An Influential Letter You’ve Probably Not Heard Of: Wilford Woodruff to Heber J. Grant, March 28, 1887

Over the last century, for better or worse, we have had four men who became president of the Church while health concerns and/or advanced age made their capacity to carry out the role of Church president questionable. (George Albert Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, Spencer W. Kimball, and Howard W. Hunter are the four I have in mind.) In addition, the average age of Church presidents at time of ascension to the presidency in the last century was around 81 years old, meaning that many of them lost the ability to function within a few years of becoming Church president, just as a fact of age. I do not believe that is likely to change, and there is one rather obscure document more than any other that has ensured that is the case—a letter written by Wilford Woodruff in 1887.

In the final months of John Taylor’s life, discussions among the Quorum of the Twelve turned to the subject of who would succeed Taylor as president of the Church. Heber J. Grant—then a junior apostle in the quorum—raised some concerns about continuing to call the senior apostle as Church president, as they had twice before. Heber J. Grant approached Wilford Woodruff in St. George and asked him about it. Grant noted that he “understood that Pres[iden]t Geo[rge] Q. Cannon had said it was not absolutely necessary that the Pres[iden]t of the Apostles would be made Pres[iden]t of the Church in case Pres[iden]t Taylor should die and then the First Presidency was again reorganized.”^[1] Elder Grant worried that George Q. Cannon would try to become the President of the Church based on the fact that John Taylor was his uncle and on the authority he had already exercised as a member of the First Presidency while John Taylor was in hiding for practicing plural marriage. In addition, Elder Grant had concerns about Wilford Woodruff’s advanced age and wondered if a younger man might be called as president instead of the senior apostle. Since Wilford Woodruff had prophesied that Joseph F. Smith would become president, Heber J. Grant favored calling Smith and asked President Woodruff whether he knew “of any reason in case of the death of the President of the Church why the Twelve Apostles should not choose some other Person besides the President of the Twelve to be the President of the Church?” Wilford Woodruff did not answer at that time, but wrote a letter a few days later, believing that he had “several vary strong reasons why they should not.”^[2] (As the central subject of the post, I will share the letter in full in the appendix.)

The key points in Wilford Woodruff’s letter to Heber J. Grant on March 28, 1887 were as follows:

• “First: When the President of the Church dies, who then is the Presiding Authority of the Church? It is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ordained and organized by the Revelations of God. And none else. Then, while these Twelve Apostles preside over the Church, who is the President of the Church? It is the President of the Twelve Apostles. And he is virtually as much the President of the Church, while presiding over Twelve men, as he is when organized into the Presidency of the Church, and presiding over two men. And this principle has been carried out, now for fifty seven years, ever since the organization of the Church.”
• “If the President of the Twelve is not fit to become the president of the Church, he is not fit to be the President of the Twelve Apostles.”
• “It takes Twelve men or a majority of them, to appoint a President for the Church. … And I certainly do not believe, should President Taylor die today, that Brother George Q Cannon, nor any other man, could use argument enough to convert a majority of the Twelve Apostles to depart from the beaten track laid out, and followed by the inspiration of Almighty God, for the last fifty seven years, by the Apostles, as recorded in the history of the Church. As far as I am concerned, it would require not only a much stronger argument than I ever heard but a Revelation from the same God who had organized the Church, … to depart from the path followed by the Apostles since the organization of the Church.”
• “The argument was used that Elder Woodruff prophesied at a Conference at Ogden, that Joseph F. Smith would become President of the Church, and we would have to deviate from the usual course, in order to have that fulfilled. And it was said, that prophesy was recorded. Now if Elder Woodruff delivered such a prophecy by the inspiration of the Lord, which I verily believe he did,^[3] it will be fulfilled as sure as fate; and that too, without deviating from the path marked out by the Lord, and followed by the Presidency of the Church.”^[4]

Heber J. Grant received the letter on April 5, 1887 and read it to two of his fellow apostles (John Henry Smith and F. M. Lyman) and found that they “both agreed with his conclusions.” Grant still held reservations, stating that “while I am willing to have things go the way that President Woodruff suggests, still I do not think it is absolutely necessary that in case of the death of the President of the Church and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency that the President of the Twelve Apostles should be made the President of the Church” and indicated that he intended to “request him to point me to any revelation that states that this must be the case.”^[5] In the end, however, President Wilford Woodruff was sustained as the next president of the Church.

