I am thankful this day for the peaceful circumstances that surround
us. I am thankful that throughout these mountain valleys a goodly
degree of liberty prevails, and that the people are able to meet to
worship God without molestation or fear. The saying of the Savior is
exceedingly applicable wherein He taught His disciples that sufficient
to the day is the evil thereof. If we Latter-day Saints did not enjoy
the present and lived in anticipation of the dreaded future, I imagine
that we should be a very unhappy people, for there never has been a
day, or at least a period in our history when, so far as threats were
concerned, the future—if we look at it naturally, from men's
standpoint—did not look forbidding. But we have proved that dreaded
evils, when met courageously and with an undaunted spirit, generally
vanish.
We are in an excellent position today, as we have been at many times in the past, to have our faith tested to the proof, to
see whether we really have faith in God or not. The idea generally
prevails among those who are not familiar with us and with our methods
of preaching and teaching, that in order to gather the people together
from the various nations the Elders of this Church hold out
extraordinary inducements to their converts, telling them flattering
tales about the life that they will lead if they will only gather to
Utah; and by these means they are successful in beguiling the ignorant
and unsuspecting, inducing them to forsake their homes and
connections. But those who have been familiar with the teachings of
the Elders of the Church know that the very opposite of this has been
the course and the style of the teaching adopted by those who have
faithfully preached this Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. From
the beginning we have been taught to expect that our adherence to this
Gospel might cost us everything that was near and dear to us upon the
earth; that God designed to have a tried people, a people that should
be tested to the very utmost, that should be felt after in the most
trying manner, a people that would be willing to pass through and
endure faithfully the most severe ordeals. And up to the present time
those who have entered this Church, who have espoused the doctrines
taught by the servants of God, have not been disappointed. It is true
that in many respects the faithful people of God have had a much
better time, have enjoyed circumstances that have been more pleasant
and prosperous than they were led to expect; but this has been because
they have had the faith to overlook the evils by which they were
threatened, and attached no im portance to them, and did not allow them
to disturb their peace or to annoy them in any manner. For if it had
not been for faith, the faith that God planted in the hearts of those
who espoused the truth, it would have been impossible for them to have
endured; they would have been so frightened that they never could have
remained faithful to this work. And one of the most striking evidences
that this people offer to the world of the divinity of this work,
which the world opprobriously call "Mormonism," is the fact that in
the midst of the most severe trials and persecutions, surrounded by
circumstances that in some respects have been the most threatening in
their character, the people of God have remained true and faithful,
united and undisturbed.
One by one the falsehoods that are propagated concerning us are
exposed. The idea has been industriously circulated, printed and
published, that the people throughout the valleys of Utah were only
held together by the strength of superstition and delusion; that the
few cunning men who had succeeded in gaining power and place among
them, by their shrewdness and by their cunning arts, had succeeded in
duping the people and holding them together. I do not suppose that any
single idea has been more widely circulated concerning us than this;
and I do not suppose that any other idea is more widely believed about
us than this. The great majority of people who do not understand, by
actual contact with us, or who take no pains to investigate our
doctrines, imagine that it is by this means that the Latter-day Saints
have been gathered together and held in these mountains. Why, it is
not 20 years ago that one of the stories most frequently
circulated, published and dwelt upon, upon the platform and in the
public press, was that no man or woman could leave Utah without the
consent of President Brigham Young; that no man or woman could write a
letter from Utah Territory without it being inspected by him; that we
lived here in a condition of terror imposed upon us by President Young
and those who were immediately associated with him; and that if a man
or woman attempted to leave, especially if he or she had left the
faith, he would be followed by destroying angels, and that if he
escaped at all it would be at the risk of his life and probably the
entire loss of all that he owned. So firmly had this idea obtained
possession of many minds that today it forms the staple of two or
three dramas that are played upon the stage and that receive
considerable patronage east and west.
When Albert Sidney Johnston came here with the army in 1857-8, the
popular idea was, that as soon as the troops reached this valley there
would be a complete outburst on the part of the people; that they
would hail with unbounded joy the presence of the stars and stripes in
their midst, and that women by hundreds would leave the bondage in
which they were supposed to be living.
