As a humble private from the ranks of the Deseret Mountaineers of the
Nauvoo Legion, I have the honor, though unexpectedly, to rise and
offer a few of our feelings in view of the great matters which have
been presented before us this day, and of the great events of which
this is the anniversary. From the remarks of the gentlemen who have
occupied this stand previous to my rising, we might think, that a
people who have been driven, and who have suffered so many
difficulties, robbings; shaking of the ague, catching birds with
hands, and for a time living on crickets, &c., that we would be very
lean and poor; but my friends, I think I am a pretty fair specimen of
the privates who compose the Nauvoo Legion. The experiment has been
tried of living in the deserts, of wandering among mountains, and of
solving the philosophical problem of almost living upon the air; and
it has answered exceedingly well.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I address you; for I can assure
you that the Nauvoo Legion view with the strictest jealousy, every
violation of the provisions of the federal constitution; every
infringement of the rights of the people is regarded by the Nauvoo
Legion with the most fiery indignation. Whenever the rights of a
religious body are invaded—whenever the privileges of a civil
community are trampled upon with impunity—whenever any man in power,
or any man out of power shall trample upon the provisions of that
legacy bequeathed us by our ancestors, there rises in us an unbounded
indignation; for our fathers' legacy was sealed with their blood, and
we are determined to maintain it inviolable. When an executive of a
state rises up and assumes to himself a dignity and a power that no
autocrat of all the Russias dare presume to exercise, and issues a
bloody order as did L. W. Boggs, for the utter extermination of all
the "Mormons;" men, women, and children, that may belong to, or be in
any way connected with them, it raises the indignation of the Nauvoo
Legion to an unbounded pitch.
What is more curious than all the rest; it frequently occurs in
all governments that corruption arises among the people; the people
become corrupt, and to a great extent, it must affect the government
also; no matter how good its form may be, the corruptions that arise
among the body of the people, must in a great measure paralyze the
head of the government. The Roman Catholics in Philadelphia were
attacked by a lawless mob, and thousands turned out to demolish their
churches and dwellings, and murder their people, and the perpetrators
of such deeds are suffered to go unpunished—this fills the Nauvoo
Legion with burning indignation. The legacy bequeathed to us by our
forefathers was a constitution which will protect every man in his
civil and religious rights; and where this Legion is, woe to him that
infringes upon these constitutional liberties. Being called upon
without reflection, or time to prepare a speech; and not possessing
the requisite talents for preparing notes, I must give you what I have
to say in an offhand style.
Men will rise up in distant countries; and say that the inhabitants of
these mountains are rebellious. Rebellious! Against what? Against the
power of mobs, lawless robbery, and the infringement and violation of
the constitution of the United States—against the lawless destruction
of property and life—against the deprivation of human beings of
religious liberty—that is what we are rebellious against; and the
Nauvoo Legion are ready to rebel against every aggression of this kind,
as long as there is one drop of blood left in their veins.
These bayonets now before me have been carried upon the shoulders of
these men to extend "the area of the American Liberty," over 4,000
miles, suffering almost every kind of distress and fatigue; sometimes
traveling on foot ever a hundred miles of desert, from water to water.
Such a march has not been equaled by any body of infantry in the
world; and General Kearney said, that there was no other set of troops
in his army that could endure such service.
Talk of rebellion! Or want of loyalty! Men might as well say the sun
does not shine, as to argue that this people are enemies to their
country's freedom. There is a spirit of religious intolerance that has
arisen in the minds of a great many men against this people in the
present age; they say, "you shall think as I think, or damn you, we'll
destroy you." General Joseph Smith, the commander of our Legion, was
treacherously murdered, and his noble brother by his side also, while
under the pledge of safety of Governor Thomas Ford. The grandfather of
that murdered general (murdered while under the sacred pledge of the
State of Illinois), his paternal grandfather; I say, was at the elbow
of Colonel Ethan Allen, at Ticonderoga, and with Stark at Bennington;
and his maternal grandfather was in the first naval battle, and at the
elbow of the first Commodore of the American navy, when the first
naval battle was fought by Americans against Great Britain, and served
during the entire war. Why was he murdered? Because he thought
different from his neighbors. Religious toleration was not in
accordance with the feelings of narrow minded men; he must be
butchered—basely murdered—and to accomplish it the faith of a
sovereign state had to be pledged. We love the constitution of the
United States in its organization; but we detest southern secession,
and northern disunion, or anything that would be calculated to destroy
our glorious Union, and the institutions which have been sealed by the
blood of our fathers.
Gentlemen, appearing as I appear in your midst, lean though I may be
(Mr. Smith now weighing 230 lbs.), I will tell you that I have
the honor of having descended from an officer of the revolution, who
marched 150 miles under the command of General Morgan, from the battle
of the Cow Pens, with nothing to eat but the rawhide belt of his
cartridge box. That cannot be the cause of my fine appearance; but it
must be the noble living my ancestors have had, when fighting for the
liberties we enjoy this day, in these mountains. And although I have
passed through so many trials and afflictions to get here, having been
driven out of three dwelling houses in different states, by mob force;
as many times deprived of my property; and having buried most of my
family from suffering on the plains; been three days at a time,
without taking food, that there is now scarcely a hair left on my head
between me and heaven; yet I am on hand, and with the Nauvoo Legion,
rejoice that there is a place amid the mountains where men are free to
enjoy civil and religious liberty and truth. Truth and Liberty
forever! Amen.
- George A. Smith