In a twist of irony, Heber J. Grant would, in turn, use the letter to affirm his legitimate right as president of the Twelve to assume the office of church president. During his time as president of the Church, Grant’s predecessor, Joseph F. Smith, worked to burnish the Smith family name in the Church and to also make sure that his relatives were called to positions in the Church’s hierarchy. His biographer Stephen C. Taysom explained:

Whatever else he had in mind when he assumed the presidency, JFS was determined to reassert the Smith influence that he felt had been intentionally diminished within the church since his father’s death. He had always felt that, in the last days of Nauvoo, church leaders “abused” his mother, the faithful woman who accepted Young’s authority, at the same time they fawned over Emma Smith … With the renewed influence of John Smith, the appointment of [his son] Hyrum to the quorum, and the coming appointment of JFS Jr. [Joseph Fielding Smith] in 1910, JFS was redressing some long-held grievances.^[6]

For example, after becoming president of the Church in 1901, he suggested that the Presiding Patriarch of the Church should be given a sustaining vote after the First Presidency and before the Twelve. The Twelve balked at the suggestion, since it implied the patriarch had more authority than them, but Joseph F. went on to talk about his views on the matter in general conference. He discussed how Section 124 indicated that his father, Hyrum, was listed first in Church authorities as the Patriarch and claimed that, as such, the divine “order has not been strictly followed from the day we came into these valleys until now.”^[7] Part of his logic in this move was likely that the office of Presiding Patriarch of the Church guaranteed that a Smith family member would be in a position of authority (as long as the office lasted). When Joseph F.’s brother John passed away, he called John’s capable and energetic grandson Hyrum G. Smith to serve in that capacity.

Based on the efforts of Joseph F. Smith to raise the authority and visibility of the office of the Presiding Patriarch of the Church, Hyrum G. began making claims that the patriarch should preside over the Church after the death of the president of the Church until the First Presidency was reorganized. During Joseph F.’s last few months of life, Heber J. Grant worked to neutralize that suggestion in order to ensure that he would be the next president of the Church, doing so most particularly in a meeting on July 3, 1918:

This morning, before going to the Temple, Joseph F. Smith, Jr. [Joseph Fielding Smith], David O. McKay, and I called on President Lund and Penrose, and stated to them that we understood that Brother Hyrum G. Smith, the Presiding Patriarch, held the idea that he was, in case of the death of President Smith, the presiding authority in the Church. We announced to the brethren that all of the Council of the Twelve differed with Brother Hyrum G., and we did not care to have any controversy with him at all over a matter of this kind. I read to the brethren a letter written to me by the President Wilford Woodruff, dated at St. George March 28, 1887, bearing upon this subject, and announcing that without a direct revelation from the Lord, who had organized the Church of Christ of the earth, that he did not believe that the day would ever come when the President of the Twelve Apostles would not succeed to the Presidency of the Church. The brethren expressed their pleasure at my having such a letter from the late President Wilford Woodruff, and said they did not think, in view of President Smith’s ill health, that it would be a wise thing to bring this matter up for discussion before him.^[8]

When the order of succession that had been followed thus far was questioned, the same letter that had been written to stifle Heber J. Grant’s earlier protests was used by Heber J. Grant to defend his own rights when he was in a similar position to Wilford Woodruff.

