About two days since the daily papers announced the arrival, in this
city, of General A. W. Doniphan, of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri.
This circumstance brought to my mind incidents thirty-six years passed by, to which I shall briefly refer on the present occasion.
There are few men whose names have been identified with the history of
our Church, with more pleasant feelings to its members, than General
Doniphan. During a long career of persecution, abuse and oppression
characters occasionally present themselves like stars of the first
magnitude in defense of right, who are willing, notwithstanding the
unpopularity that may attach to it, to stand up and protest against
mob violence, murder, abuse, or the destruction of property and
constitutional rights, even if the parties who are being thus abused,
robbed, murdered or trampled under foot have the unpopular name of
"Mormons." The incident of General Doniphan exercising his influence
by which means he prevented the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and
some other Elders, who had had a mock trial by court-martial, in the
State of Missouri, some thirty-six years ago, is familiar to the minds
of all the Latter-day Saints who are acquainted with the history of
that period, and there is one man in the Territory who was present on
the occasion, that is Timothy B. Foote, of Nephi, who witnessed the
court-martial. It was represented to Joseph Smith, by a man known
among our people as Colonel Hinkle, that Major General Lucas and
certain other parties wished to have an interview with him. In the
vicinity of the town of Far West there was at that time a large body
of armed men, under the orders of the Governor of Missouri, but
temporarily under the command of General Lucas, of Jackson County,
Mo., who was the ranking officer. It is understood by us that Hinkle
had deceived Joseph Smith and the brethren with the idea that the
interview was to be of a peaceful and consultory character; but when
they came, as they supposed, to hold the interview, they were taken
prisoners, tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be shot; the
execution, however, was prevented by the protest of General Doniphan,
who, at that time, was commander of a brigade, composed, I believe, of
the militia of the County of Clay, and who declared that the execution
of that sentence would be cold blooded murder.
It was not long after this that General Clark, who had been appointed
by the Governor to this command, arrived and took command of this
militia. General Atchison was the ranking officer, being the general
of a division on the north side of the river, commanding a division
containing, I think, six counties, but he was superseded by the
appointment of Clark. If I remember right there were as many as
thirteen thousand men ordered out, and there were probably five or six
thousand collected together on the ground, their object being to expel
the Latter-day Saints from the State of Missouri.
The number of Latter-day Saints at that period is not accurately
known, but there were, I suppose, in the neighborhood of ten or twelve
thousand. The settlements had been rapidly formed. They had occupied
the County of Caldwell when there were only seven families in it. A
party of Elders visited Caldwell County to look for a location. On
their arrival they fell in with these seven families, who were living
in log cabins and had made very little improvements. They said the
country was a worthless, naked prairie, there was very little timber
in it, and, their business being bee hunting, they had hunted all the
bees out of the woods, and they wanted to go somewhere else, as they
learned there was better bee hunting and more honey to be ob tained up Grand River; and within an hour after the arrival of the
first of these Elders, every one of the seven men had sold their
places and received their pay, congratulating themselves on their good
fortune in leaving a country where the taking of wild honey had ceased
to be a paying business, and there was not a family, other than
Latter-day Saints, residing in the county. A good many of our people
were settled in Ray County, a few in Clay, and some in Livingstone,
Davies, Clinton and Carroll. I understand that three hundred and
eighteen thousand dollars had been paid to the United States for lands
in the State of Missouri, the titles of which were held by Latter-day
Saints. The Order of Governor Boggs exterminated these people from the
State. To be sure they owned their lands, and they were industrious
and law-abiding. They were increasing rapidly and making vast
improvements. The city of Far West had several hundred houses, and
other towns and villages were springing up. United firms were being
organized, which were putting into cultivation very extensive tracts
of land in addition to the large amount already brought under
improvement.