Now, as I have said, one by one we have proved the falsity of these
statements. But does this misrepresentation and slander concerning us
cease? Not in the least. The manufacture still continues. Every
conceivable slander is manufactured and put in circulation. No sooner
is one lie nailed to the counter than another is started and passes
current, until there are many people who scarcely know what to think,
they having such exaggerated ideas concerning the people of Utah
Territory.
The railroad has done us an immense amount of good in making us better
known. The travel to and fro across the continent, together with the
travel throughout these valleys north and south, east and west, has
had the same effect. But with increased knowledge there has come an
increased dread. A feeling has taken possession of a great many minds
that we are a people greatly to be dreaded. This brings to my mind a
remark made by a man whose name you are familiar with, he having taken
a very prominent part in the discussion of our case in Congress, in
the House of Representatives, a representative by the name of Haskell,
a sort of half preacher: One day in conversation with me, at the time
the Edmunds' bill was being discussed, he remarked: "I have had
occasion, Mr. Cannon, to examine Catholicism and am somewhat familiar
with the Roman Catholic organization. I have also paid some attention
to the organization of your Church. I think it the strongest and most
magnificent organization that exists at the present time in
Christendom, or within the range of my knowledge—where did you get
it?"
It was no feeling of admiration that prompted these remarks. He
followed them up by stating that the time would come, if this
legislation did not answer, when the army would be brought to bear
upon us and our organization would be wiped out in blood. You see the
feeling he had was one of dread, of apprehension. Instead of viewing
this organization in its true light he looked upon it as an engine of
evil that would be likely to accomplish dreadful results, that was in antag onism to existing institutions, and that would have to be
put down by such law as the Edmunds' law, or if such legislation
failed, then by the strong arm of the military, by the use of weapons
of war and the shedding of blood. That is the feeling that some men
have concerning us. In the course of our conversation I invited him to
come out to Utah. "Come out," said I, "and know what you are talking
about; you have ideas about us which are entirely incorrect. If you
will travel through our valleys, as I will furnish you opportunities
to do, if you will come out, I will give you letters of introduction
which will enable you to see our people at their homes, and if you are
a fair man, a man disposed to accept the evidence of your own senses,
you will change your views concerning the people I represent."
There are men who make use of us to gain favor with the ignorant and
with those who have strong religious prejudices and but little
knowledge concerning us. There are men who seek to gain popular
approval in this way, and instead of telling the truth, or being
willing that the truth should be told and known, they are ever willing
to have every kind of story propagated however false it may be. Will
there be any change in this respect? We have been looking for it for
the past 52 years, ever since the Church was organized, but that
change has not come. As I have said, as soon as one slander has been
disproved, another has been put in circulation. There is no end,
neither will there be to the falsehoods that will be told and
circulated concerning us. It may be asked: Why is this? For the best
of all reasons, that whenever God has attempted to do any thing upon
the earth, from the days of Father Adam down through the centuries
that have intervened until today, all hell has been aroused against
that work and against those engaged in it. Even when men have had only
partial truth, and have attempted to reform existing errors, they have
had this opposition to contend with to a greater or less extent; and
no great reform has ever been effected upon this earth without costing
the best blood of the generation in which the reform was attempted.
Our generation is no exception in this respect. Even in this land,
under our glorious form of government, the most glorious ever framed
by man, under which the largest amount of liberty is to be
enjoyed—even under it, the blood of Prophets and Apostles has been
shed and has stained the earth; and we, because of our religion, were
obliged to flee from our homes and take refuge in these mountain wilds
and build up new homes in order that we might live in peace and in
quiet, unmolested by those who hate us.
This is not a new thing in the earth, the antagonism between error and
truth, between wrong and right, between the followers of him who seeks
to usurp dominion upon the earth, and the followers of the Son of God.
That antagonism has been a perpetual one, an undying one. It cost the
blood of the best Being that ever trod the earth, even the Son of God
Himself, and all His Apostles and all the prophets—they all, with few
exceptions laid down their lives for the truth. And yet we talk about
our civilization, the enlightened nineteenth century, and we say as
did the generation in which the Savior lived: "If we had lived in the
days of our fathers, we would not have slain the Proph ets, we
would not have been guilty of shedding their blood." This was the cry
of the generation in which the Savior lived, yet that same generation
crucified Him in the most ignominious manner.