Fittingly, the next time the letter surfaced came when a Smith family member, Joseph Fielding Smith, was facing challenges to his right to succeed David O. McKay. By seniority, Joseph Fielding Smith was next in line for the presidency of the Church. He was, however, only three years younger than David O. McKay—at the time McKay passed away in 1970, Joseph Fielding Smith was 93 years old. His age and declining physical and mental capacity led some members of the Quorum of the Twelve to suggest that he should be bypassed for the younger and more vigorous Harold B. Lee instead. President Hugh B. Brown told another counselor in the First Presidency that Smith was “too old” for the role and that selecting the most senior apostle was merely tradition, while Elder Spencer W. Kimball expressed hope that after McKay’s death, “We’ll have a younger Prophet now, instead of an older Prophet.”^[9]

Perturbed by these suggestions, Smith’s family stepped in to intervene. Joseph Fielding Smith and his wife, Jessie, visited Harold B. Lee the day before David O. McKay’s funeral. As Lee’s biographer Newell G. Bringhurst described the visit:

[Joseph Fielding] Smith was alarmed by this breach of protocol and made his case directly to Lee in a face-to-face meeting, accompanied by his sixty-seven-year-old wife, Jessie Evans Smith. …

Jessie Evans Smith took the lead in affirming her husband’s right to be church president, revealing to Lee an 1887 letter written by Wilford Woodruff to then-apostle Heber J. Grant following the death of church president John Taylor. Woodruff had affirmed his legitimate right as president of the Twelve to assume the office of church president, which was in question at the time …

Jessie Evans Smith told Lee that “if Joseph Fielding Smith were sustained as President, he wanted Elder Lee to be ‘by his side’ which Elder Lee interpreted to mean Smith wanted him to serve as a counselor in the First Presidency.”

Lee affirmed his support for Joseph Fielding Smith as church president, stating, “It would require a revelation from … God … before I would give my vote or influence to depart from the paths followed by the Apostles since the organization of the Church and followed by the inspiration of Almighty God.”^[10]

Once again, the letter surfaced in a discussion around whether it was wise to allow a man who was elderly and failing in health to step into the presidency of a worldwide Church and helped tip the scales in his favor.

The Wilford Woodruff letter, thus, has probably done more than any other single document to ensure that the senior apostle becomes the Church president as a matter of course. And, as the letter itself indicates, it is unlikely for that procedure to ever change without a direct revelation from the Lord.

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Appendix:

Wilford Woodruff to Heber J. Grant, March 28, 1887

You asked me a question the last time we met which I was not prepared to answer at the time it was given. I have given the subject some thought and reflection and I now feel prepared to answer the question, according to my views. You asked me if I knew any reason, in the case of the death of the President of the Church, why the Twelve Apostles should not choose some other person to be President of the Church, instead of the President of the Twelve Apostles. I think I do know of several good sound reasons; which I will now give you. In the first place there are two or three plain truths which are eternal, everlasting, unchangeable, and immovable as the pillars of Heaven, as far as this dispensation is concerned; which have been established by the Revelations of God through the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. These truths stare us in the face. First: When the [p.2] President of the Church dies, who then is the Presiding Authority of the Church? It is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ordained and organized by the Revelations of God. And none else. Then, while these Twelve Apostles preside over the Church, who is the President of the Church? It is the President of the Twelve Apostles. And he is virtually as much the President of the Church, while presiding over Twelve men, as he is when organized into the Presidency of the Church, and presiding over two men. And this principle has been carried out, now for fifty seven years, ever since the organization of the Church.

When Joseph Smith the Prophet was martyred, the Twelve Apostles stepped forward as the Presiding Authority of the Church, as ordained of God, with Brigham Young at their head, to preside over the Church and direct its affairs. And when the Twelve Apostles came to organize the First Presidency, which of the Twelve stepped forth to claim the right to preside over Brigham Young? Not one. Nor any other man except Sidney Rigdon, an apostate.

Why did Brigham Young claim the right [p.3] of the Presidency? Because he was the President of the Twelve Apostles, and he was virtually as much the President of the Church while Presiding over Twelve men, as two men. When President Brigham Young died, who was the Presiding Authority over the Church? The Twelve Apostles, and none else. And who was the President of the Church? John Taylor. Why? Because he was the President of the Twelve Apostles.