In consequence of the influence exerted by General Doniphan, General
Lucas hesitated to execute the sentence of his court-martial, and he
delivered Joseph Smith and his associates into the charge of General
Moses Wilson, who was instructed to take them to Jackson County and
there put them to death. I heard General Wilson, some years after,
speaking of this circumstance. He was telling some gentlemen about
having Joseph Smith a prisoner in chains in his possession, and said
he—"He was a very remarkable man. I carried him into my house, a
prisoner in chains and in less than two hours my wife loved him better
than she did me." At any rate Mrs. Wilson became deeply interested in
preserving the life of Joseph Smith and the other prisoners, and this
interest on her part, which probably arose from a spirit of humanity,
did not end with that circumstance, for, a number of years afterwards,
after the family had moved to Texas, General Wilson became interested
in raising a mob to do violence to some of the Latter-day Saint Elders
who were going to preach in the neighborhood, and this coming to the
ears of Mrs. Wilson, although then an aged lady, she mounted her horse
and rode thirty miles to give the Elders the information. Year before
last when I was in California, attending the State Fair, I met with a
son of Mr. Wilson: he was president of an agricultural society, and
was attending the fair, and I named this circumstance to him. He told
me that his mother deeply deprecated the difficulties with the
Mormons, and did all she could to prevent them.
You can readily see from what I have said that our community, at that
time, was very handsomely situated. The poorest man in it, apparently,
owned his forty acres of land, while some of the richer had several
sections. Farms had been opened, and prosperity seemed to smile upon
the people everywhere. Mills were built, machinery was being
constructed, and everything seemed to be going on that could be
desired to make a community prosperous, wealthy and happy, when
suddenly, in consequence of the exterminating order issued by Lilburn
W. Boggs, and executed by General Clark, and those under his command,
the people were driven from the State. If we would renounce our faith
we could have the privilege of remaining, but we were told
pointedly that we must hold no prayer meetings, no prayer circles, no
conferences, and that we must have neither Bishops nor Presidents, and
that if we indulged in any of these forbidden luxuries the citizens
would be upon us and destroy us. A very few accepted the conditions
and remained, and I believe that, to this day, one or two families
occupy their inheritances who then renounced their faith.
This people landed in Illinois destitute. Most of their animals had
been plundered from them during the difficulties, and, to use a
comparative expression, they arrived in that State almost naked and
barefoot. They were, however, a very industrious people, and they
immediately went to work; anywhere and everywhere that they could find
anything to do their hands laid hold upon it, and prosperity very soon
began to smile upon them. Joseph Smith was kept in prison during the
winter, but in the spring he and several of his fellow prisoners,
among them Bishop Alexander McRae of the 11th Ward, escaped and made
their way to the State of Illinois.
Our people had a very singular idea of justice and right; they
supposed, having paid their money to the United States for their
lands, having actually purchased and received titles for them, that it
was the business of the United States to protect them thereon; having
little acquaintance with law they entertained the somewhat wild idea
that that was no more than justice on the part of the Government. Of
course, the government could only be expected to protect them against
any adverse titles that might arise; but so far as protecting them
from mobs or from illegal violence from the State in which they lived,
from oppression from those in authority, or from marauders who might
burn their houses, or murder them and ravish their wives, this was no
part of the business of the United States; but in their lack of
knowledge on these subjects they fancied that the United States should
protect them on their lands, hence Joseph Smith and several of his
brethren went directly to Washington, carrying the applications of
some ten thousand persons, and asked the Government to protect them in
the possession of their lands and in their rights, and to restore them
to their homes. They had an interview on the subject with Mr. Van
Buren, at that time President of the United States, and the answer
that he gave has become almost a household word. Said he—"Gentlemen,
your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you." Joseph accordingly
returned to his friends in the western border of Illinois, and they
commenced purchasing lands in the vicinity of Nauvoo, and they laid
out and built a city and remained there.
