I feel pleased to have the opportunity of again meeting with you.
There are many things that if I had time, I should like to talk about.
However, there were one or two statements, that I made yesterday,
which I will further explain. In speaking of the position of the
people and of their settlements in this southern country, I then
stated that President Young did not make any mistake in laying out a
city here, nor in building a Temple here; that it was quite as
important a move as any that could have been made in the interests of
the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. If I were to enter into
the details of that move I should speak of it perhaps in a two-fold
capacity; but I will speak for a short time, at least, upon some of
the leading features associated with the position that we occupy here
in these valleys of the mountains.
We are quite a long distance from the outside world. It is true there
are railroads and more are being made; and it is right there should
be. That is their part of the business. In this way, and in many
instances, they are assisting us to build up the kingdom of God, but
they don't know it. If they did they would not like to do it.
The position that we occupy in these valleys of the mountains, is a
very peculiar one. When we came up here the first place that was
designated was Salt Lake City. President Young said that he had a
manifestation that that was the place. There was a valley, a very good
valley, a comparatively rich valley, a valley that was well watered, a
valley that could be irrigated without much labor, where the streams
were quite easy of access and where a small community could easily
raise their sustenance; and this we did. Now, had we landed in a place
like this at first, it would have been more difficult, people would
have become more discouraged, and some of them felt very much
discouraged as it was—some going to California because everything
looked so forbidding. Yet others thought it would be a pleasant place
to reside in, a place where a living could be as easily obtained as in
most other places, except we go to some of the rich lands of Missouri,
Illinois, Iowa, etc. But there were other circumstances associated
with these things that would have made it difficult for us to sustain
ourselves even in those places. For instance, we lived in a rich land
back in Missouri. Everything there seemed to grow at a very rapid
rate, everything increased very fast. I have heard some people
tell such big stories about the productiveness of that country that I
have sometimes been afraid to tell what I myself knew of it, for fear
that people would not believe me. For instance, I have seen fields of
corn that a regiment of soldiers could ride into and they would be out
of sight; and I have seen beans grow where corn has been planted where
the corn stalks have served as bean poles; and I have seen pumpkins
and squash grow among them, three crops growing the same year and at
the same time. That country, nevertheless, has many drawbacks. In that
country we were very unhealthy. We were subject to what is called
fever and ague every year; in fact, in the spring we used to think we
did well if we didn't happen to die off in the fall. Why could we not
stop there? Because the land was too good, and we were easy of access
to men desirous to possess our property, and they told us to move on,
and we had to go. We had to leave Missouri, and I suppose God intended
to try the Saints, to let them pass through certain kinds of
experience and place them in a position that they would have to lean
on Him. Some of the people rebelled against these things in their
feelings. Among the rest, I remember being much shocked at the remarks
of Sidney Rigdon after he had been imprisoned with the Prophet Joseph
in Richmond jail, as well as many others. I visited them in jail, and
Sidney Rigdon made a remark soon after he got out, to the effect that
if God did not care anything more about us than He seemed to do, that
if He allowed us to be hauled around as we had been, he did not care
about serving such a God. That is, he found the trials were heavier
for him than he was capable of bear ing, notwithstanding that he had
seen the Lord and had had visions pertaining to the celestial,
terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, in which he had seen the position
of men in the future, and the purposes of God regarding the nations of
the earth, and had borne testimony of it in connection with Joseph
Smith, as we find recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Yet
when trials came his knees faltered, and the knees of many others have
faltered in the same way. Now, we talk about lands, good rich land.