Now, it has been said to us—and I cannot tell how many times I have
been told it—"if you 'Mormons' would only do away with some
of your
doctrines that are so objectionable, there would be no trouble." I
have had men speak to me in this strain whose opinion I respect very
highly, who were friendly, who were kindly disposed, who were anxious
to have these difficulties settled, and to have us escape the evils
with which they believed we were threatened and might perhaps be
overwhelmed. It is not many days since a prominent man said to me,
"Why, Mr. Cannon, there are fifty millions of people that are opposed
to you. Now cannot you waive some of your peculiarities. If you will
say that you will do this this year, or next year, or within a certain
period, while I am not authorized to speak for the government, yet I
can say there need be no trouble about your affairs."
Now, I have not a single doubt in my mind that there are thousands of
well-meaning people, who would like to see us enjoy peace in these
valleys, and enjoy the land, which we have reclaimed at so much toil
and sacrifice from a wilderness, undisturbed by outside influences.
They firmly believe that this is attainable if we only would forego
some of our peculiarities. There never was a greater mistake, never a
more mistaken idea entertained by anybody. How do we know it? By the
sad and bitter experience of the past. It is true if we were to
apostatize; if we were to renounce our religion; if we were to put
aside that which we believe God has entrusted to us and commanded us
to impart to the world, I do not doubt but what we would get along so
far as the world is concerned, without the antagonism that we now
have. But, then, who can do this? If a choice has to be made, as it
would have to be made by us, of rejecting salvation on the one hand,
and accepting peace and favor with the world on the other, who is
there that is prepared to make that exchange? But friends have said to
me, "O, you make a mistake when you think that we ask you to renounce
your religion."
Now, there is something more than marriage as a point of attack that
rises in the minds of men in talking about this. Mr. Haskell expressed
it. It was not plural marriage alone that was in his mind. It is not
plural marriage alone in the minds of hundreds, and I may say
thousands, who have examined this question. There is something more
than this; there is something behind this, something that is greater
than this, and that is the organization of the people, the union of
the people, that which many men call the theocracy of this
organization. It was that which excited the mob, in the earliest days
of the organization. While at Far West, in Caldwell County, in the
year 1838, the General who headed the militia that came out under the
exterminating order of Governor Boggs of Missouri, in his address to
the "Mormon" people said, "You must scatter and live like other
people, and do without your Bishops and your Prophets and your
leading men, and not listen to their counsel." This is not the exact
language, but these are the ideas. In other words you must break up; we cannot endure your organization, your coming together and
being united as you are. We fear you will take possession of our
principal counties, and your political influence will be so great that
in time you will hold control of this country; and we cannot endure
it, and you must go. Governor Boggs' order said, if the people did not
leave the State of Missouri in a given period, they would be
exterminated. So the people had to flee in the depth of winter, and
cross the Mississippi into the State of Illinois. Now, whoever heard
then of plural marriage? It was not practiced. It was the organization
of the people that was objectionable; and so it was afterwards when we
were compelled to leave Nauvoo. The mob burned our houses and killed
our cattle, and destroyed our grain, not because of any feature of
this kind, but because we were "Mormons," and believed in a form of
religion that they did not believe in. So they were determined that we
should leave there.
And that reminds me of another falsehood that went the rounds in those
days to justify the outrages against us. All manner of stories were
circulated concerning our thieving; it was said that we were a band of
thieves and robbers; that the people near Nauvoo and along the upper
part of the Mississippi, through all that region of country, were
living in a state of terror, so it was alleged, because of the
proximity of the "Mormons," and it would be a great blessing to drive
them out, for they were outlaws. So the mob deemed themselves
justified in their outrages for those reasons; and public opinion was
created against us which sustained them in killing the Prophet Joseph
Smith and Hyrum, his brother, in shooting President Taylor, and in
killing other men and women. And public opinion was created so
unfavorable to the "Mormons" that other people thought, "Well, they
are a bad lot; they deserve extirpation; we are sorry to see the laws
trampled upon and violence resorted to, but something must be done
with these 'Mormons.'" "We must get rid of them in some way;
and if
the law cannot reach them," as was remarked by the mob, when Joseph
had been tried and acquitted for treason, "powder and ball can."