This occurred in the Spring of 1839, and Joseph remained there until
the Summer of 1844, during which time he had several very grievous
lawsuits, which arose out of attempts on the part of the authorities
of Missouri to carry him back to that State. He was arrested several
times, and had one trial, and was discharged on habeas corpus in the
circuit court, before Judge Stephen A. Douglas; one trial, and
discharged on habeas corpus before Judge Pope, United States judge in
the district of Illinois; and one trial before the municipal court of
Nauvoo. These several trials cost a great deal of money and a great
deal of time, and were a very discouraging feature in the progress of
the settlements in that vicinity, though the industry and enterprise
of the people were such that they purchased a large portion of
the lands in that county and in adjoining counties. They laid out and
built the city of Nauvoo, containing some twelve thousand inhabitants,
and they were building a Temple and making other improvements, when
Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered, which took place on
the twenty-seventh of June, 1844.
I will say in relation to the progress of the work, that missionaries,
among them the Twelve Apostles, had been sent abroad to preach, and a
great many people had received the Gospel. The Apostles took their
departure directly from the recommencing of the foundation of the
Temple in the city of Far West, on the 26th of April, 1839. They went
on a mission to Europe for about two years, baptizing some seven
thousand persons, and laying a foundation for the gathering from the
old world, which has continued up to the present time. The
circumstances connected with the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were
such as to impress upon their enemies even, the disgrace inflicted
upon the State by their murder, and upon the world the importance, of
their mission. The governor of the State pledged himself, when they
gave themselves up, that they should be protected and have a fair
trial, but he placed them in the hands of men, who, he was assured by
many, were their enemies, and who would murder them if they had the
power. Joseph Smith had been brought before legal tribunals
forty-seven times, and had in every instance been acquitted.
Everything in the shape of a vexatious lawsuit that could be trumped
up against him had been, and in this instance he was arrested on the
affidavit of a man, whose word would not have been taken at a saloon
in Carthage for a glass of grog, who swore that he was guilty of
treason, and he was thrown into prison, and murdered while being
detained waiting for an examination. The governor, in a communication
to the Elders in Nauvoo, said that the people felt that it was very
wrong that he should be murdered in that way, but the great mass of
them was very glad that he was dead; and I have reason to believe that
this feeling was caused by religious prejudice, which arose from the
fact that he came preaching what was considered a new doctrine, which
attacked all the hireling priests and religious crafts, and offered
free, to all people, a religion, plain and simple and in accordance
with the Bible, and which, if accepted, would have a tendency to throw
a large portion of the hireling clergy of the age out of employment,
or compel them to do as the Apostles did in the days of Jesus—preach
the Gospel without purse and scrip. Vexatious lawsuits, mob violence,
tar and feathers, and finally, bloodshed were successively adopted in
hopes of stopping this religion, and it was believed by those who
regarded "Mormonism" as a wild theory, that the death of Joseph would
scatter the people and destroy their faith in the work. They did not
realize that he had laid the foundation of a living, truthful
organization, which would be likely to increase the faster the more it
was persecuted. But so it was, for the people continued to gather, and
the public buildings—Temple and Nauvoo House—were being pushed forward
more rapidly than ever, and when this was ascertained, there was an
organization formed which expelled the people from the State.
The authorities of the Church at Nauvoo being aware of this
combination, petitions were sent to the government of the
United States, and also to the governor of every State in the Union,
asking each one to give us an asylum in his State. The governor of
Arkansas gave us a respectful answer, all the rest treated our
petition with silent contempt.
In September, 1845, the mob commenced burning houses, and they
continued burning in different parts of the settlements, mostly in
Hancock County, until they burned one hundred and seventy-five houses.
The governor and authorities of the State were notified, and finally
the sheriff of the County took a posse, mostly Latter-day Saints, and
stopped the house burning. The instant this was done the people of the
nine adjoining counties rose up and said—"You 'Mormons' must
leave the
county or you 'Mormons' must die." They then made an agreement that
we
should have time to move away and dispose of our property, and that
vexatious lawsuits and mob violence should cease. This we kept most
faithfully, but so far as they were concerned the agreement was never
observed, mob violence continued, house burnings and murders occurred
occasionally, vexatious lawsuits were renewed; and before the remnant
of the people were permitted to get out of the county they were
surrounded by armed mobs, as many as eighteen hundred in a single
body, and cannonaded out of their houses.