Why did we not stay in Missouri? Because people would not let us. It
was just so in Illinois. Why did we leave there? Because, as I have
heard Brother George A. Smith say, we left because we could not help
ourselves; at least, that was the purport of his saying. I think the
Lord was very merciful to us in Salt Lake Valley. I believe we landed
just in the right place. The people commenced to establish themselves;
they began to find that they could raise crops there, and that the
land was very productive. We stayed there for a while and began to
make little settlements and little excursions out into the surrounding
country. The people had all kinds of difficulties. I remember once, in
Bountiful, there were three or four families went up to settle there,
and they felt that there was not enough water, and that they could
hardly get along. They got to quarreling about water rights, as we do
sometimes. I do not know of much quarreling down here; I do not think
you have as much water to quarrel over as they had. Afterwards
President Young was moved upon to begin to make settlements in other
places. We had now obtained a foothold. We had a place where we could
raise all the grain necessary for our sustenance, where we
could raise sheep, cattle, etc. We pushed out to Ogden on the one hand
and to Provo on the other, and then occupied some of the best places
in Salt Lake Valley, in Utah Valley, and on the Weber. We began to
increase; more immigrants came in, and others began to come from
above. Things went on. A Temple was started there, but it seemed to
progress very slowly; as well it might when we consider the
substantial nature of the building. When we started, we had nothing
but wagons to haul the rock on, and they were very big rock, if you
remember. Those rocks had to be hauled about 17 miles in those wagons,
and owing to the liability of the wagons to break down, this work
gave us a great deal of trouble. Today, and right along for a number
of years past, since the railroad has been built, it is not uncommon
to bring in some three or four car loads at a time, delivering the
rock in the Temple yard. Then it was thought best to commence down
here. Why? Let me tell you some other things and show you about the
settlements north and south, and especially south. If you remember,
Brother Geo. A. Smith, as much as 25 years ago—I don't remember
exactly how long—came down and made a settlement at Parowan, and
another at Cedar—and here is Brother Henry Lunt present, who was one
of that number. He came to Cedar at that time, and they tried to start
iron works at that place. And then Brother Joseph Horne and some
others were sent down to see if cotton could not be raised in this
district of country in the hope that something could be done whereby
we might produce the raw material for the manufacture of our clothes,
and they stayed a little while somewhere not far from here, some five
miles south on the Santa Clara, I am told. There was a rich little
settlement up there. Some time after, a great deal of it was washed
away. I remember the struggles Brother George A. used to have. He
labored under difficulties, being so very heavy, and not as active as
most men; but he was a man of great energy. He would come down here
and bring a few men, and would settle them down and go back again. By
and by he would bring some more down, all that he could pick up that
would volunteer. By the time he came down again, he would find half of
the others had gone. They did not want to stop. They thought the land
was set up on edge and had never been finished, and they had all kinds
of notions. Then he would return to the city, and drum up a few more
recruits, and take them down; and by the time he got here he would
find that a good many of those he left had also gone. Finally, they
became weeded out and left, until he got a lot of folks who, if they
had considered it a duty to go on to a barren rock and stay there
until they should be instructed to leave, would have done it. It
needed just such an element to come to this country. What Brother Snow
said here, referring to the sad fact of there being such a number of
widows in this place whose husbands had gone to their graves through
having worked themselves to death, was perfectly true; but, then, we
don't want to cry about it. We may as well laugh as cry about the
past. You have done a great deal of hard work. In coming down from
Pine Valley we found immense dugways in the most forbidding places,
and it has required all the perseverance, energy, intelligence and faith of even those men who were capable of living on a dry
rock—it required the combined energy of the whole to accomplish these
things, and a good deal of faith too.
Still President Young urged forward the people; Brother Geo. A. Smith
and Brother Erastus Snow urged them forward, and others urged them
forward, and there was a general feeling to build up this southern
country. Finally it was found that our Temple in Salt Lake City would
take such a long time to build, it was thought best to erect one down
here. Why? Because there was a people living here who were more worthy
than any others. Who were more worthy of the blessings of a Temple
than those who had displayed the self-abnegation exhibited by the
pioneers of the south? God inspired President Young to build a Temple
here because of the fidelity and self-abnegation of the people; and,
furthermore that there might be an asylum here for those living
further south to be administered to in the holy ordinances of God. I
speak this for your credit—not that all of you are of that class, but
let those that are worthy take the credit, and those that are not,
need not take it. This Temple was built and we went into it, and a
great many thousands of people have been administered to, and for,
within its walls. People have administered for themselves and for
their progenitors. Over 150,000 people, Brother McAllister says, have
been administered for in this Temple. Don't you think it is worth
while building a Temple where such a work can be done? If life is
worth anything, if salvation is worth anything, if the life of our
friends and brethren with whom we shall be associated in the kingdom
of God, is worth anything, then I think a good work was done in the
building of this Temple. In other words, it was a wise move. Why?
