's
seed. Then Cain's seed will be had in remembrance and the time come
when the curse should be wiped off. Now, then, in the Kingdom of God on
the earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot
nor tittle of Priesthood. Why? Because they are the true eternal
principles the Lord Almighty has ordained, and who can help it? Men
cannot, the angels cannot, and all the powers of earth and hell cannot
take it off...
But let me tell you further, let my seed
mingle with the seed of Cain, that brings the curse upon me and upon my
generations; we will reap the same rewards with Cain. In the Priesthood,
I will tell you what it will do. Were the children of God to mingle
their seed with the seed of Cain it would not only bring the curse of
being deprived of the power of the priesthood upon them but they entail
it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a
man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he
would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man, woman and child it
would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to
curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them; ...
It is the
greatest blessing that could come to some men to shed their blood on
the ground, and let it come up before the Lord as an atonement. You nor I
cannot take any more life than we can give. ...
We know
there is a portion of inhabitants of the earth who dwell in Asia that
are Negroes and said to be Jews. The blood of Judah has not only mingled
almost with all nations, but also with the blood of Cain, and they
have mingled their seeds together. These Negro Jews may keep up all the
outer ordinances of the Jewish religion, they may have their sacrifices,
and they may perform all the religious ceremonies any people on earth
could perform, but let me tell you, that the day they consented to
mingle their seed with Canaan, the Priesthood was taken away from Judah,
and that portion of Judah's seed will never get any rule or blessings
of the Priesthood until Cain gets it. Let this church which is called
the Kingdom of God on the earth, we will summons the First Presidency,
the Twelve, the High Counsel, the Bishopric, and all the Elders of
Israel, suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it
is right to mingle our seed with the Black race of Cain, that they
shall come in with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God
has given to us. On that very day, and hour we should do so, the
priesthood is taken from this church and kingdom and God leaves us to
our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain, the
Church must go to destruction; ... (1)
Source: The Teachings of
President Brigham Young, Vol. 3, 1852-1854. Fred Collier, ed. Collier's
Publishing, 1987. 41-48, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young,
Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City
(2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses
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