The people thus driven commenced a journey to seek the home where we
now reside. The white settlements extended sixty or seventy miles west
of the Missouri River, Keosauqua was the most western one. From that
place we made the roads, and bridged the streams, some thirty in
number, across Iowa, to Council Bluffs, arriving there in June, 1846.
The people who started on this journey started under the most forlorn
circumstances. They left their houses, lands, crops, and everything
they had if they could get a yoke of cattle, wagons without iron
tires, carts, or anything of which they could make an outfit, and
commenced a journey to hunt a home somewhere where so-called
Christians would not be able to deprive them of the right to worship
God according to the dictates of their consciences, a right which is
actually more dear than life itself.
I think between thirteen and fourteen hundred miles of road were made,
though we occasionally followed trappers' trails, and on the 24th of
July, 1847, President Young led the pioneer party—numbering one
hundred and forty three men—on to this ground, then a portion of
Mexican Territory and one of the most desolate, barren looking spots
in the world, and dedicated it to the Most High, that we might once
more find an asylum where liberty could be enjoyed. We should most
probably have reached this place before we did, but the United States,
the year before, invited our camps to send five hundred men to aid
them in the war with Mexico, which they did, and they were mustered
into service on the 16th of July, 1846, and made the route through
from New Mexico to the Pacific coast.
It is a remarkable fact in history, that while these five hundred
Latter-day Saints, mustered into service at Council Bluffs, were
bearing the American flag across the desert, from New Mexico to the
Pacific Coast, a march of infantry characterized by General Cook as
unparalleled in military annals, the remnant of their families in
Nauvoo were surrounded by eighteen hundred armed men and cannonaded,
and driven across the river into the wilderness, without shelter, food
or protection, in consequence of which very many of them lost their lives.
Our friends pass through here and they say—"What a beautiful city you
have got! What beautiful shade trees! What magnificent fruit trees,
what grand orchards and wheat fields! What a splendid place you have
got!" When the pioneers came here there was nothing of the kind, and a
more dry and barren spot of ground than this was then could hardly be
found. Still the little streams were running from the mountains to the
Lake. We knew nothing, then, about irrigation, but the streams were
soon diverted from their course, to irrigate the soil. For the first
three years we had but little to eat. We brought what provisions we
could with us, and we eked them out as well as we could by hunting
over the hills for wild segoes and thistle roots. There was very
little game in the mountains, and but few fish in the streams, and
hence we had but a short allowance of food, and for three years after
our arrival there was scarcely a family which dared to eat a full
meal. This was the condition in which this settlement was commenced.
There was no intercourse except with Western Missouri, and it was ten
hundred and thirty-four miles to the Missouri River, if we struck it
at the mouth of the Platte, where Omaha is now; and our supplies,
which were generally brought, by way of that place, were all purchased
in Western Missouri.
In 1850 a sufficient crop was raised here to supply the inhabitants
with food, but previous to that time we had divided our scanty
supplies with hundreds and thousands of emigrants, who drifted in here
in a state of starvation while on their way to California, for the
discovery of the gold mines there had set the world almost crazy. Many
people started on the Plains without knowing how to outfit or what to
do to preserve their supplies, and by the time they reached here their
outfits would be completely exhausted. We saved the lives of thousands
who arrived here in that condition, many of them our bitter enemies,
and we aided them on their way in the best possible manner that we
could.
There are several incidents which occurred here in early times which,
to us, were miraculous. The first year after our arrival the crickets
in immense numbers came down from the mountains and destroyed much of
the crops. The people undertook to destroy them, and after having done
everything they could to accomplish this object, they gave it up for a
bad job; then the gulls came in immense numbers from the lakes and
devoured the crickets, until they were all destroyed, and thus, by the
direct and miraculous intervention of Providence, the colony was saved
from destruction.