Because it helped to sustain this part of the country. Means were
brought from other places down here to supply the people with means
and labor, thus it has been a blessing both to the living and the
dead. You men who comprehend things aright, you would not take in
exchange anything that could be conferred upon you for the blessings
you have received in that Temple.
There were then blessings of a temporal nature, as well as of a
spiritual nature, connected with the labor performed in the building
of that house. There was another thing. In establishing the kingdom of
God it was necessary that there should be a strong place somewhere
here between the land south and the land north. It was necessary that
there should be a foothold here all through these valleys of the
mountains between Salt Lake City and north of Salt Lake City clear
away, as you have heard President Young say, on the backbone of the
American continent. And why? We make remarks sometimes, but I always
like to get at the bottom of them. Why is it better for us to be here
than to be somewhere else? If we had been in Missouri we should have
been mobbed and robbed long ago. If we had been anywhere in Central
America or South America where we could have been reached, our
Christian friends would have come there and stolen what we had from
us. But, furthermore, President Young, who was governed by the
inspiration of the Spirit of God in leading the people forth in the
way he did, expected that these railroads that are now coming would
come along. Years ago I expected the same thing, because I saw them at
work here, and clear away into Mexico. I had it manifested to
me, and Brother George Q. Cannon, here has heard me speak about the
matter. Didn't you Brother Cannon? (Brother Cannon: Yes, sir.) At that
time I was very sick. I told President Young of some things that I
then believed would take place, among the rest was this railroad
building. And if there had not been some pretty strong places, such as
a settlement on Salt Creek, a settlement at Beaver, a settlement at
Parowan, a settlement down here, etc., we never would have been able
to carry out the will of God, and we should have been in a different
position with regard to other settlements further south than we are
today. Now your young men are beginning to say, they want room. There
is plenty of room south. Here is Brother Snow, who has been working
like a beaver, and there are others, who are doing the same,
establishing settlements in the various valleys south, in Arizona, in
Colorado, and all through this southern country, until we now occupy,
as I have stated in other places, some 800 miles of country in a
direct line, running north and south.
What did we have when we left Nauvoo? Not much. Any property to spare?
I think not. I think many of us would have gone without shoes, without
clothing, unless God had interposed in a miraculous manner in sending
down—I was going to say, a shower of clothing. You remember that
Brother Kimball prophesied at a certain time that clothing would be as
cheap here as in the East. Regarding this some people felt a good deal
like the man did when Elijah prophesied about a measure of meal being
sold for so much. Says one man; if the heavens were to open this could
not happen; but it did happen; and the other happened that Brother
Kimball talked about. When the gold fever burst out, people brought
clothing by the wholesale and sold it for a mere song, and let you
sing the song; until the wants of the people were all supplied. Who
supplied them? These men. Did they want to do it? No, it was the Lord
who controlled these matters. He started up this feeling which brought
the people here, and they acted more like crazy men than any I ever
saw. They were ready to give us their goods almost for nothing. The
Saints at that time in Salt Lake City were supplied with all the
necessaries of life brought by traders whom they knew nothing about,
and they traded off their cattle and their horses and anything these
people could pack away. Here was a manifestation of the work of the
Lord, of the will of God, and the protecting care of our heavenly
Father over His Saints.