The same process is now going on. What is it that produces the
condition of affairs that exists here today? It is a public opinion
that is adverse and hostile to us which justifies the outrages and
illiberal acts to which we are subjected. It is this which actuates
men to trample upon the Constitution and all the institutions of the
government. It is this which permits the right of representation to be
stricken down and causes a Governor of a Territory, who is guilty of
the most outrageous acts of tyranny, to be sustained by three
administrations, and a voice scarcely heard in protest against
it—republican government stricken down and the people of these
mountains, without exception the best and most quiet people to be
found within the confines of the republic, deprived of the right of
representation.
I allude to this, though it is a political matter, as it comes
appropriately within the line of my remarks. What is the cause of it?
It is, as I have said, because God has stretched forth his hand to do
a work in the earth, and the devil is determined that it shall not be
done. He is determined to shed the blood of every man connected with
it, and he puts it into the hearts of the children of men to hate the
truth and to hate those who teach it. Yet there are a great
many people who say there is no God and no devil. I would like them to
explain why we have suffered as we have; why it is that a people who,
were it not for their religion, ought to be applauded for what we have
done in these mountains, are treated as we are treated. When we had
the control of these valleys, from one end of the land to the other,
from north to south, drunkenness was unknown; a woman might then have
traveled our streets and our highways, even to the most remote parts
of our Territory, and never hear a word of disrespect, never witness a
gesture that would cause her to blush; she could travel in perfect
peace and safety throughout all our cities and settlements. Robbery
was unknown, and human life was sacred. So with property. Peace
reigned in our borders. We look back to it now—I do, I look back to
those days and contrast them with the present, and ask myself, How
long is this condition of things to continue? We could leave our doors
unlocked; no one thought of thieves. Virtue was cherished, and a man
who would be guilty of unvirtuous acts was denounced. And such
industry as we practiced—and it is no boasting to say so—was
unparalleled. We dwelt here in peace—people from various nations
speaking various languages, of various modes of thought, and various
educations, living here in peace and quiet, each man pursuing his own
course unmolested by his neighbors. This was the condition of our
Territory. It might be thought that a people thus living, living in a
country that no other people could possibly covet, that is so far as
agricultural interests, the pursuits we follow mainly in Utah, were
concerned— it might be thought that such a people might be left
unmolested to enjoy the fruits of their industry and toil.
We did not touch the mines, for we knew if we opened them and embarked
in mining that they would be coveted by others, and therefore it has
not been our policy to touch mines. In the beginning it would have
been a most unwise policy to have done this; it would have unsettled
us, and instead of spending our time in raising the food necessary to
sustain life we would have been prospecting in the mountains, hunting
for the precious metals. But when the railroad was finished and it was
then possible to obtain supplies from other places if we ran short,
it was even then impolitic for us to take up mines from the fact that
if we had obtained rich mines we could not have hoped to have held
them; they would have been coveted, and in the courts the
probabilities are we should not have stood as good a chance as other
people.
If you think, my brethren and sisters, that we are to be unmolested
and left free from attack, you are deceiving yourselves. It is not
written in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath; just as sure as
we live we shall have opposition, persecution and violence to contend
with. God has stretched forth His hand to establish a power in the
earth. That power has excited antagonism in the past; it excites
antagonism today, and it will continue to excite antagonism to the
end, until God reigns, and the inhabitants of the earth bow to His
scepter. This book (the Bible) is full of predictions concerning it.
All the prophets who have ever spoken concerning the last days have
foretold that God would do a mighty work in the last days; and
he is doing it.