While crossing the Plains we had to form in companies of sufficient
size to protect ourselves against the Indians, there being from fifty
to a hundred men in each company. In these companies existed our
religious organization, and we also had a civil organization, by which
all the difficulties that arose in the companies were settled; and
then a militia organization, composed of ablebodied men, whose duty it
was to guard the camps from attacks by Indians, and from accidents. We
had our meetings every Sabbath, at which the Sacrament was
administered; we had days also set apart for washing, and occasionally
we had a dance, and our travels were so regulated that the
cultivation, enjoyment and associations of society were experienced
almost as much as when living together in a settled and well regulated
community.
When we started on our journey we knew very little about Indians, but
we exercised towards them such a spirit of justice, and such vigilant
watchfulness, that we lost very little, and suffered very little on
account of difficulties with them during the many years that we were
crossing these plains.
Before we left Nauvoo we had covenanted, within the walls of our
Temple, that we would, with one heart and one mind, abide by each
other, and aid one another to escape from the oppressions with which
we were surrounded, to the extent of our influence and property, and
just as soon as the brethren were able they formed a perpetual
emigration fund in Salt Lake City, and in 1849 Bishop Hunter, with
five thousand dollars in gold, was sent back with instructions to use
that and what other means he could gather in helping those to come
here who were not able to come before; and from year to year this work
has continued, being a grand system of brotherly love and united
cooperation. In a few years after reaching here we sent a hundred
teams back to the frontiers, each team being a wagon and four yoke of
oxen or six mules or horses; and as we increased in strength, we sent
annually two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, and
finally six hundred, to bring home those who wished to settle in these
valleys; and even at the present time, our system of emigration has
been extended across the sea, to gather all who wish to gather with
the Saints. There are many thousands of people in these valleys who,
had it not been for the organization of the Latter-day Saints and the
kind and fatherly care of President Brigham Young, would never have
owned a foot of land, or any other property, but they would have been
dependent all their lives upon the will of a master for very
precarious subsistence.
Our plan of settlement here was entirely different from that we had
adopted in any other country in which we had ever lived. The first
thing, in locating a town, was to build a dam and make a water ditch;
the next thing to build a schoolhouse, and these schoolhouses
generally answered the purpose of meetinghouses. You may pass through
all the settlements, from north to south, and you will find the
history of them to be just about the same—the dam, the water ditch,
then the schoolhouse and the meetinghouse. Crops were put in, trees
were planted, cabins were built, mills were erected, fields were
enclosed, and improvements were made step by step. This Territory is
so thoroughly a desert that unless men irrigate their land by
artificial means they would raise comparatively nothing. The
settlements at the present time stretch some five or six hundred
miles, extending into Arizona on the south and into Idaho on the
north.
We have had some difficulty with the Indians, resulting principally
from the interference of outsiders. Those of you who have read the
history of John C. Fremont's journey through Western Arizona, may
remember that he gives an account of some of his party killing several
of the native Piute Indians. From that time the war seems to have
commenced between the Indians and the whites. Some of you may also
remember the declaration, in regard to the Indians, made by Mr.
Calhoun, one of the early governors of New Mexico. He informed the
government that the true policy in regard to the Digger and Piute
tribes, in the western part of the Territory, which then embraced
Arizona and portions of Utah, was to exterminate them, that it was utterly useless ever to attempt to civilize them, or to do
anything else but exterminate them. This was the policy adopted by a
great many travelers who passed through, and when they saw an Indian,
the feeling was to shoot him. This was especially the case in the
district of country now comprised in the southern portions of this
Territory and the western part of Arizona.
When we came into the country our motive was to promote peace with the
Indians, to deal justly with them and to act towards them as though
they were human beings, and so long as we were permitted to carry out
our own policy with them we were enabled to maintain peace, and there
were but few instances in which difficulties occurred. A band of men,
rowdies, from Western Missouri, on the way to the mines, shot some
Snake squaws and took their horses, up here on the Malad. This aroused
the spirit of vengeance in the Indians, and they fell upon and killed
the first whites they found, and they happened to be "Mormons" who
were engaged in building a mill on the northern frontier, just above
Ogden. This difficulty, of course, had to be arranged, and a good many
circumstances of this kind, at various times, have made it difficult
to get along without having a muss with the Indians.