As I told you yesterday we have traveled among the Saints and found
thousands of happy homes, good farms, good gardens and orchards,
cattle, sheep, horses, etc., and that the people generally are now in
a very prosperous condition. What has it originated from? We certainly
did not bring it about. God has blessed our labors on the land and
increased the water for our sake.
Now, having said so much upon this subject I will turn to our
political position. We have already made in Salt Lake City numbers of
very nice places. You have also got some very beautiful buildings
here. I am sorry to see so much saleratus yet in the land; I wish you
had a little easier times; but while I am inclined to sympathize with
you, yet I do not want my sympathy to overcome my judg ment about matters of this kind.
Now we have really the foundation for a prosperous State. We started
with nothing a little while ago. I think we have made pretty well at
it. You have had hard times; still you are living and thriving: there
are none of you naked or without shoes, hats or bonnets. You seem to
be provided with a great many of the good things of this life. You
seem to be doing tolerably well. I know very well that you have a hard
struggle to make two ends meet; I understand it. But there is one
advantage you have—no one will want to steal away your place from you;
will they? (Laughter.) I do not think they would want to carry it off.
I do not think they would want to drive you away because of your
extraneous wealth; consequently, you are free from this trouble. That
is not the fix of the nations of the earth. Go to some of the nations
today and look at their condition. Take England for instance; they
are prospering very well, but look at the trouble they have had in
Ireland. They have tried to benefit that people in one way or another,
but they seem to spurn those benefits, and are inclined to stir up
commotion which is not unlikely to end in bloodshed. We are not
troubled in that way. In Russia, look at the horrible condition they
are in. They have secret societies, as spoken of in the Book of
Mormon. They are engaged in all kinds of plots, plans and
calculations. They have tried to kill their present Czar, after having
assassinated his father. There seems to be a feeling of uneasiness and
trouble among the nations. Then again, in Turkey, they have had a
great deal of trouble there. It has leaked out lately that the Sultan,
who was said to have died a natural death, was strangled, and they
have lately been prosecuting his assassins. There are terrible
forebodings among the nations of the earth because of troubles that
seem to be threatening them. Here we have had our own President
killed, and a little while ago President Lincoln was assassinated, and
there seems to be a spirit of that kind rampant, and it will grow
worse and worse. Not long ago in Pittsburgh there was a shocking state
of things, where they burnt up and destroyed property to the amount of
three millions of dollars or more. We have apparently prosperous
times. There is now a lull in the storm, but it is only a lull to
burst out more violently by and by. You will see it. There are
elements at work to uproot the government and destroy the foundation
of society, and to take away the rights of men and pull down the
bulwarks of this government, and scatter to the four winds the
principles by which it has been governed, and to let loose the wildest
passions of men. These are some of the things that are taking place.
These are the elements that are at work today. They are running
around, and through, and among the people almost everywhere. And it
will not be long before there is trouble again in the United States.
These inflated times will by and by bring about a great reaction, and
then there will be trouble and difficulty; and so these things will
continue to increase.
Now, we are here in the tops of the mountains, far away from these
things. We are here learning the laws of life and the principles of
truth, and we are here as saviors upon Mount Zion, operating in the
interests of humanity, sending forth missionaries to the nations of
the earth, gathering people together; and when they are
gathered together, we build temples and administer in them. We are
here, forming closer connections with the heavens, with God our
Heavenly Father, with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and with
the ancient Apostles, Prophets and men of God. We are here
participating in some of the greatest blessings that ever were
conferred upon mankind since the world was formed. We are here as
those that God has selected from the nations of the earth, that He may
plant among us the principles of eternal truth, and that we may
operate with Him and with the Priesthood behind the veil in the
interests of all humanity that have ever lived upon the face of the
earth. We are a blessed people if we could only comprehend our
position. And we need not be too anxious about the affairs of the
world. Men of wealth, men of standing, men of position, men who stand
in high places, are beginning to tremble and quake everywhere. They
are looking forward with terrible forebodings to something that they
fear is coming upon the earth. They do not know what it is, but it
will burst upon them and their forebodings will be realized.
