Enoch's Advocate: An Anti-Mormon Satirical Tabloid

In January 1874, when Brigham Young began pushing economic communalism in the form of The Order of Enoch, he could no longer take for granted the unquestioning compliance of the flock. He was 72 years old. He had lost authority over the territorial militia and could no longer rid Utah of hostile judges.

Further, he was publicly feuding with William Godbe's New Movement, a group of eloquent, well-connected ex-Saints who opposed his vision for the territory. These "Liberal Mormons" challenged Young's power, offering alternative interpretations of scripture and speaking out against Young's obsession with economic self-sufficiency. They wanted to loosen his stranglehold on development and build a Utah that prospered by embracing commerce, mining, and free trade with the States.

Coincidentally, in July 1873, the three-year-old Salt Lake Tribune had been sold to Kansas newspaper veteran George F. Prescott, who installed an old friend, Fred Lockley, as editor. Godbe, one of the wealthiest men in the territory, had supplied start-up capital for the Tribune, and he and other like-minded merchants continued to pour money into the newspaper. But during its short life, rising debt and an inconsistent editorial voice had left the Tribune fighting for life. Prescott and Co. knew they needed a way to revive the paper, and it wasn't long before they found one.

Despite fervent advocacy by Young and others, the Order of Enoch faltered. Saints proved reluctant to let go of their property. In Salt Lake City in particular, prominent and wealthy Mormons quietly declined to cooperate. The Tribune gleefully noted this reluctance to consecrate land and wealth to the Church and made hay with it. Through the fall and winter of 1873-74, the paper abandoned the "old" Tribune's (predominantly) mild tone and measured critiques. In combative prose, Lockley's editorials (while careful to respect "ordinary Saints") grew increasingly hostile toward the Church—its leadership, finances, and politics. 

Lockley was a serious journalist and overall, the Tribune improved, becoming more consistently professional. At times, however, it appears that the newspaper lobbed insults solely to stir excitement and sell subscriptions. It called Young "chief swindler" and "gobbler-in-chief," and it mocked his eldest sons, Brigham Jr. (Briggy) and John W., as unworthy beneficiaries of nepotism. (It referred to Briggy as "Fat Boy.") Brigham Young's wife Amelia stated that he would read the Tribune every morning "and fume." Salt Lake City's mayor (and LDS Senior Apostle) Daniel H. Wells was so affronted by the Tribune that in September 1873, he had Lockley forcibly ejected from a city council meeting and banned. This is the context in which the Forty-Fourth Conference commenced and into which Enoch's Advocate was born.