Again, we had people among us who were reckless in their feelings, and
who were not willing always to be controlled and to act wisely and
prudently. All these things considered, when we realize that we always
had four frontiers, and that we were about a thousand miles from any
white settlement in any direction, that the Indians were on every side
of us, and many of them very wild and savage, it is perfectly
wonderful that we have had as little diffi culty with them as we have.
But the United States, in sending agents here, have frequently been
not altogether fortunate in their selection, and in some instances
have not sent very good men. Some who have been sent have been very
good men, but they were totally ignorant of the business of dealing
with, controlling or promoting peace with the Indians. This, of
course, has been more or less detrimental to the settlements, and it
has cost them a great deal to supply the natives with food and to aid
them in getting along, for it is much cheaper to feed the Indians than
to fight them. But the general feeling among the Indians is, that as
far as the "Mormons" are concerned, they desire to deal with them in a
spirit of justice and friendship. There is now little difficulty
except from distant Indians, and we sometimes think that white men,
perhaps, have employed Indians to plunder ranches and drive off cattle
four or five hundred miles and sell them. Some instances of this kind
may have occurred, but we have got along wonderfully well.
The people here have shown a vast amount of enterprise in the
construction of the roads through the Territory. Strangers who come
here run down to this city, go down to Provo and up to Logan, and to
various other places on the little branches of our railroad system;
but if they were to travel through these mountains and extend their
investigations into the valleys, which are well worthy the attention
of any traveler for their beauty, they would find that in many places
they are so rugged that it is almost a wonder there were ever men
enough in the country to make the roads. Then the telegraph wires have
been extended some twelve hundred miles through a number of the
settlements, north and south; these wires have sometimes been
used to prevent the plunder of the ranches by the Indians. From year
to year we are extending our railroad system. We have had no
encouragement from the General Government in relation to railroads; we
have never been permitted even to have the right of way, by act of
Congress, over a foot of ground, until we have occupied it with a
railroad for a year or two, and sometimes not then; and we are
extending our railroad system without any aid from Congress or any
other source, but our own ingenuity and means, and that of our
friends.
We are doing all we can to unite our brethren to cooperate in the
building of factories, in the construction and establishment of
machinery of various kinds, in commercial operations, in the building
of railroads, the enclosing of farms, and in every branch of business
possible we are endeavoring to unite the people in order to save
labor, economize, and produce within ourselves as many articles as we
possibly can that we need to consume, and some to sell, for our
history for the past few years has proved that we have traded too
much—we have bought more merchandise than the products of the country
would justify, and a system of manufacturing is very important, and
our people have constructed some very fine mills for the manufacture
of woolen and other goods.
While we are tracing, for the consideration of our friends, our
progress, we here say that we have had very little encouragement from
the outside. Our mines were worthless in this country until the
railroad was built. In 1852, we presented to Congress, by our
Delegate, Dr. Bernhisel, a petition for a railroad across the
continent. Members of Congress then ridiculed the idea as being a
hundred years ahead of the age. Our Delegate invited his friends to
come and see him when the road was constructed, and some of them have
done so. The memorial was presented six or eight times, being repeated
session after session, before any steps were taken by Congress towards
the construction of the road, and it was finally completed much
earlier than it would have been had it not been for the cooperation
of the people of this Territory, who made the roadbed for four
hundred miles over the worst part of the route, and, also furnished a
good deal of business for the road to do when it was finished.