But we will look at this matter again. Could we be in a better place?
I think not. Let me show you the reason for that. We are a very small
people, and we are in the midst of a very large people. We occupy
these valleys among these rugged mountains, and we dwell in deserts,
and in many of the most forbidding places. We see people living in
little places, on little streams of water trickling along, and
perhaps all of it would go through an inch pipe without much pressure,
and they are professing to farm and raise fruits, vegetables and
vines in such places, wrenching their living from the barren desert
soil. And they do live, but it is hard sledding, and there is a great
deal of it here. Now then, go over the ground we have traveled to get
here, say starting from Utah County to Juab, from Juab to Fillmore,
from Fillmore to Beaver, from Beaver to Parowan, and so on down
through here, and among these rocks where little settlements are
placed, and up and down your rivers, how very, very few comparatively
they are. Yet what an extent of land, is there not? We occupy the
country it is true; but I tell the people sometimes that our mountains
have very large feet, and that our deserts occupy very large tracks of
land. But wherever there is a habitable place, Latter-day Saints are
living on it, and consequently living in these little places they
control the mountains and the country. Is not that a fact? And suppose
we did not have these little forbidding, barren places, the little
springs and little rivulets that come along reminding one of oases in
the deserts—if we did not have them we could not have the country, but
we have them and God has given us possession of them. If we had not
possessed these narrow valleys and defiles they would have been in the
possession of bands of Gadianton robbers, who would have preyed upon
the people and their property, as "cowboys" and guerrillas are now
doing in Arizona. But our possessing them gave strength and protection
to our more important settlements.
We have paid for what we have got. I expect your land is all entered
here?
Answer—Yes, sir.
You have paid for the land then, and you have paid for it up here in
Pine Valley. There is a big moun tain between, and you own that
in the bargain, and all those sand ridges and rough places, including
Jacob's Twist are thrown in for nothing. You own the country here and
there and all the way through. How far is it from these mountains to
Kanab?
Answer—About 80 miles, sir.
The most of it is mountainous. But there are little places here and
there which enable you to control all of it; the mountains are thrown
in as chips and whetstones. It is the same all the way from here to
Nephi; there are little places here and there; we own them and have
got our titles for them, and we are the owners of the soil and the
mountains are thrown in. So that owing to the small quantity of land
we have been compelled by circumstances to go into Idaho, Arizona and
Colorado. We cannot hide from ourselves that these things give us some
political rights in these places; but who are we injuring, whose
political or religious liberties are infringed upon by us? Nobody's!
If we live on and conquer those forbidden districts we ought not to be
begrudged the limited influence that those positions naturally award
us; and while we do not interfere with others and their political
arrangements, we think we ought to possess that meager share that
these forbidding circumstances place in our possession.
There is another remarkable thing. Who is it that we are to thank for
this? The Lord. Did he inspire President Brigham Young in these
things—to occupy these places! Yes. Is it right for us to occupy them?
Yes. Is it right for us to build temples? Yes. Is it right for us to
administer in them? Yes. Is it right for us to seek to establish the
kingdom of God on the earth? Yes. Is it right for us to seek wisdom
from God to do it? Yes. That is what we have been doing for a great
many years and we are doing it today. Here is Brother Cannon. He is
going to Washington as our representative in the general government.
Only think about it. Here is a Territory several hundred miles long
and I do not know how wide. Let me see (the speaker turning and
addressing himself to President Cannon) George, how many
representatives have they in Congress?
Answer: 293 representatives and 9 delegates.
And then there is the Senate?
Answer: 76 members.