And when the Twelve Apostles came to organize a First Presidency again, which of the Twelve Apostles was moved upon to claim the right to preside over the Church above John Taylor? Such a thing did not enter into the heart of one of the Twelve, nor any other man, except Brother Daniel H. Wells, and he said he had a Revelation that Joseph F. Smith was the man to preside over the Church. There was not one of the Twelve Apostles believed one word of it. And Brother George Q. Cannon was the most opposed to it of any one of the Quorum. <And why did not any of the Twelve believe it?> because, President John [p.4] Taylor was the President of the Twelve Apostles, and he had virtually been the President of the Church since the death of Brigham Young. (Now if Brother Cannon has become converted from this theory, or any one of the Twelve, they certainly must have some very strong reasons for it.)

Now Brother Grant, I have given you one of the reasons why I consider the President of the Twelve should become the President of the Church, in the case of the death of the President. If the President of the Twelve is not fit to become the president of the Church, he is not fit to be the President of the Twelve Apostles.

Again, there is another eternal truth stares me in the face. In case of the death of the President of the Church, Brother George Q. Cannon, Wilford Woodruff, the President of the Twelve nor any six of the Twelve Apostles, combined, have the power to appoint a President for the Church. It takes Twelve men or a majority of them, to appoint a President for the Church. And so far as the appointment of Brigham Young and John Taylor, as the President of the Church: there has never [p.5] been a dissenting voice with the Twelve Apostles. And I certainly do not believe, should President Taylor die today, that Brother George Q Cannon, nor any other man, could use argument enough to convert a majority of the Twelve Apostles to depart from the beaten track laid out, and followed by the inspiration of Almighty God, for the last fifty seven years, by the Apostles, as recorded in the history of the Church. As far as I am concerned, it would require not only a much stronger argument than I ever heard but a Revelation from the same God who had organized the Church, and guided it by inspiration in the channel in which it has travelled for fifty seven years, before I could give my vote, or influence, to depart from the path followed by the Apostles since the organization of the Church.

Again, President John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff are the only two men now living in the flesh, who listened to the words and charge of Joseph Smith the Prophet to the Twelve Apostles before his death. When he said: “Brethren, I have had sorrow of heart [p.6] for fear I might be taken away with the Keys of the Kingdom of God upon me, before I seal them upon the heads of other men; but I thank God I have lived to see the day when I have had power to give the Twelve Apostles their Endowments. And I have now sealed upon your heads all the Keys of the Kingdom of God, and the Powers of the Holy Priesthood which God has sealed upon me. And now I roll of the labor and work of the Church and Kingdom of God, upon the shoulders of the Twelve Apostles. And I now command you in the name of Jesus Christ, to round up your shoulders and bear off this Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth, before Heaven and Earth, and before God, angels and men. And if you don’t do it, you’ll be damned.”

Now Brother Grant, with this declaration and charge ringing in my ears, should I outlive President Taylor (an event I never expect to see,) I should strongly urge my brethren of the Twelve Apostles to follow the beaten track, marked out, and followed by the Prophets and Apostles for the last fifty seven years. And I have full confidence to believe, that the Twelve [p.7] Apostles, have had experience and light enough to shun any path pointed out to gratify the private interest of any man, or set of men, against the interest of the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth. I once knew, not only Twelve men, but twice Twelve leading men who undertook to appoint a Prophet and President to lead the Church before the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, but they apostatized and went to perdition. And it would be a very dangerous precedent for us to set, to depart from the order which God has pointed out; and it will be a precedent which the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will never set from this time till the Coming of the Son of Man

I was informed that President George Q. Cannon used the argument, in the deeding of the Gardo House to President Taylor, as the President of the Church, that in the case of his death the Deed should not go to the President of the Twelve Apostles but to the President whom the Twelve should appoint; (I certainly have no objections to this,) saying that in the appointment of Presidents Brigham Young, and John Taylor, [p.8] it so happened, in those instances, that the President of the Twelve Apostles was appointed, but it did not follow that that principle would be carried out hereafter. And the argument was used that Elder Woodruff prophesied at a Conference at Ogden, that Joseph F. Smith would become President of the Church, and we would have to deviate from the usual course, in order to have that fulfilled. And it was said, that prophesy was recorded. Now if Elder Woodruff delivered such a prophecy by the inspiration of the Lord, which I verily believe he did,^[11] it will be fulfilled as sure as fate; and that too, without deviating from the path marked out by the Lord, and followed by the Presidency of the Church. I will also here make a statement that I, Wilford Woodruff, heard Heber C. Kimball and Prest Joseph Young say that they heard Joseph Smith say in their presence, and in the presence of others in 1832, the first time that Joseph Smith, ever had an interview with Brigham Young, he said Brigham Young would yet be the President of the Church. And that was three years before there was a Quorum of Twelve appointed. [p.9] And no man knew that Brigham Young would ever be an Apostle, unless God revealed it to the Prophet. And still, after sixteen years of revolution and change Brigham Young was President of the Church, without turning to the right or left, from the path marked out to be the Revelation of God. And that prophecy is also recorded; and there was not one chance in ten for that prophesy to be fulfilled, that there is for Joseph F. Smith to be president, in the regular channel of the Order of God.