As soon as the railroad was completed mines here, containing lead,
with a small percent of silver, became valuable. They were not
worked before. Of course we worked them a little when we wanted a
little lead, but the silver mines, as they are termed now, were not
worth a dollar then. But as soon as the great railroad and our branch
lines were completed the mining property of the country became
valuable. It would have seemed that a wise government would have
encouraged such enterprises, but this has not been the policy of the
General Government towards Utah. They have seemed to think that all
that was necessary was to send governors and judges, and to pick the
most bigoted men they could find to fill these positions; though I
must say that, during the twenty-four years that we have been a
Territory, we have had many very excellent men sent here, including
very good governors, and very good judges, and some who, I think,
would have been better employed in other callings. It is really an
unfortunate circumstance to pick up men and send them to any country,
to occupy important offices, who are totally unacquainted with
the country and who have no interest in it, and whose prejudices are
against the people. The better policy is the one announced in the
Declaration of Independence, that, in relation to these United States,
the consent of the governed should be had. This would be a better
policy, more republican and more agreeable, but we seem to be a
special people, and, of course, acts have to be performed for our
special case.
There is one ground of complaint that is alleged against us here, and
that is, we believe in a plurality of wives. A great many men and
women have practiced this principle rigidly, in all good faith; and
until we can find some man who can show us a single passage in either
the Old or New Testament, that actually prohibits it, we feel
justified in following the examples of Prophets, Patriarchs, and holy
men, fathers of the faithful, believing that if it were right in their
case it cannot be wrong in ours. We are told that the Old Testament
sets forth such an example, but that the New Testament condemns it,
for that the Savior did it away. The only question I would ask in
reference to this subject is—If the Savior did away with plural
marriage, why didn't he say so? If the Apostles put it down why did
they not tell us of it? In the last two chapters of the Bible we have
an account of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the gates of which we
are told are to be named after the twelve sons of four wives by one
father; and if we enter the gates of that city we face this polygamy,
and if we cannot face this polygamy we cannot enter the gates into
the city. So we understand the New Testament. On account of our belief
in and practice of this Scriptural doctrine, extraordinary legislation
has been asked against us, that our lives, liberty, property and
pursuit of happiness may be at the control of four or five
individuals. This is the extreme of folly.
In considering this subject, let us ask where, in all the world, has a
Territory been settled under as many disadvantages as this? Where have
a hundred and fifty thousand people been collected together and
exhibited more order, and given proof of more industry and prosperity
under the circumstances than we have? Nowhere. Brigham Young, as
President of the Church and leader of the people, from the death of
Joseph Smith to the present time, through the influence that he has
exercised with his brethren and friends throughout the world, has been
able to bring thousands of people from America and other nations, and
to locate them in these valleys and put them in possession of happy
homes, and to make thriving, flourishing and prosperous communities.
"By their fruits ye shall know them." Then, the true policy is to
leave men to the enjoyment of their religion, to the enjoyment of the
holy Gospel as they may receive it, extending liberty, peace, good
order and happiness to all. I believe today there is no Territory so
lightly taxed and, with all the drawbacks, none so well governed as
this. It is true that since the railroad has come here there has
drifted in a population in favor of sustaining grog shops. I notice
that in the last week a petition has been signed by four thousand
ladies, asking the City Council to shut up the drinking hells. These
institutions are a portion of civilization that has followed the
railroad, and that would have caused astonishment here a few years
ago. I wish the City Council would grant the petition of the ladies; I
suppose they may be restrained by a decision of a court which
claims to question their jurisdiction; but I have no doubt the City
Council will shut up these hells if it is in their power, consistent
with the relations that exist between the Territorial authorities and
those of the United States. But I am ashamed of our Congressmen, I am
ashamed of our judges, I am ashamed of our federal authorities for
fastening upon a people such a system of drunkenness, licentiousness
and debauchery, while they are making such a terrible howl over a man
who may have two wives, and who labors hard for their support, and for
the education of their children, and acknowledges them honorably
before the world. Everybody to his taste.
When Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, the author of what is termed the
anti-polygamy bill of 1862, told me that he would not care anything
about plurality of wives if it were not in the United States, and he
was afraid that Vermont was partly responsible for it, I told him that
they had a system of licensing prostitution in Vermont. I, however,
should raise no objection to that, but I felt myself disgraced and
ashamed because I was associated with a State that licensed such a
system as that; and that if I could put up with Vermont, he could put
up with Utah, that was no more than fair, it was shake for shake.