And we, a little people in the valleys of these mountains, right in
the tops of these mountains, in the midst of 50 millions of people,
all the representation we have is just one delegate, and he has not a
right to vote! And yet what have they done to us? Not much. Have they
been plotting against us? Yes, they have. Are they seeking to injure
us today? Yes. Who? All classes of men, and especially the religious
kind. Our feeling is to save people, not to curse them. It must be a
miserable feeling for men to have when they are seeking to destroy
their fellow men, yet they are doing it. It is because they have not
the intelligence to cope with the principles that God has revealed to
us, that they want to drag the strength of the government to put down
by arms that which they have not the power to do by argument or on any
just or regular principle. I would be ashamed if I were one of them; I
would be ashamed if I could not do something else besides praying to
destroy a few, weak people in the tops of the mountains of Utah, far
away from everybody, and pre tending that we are so awfully
corrupt that they are afraid we shall demoralize them. God save the
mark! They themselves are killing off their own children by tens of
thousands and by hundreds of thousands before they are born. That is
the feeling that is growing up among them. It is adultery,
fornication, lasciviousness that is undermining the constitutions of
the people. They are rotting by thousands and tens of thousands, and
they will come here and preach morality to us. We do not want them. We
tell them to go among their own lepers and cleanse their own social
evils, sweep out their own Augean stables, and purify themselves from
their own corruptions, and then come and talk purity to us. That is
what I would say to those people. We understand them as well as they
understand themselves, and for that reason we do not want any of that
kind of hypocrisy here.
Now, then, we come to ourselves. We are here. Could we have been
placed in any better position than we are today? No. What has been the
object of God for sometime? In the first place He operated upon
Columbus to come and find this land. He then operated upon the
Puritans and other men in England and other places to come to this
land, and many of them were good, honorable, high-minded, virtuous
people. The grandfathers and grandmothers of this nation were not
murderers; they did not murder infants; they were honorable people who
cherished human life, and considered it a blessing to have a large
posterity and to take care of them. The spirit of the early fathers
was, if their land was poor they could raise men. What are they doing
now? Raising murderers and murderesses. From among those people and
from Europe and other parts the Saints have been gathered. The Lord is
gathering them together, and His kingdom is spreading and growing, and
it is our privilege to grow and expand with it, and we should be true
to ourselves, be true to our religion, be true to God, and operate in
the interests of humanity. We could not find a better place for
Latter-day Saints than in these valleys of the mountains, nor in those
rugged parts further south. We expect to go on and to increase and
seek to the Lord for his guidance, protection and sustenance, while we
must learn to do right and observe his laws and keep his commandments.
The kingdom of God is onward. It is accelerating in its speed. God has
called the First Presidency, the Twelve, High Priests, Seventies,
Elders, Bishops, High Councilors, Priests, Teachers and Deacons—he has
called upon them to devote themselves to him. He expects us to be
willing in the day of his power. He expects us to be true to our
integrity, and having taught us eternal principles, he expects that we
shall have the law of God written in our hearts and be valiant for the
truth and for God. God and all the intelligences that he is surrounded
with are on our side and are enlisted in our protection and for the
sustenance of this people; and for the rolling forth of his work, and
the accomplishment of the objects that he designed in the introduction
of the Gospel in the last days, even in the dispensation of the
fulness of times, when he would gather all things into one. Being
called to live in a land like this, in the midst of rugged mountains
and barren deserts we will sing, "For the strength of the hills we
bless thee, our God, our fathers' God;" for the wisdom Thou hast displayed we praise Thee, O God, our fathers' God. And we will
be true to God, to our religion and will keep our covenants; we will
maintain strict integrity to our vows which we have vowed in sacred
places; we will follow the guidance of the Holy Priesthood, and God
will lead us from strength to strength, from victory to victory, from
power to power, until the kingdom of God shall be established, and no
man can stay its progress today, God being our helper. Let us go to
him and put our trust in him, and all will be well with us in time and
through all eternity.
Brethren: God bless you, and prosper you in all your journeyings, and
enable you to accomplish your object, and frustrate all the designs of
your enemies, and let all the congregation say, Amen [the congregation
responded, Amen.] May God bless this people. Hold on a little longer,
for this motto which I see in your house will be fulfilled, "After the
cloud there will be sunshine." Amen.