Brigham Young — The Mormon leader who guided the exodus of that
church to Utah. Ludlow would later travel to Utah and report back in
1864 on what he saw there, saying in part:
Brigham Young is the farthest remove on earth from a hypocrite; he is that
grand, yet awful sight in human nature, a man who has brought the loftiest
Christian self-devotion to the altar of the Devil — who is ready to suffer
crucifixion for Barabbas, supposing him Christ.
The “phalanstery of wives” comment references the early Mormon church’s
championing of polygamy. But, even knowing this, Ludlow was astounded
when he visited at the sheer number of Young’s wives, remarking that
Young “thus looks forward to spending his first years in Heaven in a state
of perpetual suspense and twitter at every new arrival from the earth,
expecting to hear announced by the celestial usher: ‘Another Mrs. Young.’”
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