Now, Brother Grant, I have given you my reasons for believing that, in case of the death of the President of the Church, it is the right of the <President of the> Twelve Apostles to become the President of the Church, and that the majority of the Twelve Apostles will so decide, until the coming of the Son of Man.

Now, Brother Grant, if you have any arguments, or light, outside of what I have presented, as the path for the Twelve Apostles to walk in, different from what we have followed as a Church, and will forward it to me, I will carefully give it an investigation. But, I will confess, I do not know the reason why Brother George Q. [p.10] has brought this subject up, and made it a matter of conversation several times since the appointment of President John Taylor to the Presidency; or that he should depart form the principle he so strongly advocated in the appointment of President Taylor. I see no reason why we should be so anxious to fix up bridges to cross over, that we may never see in this life. It is a bridge, I never expect to cross, for I never expect to outlive the President of the Church. And I think we all have sufficient business on hand to attend to, without troubling ourselves about affairs we may never see. Of course President Taylor, like all other men, will die sometime—when that day comes, it will be quite time enough for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to attend to the organization of the Presidency of the Church.

I shall keep a copy of this communication.

I remain

Your Brother in the Gospel of Christ

Wilford Woodruff ^[12]

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^[1] Diary Excerpts of Heber J. Grant, March 20, 1887.

^[2] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, March 28, 1887, “Journal (January 1886 – December 1892),” March 22, 1887 – March 28, 1887, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed July 30, 2024, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/lRA7.

^[3] See Wilford Woodruff Journal, January 23, 1881: “W. Woodruff then spoke one hour spoke of the settlement in Southern Utah & Arizonia bore testimomy to the work of God and what Joseph F Smith had said and in his remarks said Joseph F Smith was One of the first Presidency and would be President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in his DAY. (“Journal (February 1880 – December 1885),” January 23, 1881 – January 27, 1881, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed July 30, 2024, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/28MK.)

^[4] Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898. Wilford Woodruff letter to Heber J. Grant, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/59f32110-e260-4071-8fe0-a892c3be4f20/0/0 (accessed: September 13, 2021). see also https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/lpW5. Emphasis added

^[5] Diary Excerpts of Heber J. Grant, April 5, 1887.

^[6] Stephen C. Taysom, Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2023), 290.

^[7] Cited in Taysom, Like a Fiery Meteor, 294.

^[8] Heber J. Grant Journal, July 3, 1918. See also Irene M. Bates and E. Gary Smith, Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 163–164.

^[9] Devery S. Anderson, Bruce R. McConkie: Apostle and Polemicist, 1915–1985 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2024), 108.

^[10] Newell G. Bringhurst, Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021), 113–114.

^[11] See Wilford Woodruff Journal, January 23, 1881: “W. Woodruff then spoke one hour spoke of the settlement in Southern Utah & Arizonia bore testimomy to the work of God and what Joseph F Smith had said and in his remarks said Joseph F Smith was One of the first Presidency and would be President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in his DAY. (“Journal (February 1880 – December 1885),” January 23, 1881 – January 27, 1881, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed July 30, 2024, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/28MK.)

^[12] Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898. Wilford Woodruff letter to Heber J. Grant, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/59f32110-e260-4071-8fe0-a892c3be4f20/0/0 (accessed: September 13, 2021). see also https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/lpW5.