I heard it stated, or read, not long since, that a hundred thousand
infanticides annually occur on Manhattan Island. That is a most
horrible state of affairs if it is half true, or quarter true. Can
nothing be done to change this system? I will refer my friends to the
pamphlet published by a very learned minister, Rev. Doctor Tood, of
Pittsfield, Mass., showing the spirit of death, corruption,
licentiousness, and mur der that exists, even in the churches among
professing Christians in Massachusetts and other parts of New England.
I felt not a little surprised to go back into the neighborhood where I
was raised, where they used to have fifty scholars annually, to find
that they were borrowing one or two from another neighborhood to make
out fifteen, so that they could draw the public money. There were as
many houses in the neighborhood as formerly, and a few more, new ones,
had been built; there were also more families in the neighborhood, but
they had stopped having children. I, as an American citizen, feel
myself disgraced to be associated with any community who have adopted
these expedients, at the same time I do not expect, under any
circumstances, ever to undertake to interfere with their local
regulations, and I simply ask my fellow men to give us the same
opportunity.
The Lord has blessed us with many children, and there is no Latter-day
Saint, who has an abiding faith in the Gospel and in the great command
which God first gave to the children of men, to multiply and replenish
the earth, but what rejoices in them, and regards them as a blessing
from on high; and nobody in the mountains that I know of has ever
complained of the number of children, except some of our friends up
here in Idaho. When they ran the southern line of Idaho, it was found
that several settlements and parts of three counties, before then
supposed to be in Utah, were in that Territory. The people of Idaho
have a school law and a school fund, and the most that had been done
before with this fund was to give it to the officers; but with the
addition of the "Mormon" settlements to the Territory, there was an
addition of several thousand "Mormon" children, and they were
included in the school report. The officers said—"This cannot be, this
must be a humbug, there cannot be anything like this number of
children;" but when they came to investigate and count noses they
found it verily true, and there were "Mormon" people raising hearty,
hale little fellows to walk over these mountains and make them blossom
like the rose.
I remember once, in traveling through the State of Indiana,
encountering a gentleman who called himself Professor Jones, connected
with a university there. He asked me a great many questions about our
system in the mountains, and wanted to know how we did this and how we
did that. I explained it to him as correctly as I could. I traveled
with him a day or two, and he kept asking questions and making notes.
When we parted he said he was very much surprised, he had supposed
that our system was one of immorality, but he had learned to the
contrary. He did not pretend to say anything about its justness and
correctness; of course he did not sympathize with it, but one thing
was sure, said he, "If you continue the course you are now pursuing,
you will produce a set of men in those mountains who will be able to
walk the rest of mankind under their feet." I suppose, like enough, he
may be one of the men who would like to proscribe us now. I know this,
if the reports of learned men are true, the course now being pursued
by a great many of our Christian friends in the East, will, in a few
generations, wipe out the race of '76 and give the country into the
hands of strangers. It is time that somebody was fulfilling the great
command of God, to multiply and replenish the earth, and put away
licentiousness, and labor for the upbuilding and welfare of the human
race.
Men take up "Mormonism," and they say it is a humbug. There is where
they make a mistake. My friends, the Gospel, as preached by the
Latter-day Saints, is true. "Mormonism" is no humbug. Joseph Smith was
a true Prophet; he revealed a true religion, and all attempts to
destroy it will prove vain. I bear this testimony, I know this to be
true, and I warn my fellow men to receive this faith, and to repent
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and be
baptized for their remission, and receive the laying on of hands, that
you may enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost, for that Spirit will rest
upon you if you receive and obey this Gospel with full purpose of
heart. Then add to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to
your knowledge temperance, to your temperance patience, to your
patience godliness, to your godliness brotherly kindness, to your
brotherly kindness charity, and if these things be and abound in you,
you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. Jesus Christ. You will know these things for yourselves,
and you will testify, as I testify, that you know this work is the
work of God.
May God enable us to do so, is my prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
- George A. Smith