"Well," says one, "Do a handful of people like you expect to
revolutionize the earth and accomplish these results?" Yes, we expect
it; we believe it with all our hearts; we labor for it; we teach it to
our children. We would make this country a peaceful, a delightful
place for people to reside; we would make this union of which I have
spoken possible in these valleys; and if our principles were extended
over the earth, they would make the earth in the same condition. I
thank God with all my heart that there is such a work going on. When I
hear of people coming from remote lands, impelled by their faith, who
have heard the preaching of the Elders who have gone forth in their
weakness, and in many instances, yes, in the most of instances, in
their scholastic ignorance, to proclaim the Gospel—when I see the
wonderful results of their preaching, men and women from foreign lands
with the testimony of God in their hearts, that this is His work,
which they have received through repentance and being baptized by a
man having the authority, each man testifying in his own language—the
Scandinavian, the German, the French, the British, the people of far
off Africa and of the islands of the sea, and the various countries
where our Elders have gone, all flocking together like doves to their
master's windows, many of them never having seen an Elder from Utah,
but having heard men who had the authority to teach this Gospel—all
coming from the various points of the compass, testifying in all
humility and in the name of Jesus, that God has given unto them a
knowledge of the truth—when I see these things my heart is filled with
glad ness and thanksgiving. I thank God that my lot has been cast in
these valleys. I thank God for my children, that their lot has been
cast in these valleys; that we live in a day when God is doing so
mighty a work; when He is gathering His people together; when He is
pouring out upon them the spirit of union, for that is the spirit of
the Gospel. Jesus in his last prayer adds: "Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou
has sent me." He prayed for them all, that they might be one with Him
as He was one with the Father; that the same union, that the same love
might be in their hearts. The Latter-day Saints are an unlettered
people, far from being what we hope they will be; but they are an
honest people, honest enough to embrace the truth when they hear it;
honest enough to forsake houses and lands and homes, and everything
that men hold dear in this life, for the sake of the Gospel as they
believe it. It requires moral courage to be "Mormons," to take upon
them the opprobrium of the world, to know that it may cost them their
lives before they get through with it, and it requires the power of
God to be with men and women to enable them to do this. And I thank
God that He has found such, here a few and there a few. In the various
nations where the Elders have gone they have found them, God directs
them to them, and they come; and their children will inherit the earth
and they will be intelligent and they will become a great people. For
they will possess all the virtues which constitute true greatness among men. I have no fears in my own mind for this people.
When I have been spoken to as to the effect of this legislation, I
have remarked that such a people as are in Utah Territory cannot be
crushed out by adverse legislation. They will endure an immense
amount. You take a people who are united; who are industrious, who are
frugal, who are acquainted with hardship, who have endured persecution
in the past and are familiar with it and expect it, you take such a
people, having in their hearts the love of God and the love of each
other, believing that the best expression they can give of the love of
God is to love their neighbor as themselves; a people of that kind
cannot be crushed. They are bound to live upon the earth in the
struggle for existence; bound to have their place among mankind; they
are perfectly fitted to survive any struggle or any condition that may
be brought upon them.
As for this legislation, I want to say to you, that in some respects I
am thankful for it. Let persecution come if it will have a good
effect. And as for the rules which have been made by the
Commissioners, as I stated myself personally, to those gentlemen, I
disagree with their construction of the law, and I think the rules are
wrong; nevertheless, I am thankful they have made them in their
present form. Brethren have said to me: Cannot we represent to the
Commissioners how wrong and unjust those rules are and endeavor to
have them changed so as to make them applicable to the people out of,
as well as those in the marriage relations? I told them, Yes; try it
if you wish; and if you can effect a change, all right; but in my own
heart I am thankful that the Rules have been made as they are. They
are made applicable to all—those who have never broken any law; as
well as those who have. There is no distinction between those who
entered into plural marriage before and those who entered into that
state after 1862. Until the law of 1862 was passed, you should
understand, there was no law of the United States, no law of this
Territory, that made plural marriage a crime. You ought to understand
this, and I have no doubt you do understand the difference between
that which is a crime in and of itself, per se and that which is made
a crime by statute. Plural marriage is not a crime in and of itself,
it is malum prohibitum, made so by a law, and that law was enacted in
1862. Now unless legislation is made ex post facto persons who married
prior to 1862 violated no law; but the rules as they have been
enforced exclude these people from registration; they exclude even a
wife whose husband took plural wives prior to 1862. Most extraordinary
ruling. But I have been thankful for it. Why? Because it puts us all
in the same boat and does not divide us. A better plan could not have
been devised to make us one than the ruling they have made in regard
to those "in the marriage relation." There are hundreds of people who
can take that oath that if those words were not in it could not take
it. They can register because of these four words. They can walk up
boldly and take that oath that they have done nothing of the kind "in
the marriage relation." I am thankful that is the case. Why? I should
feel extremely bad, I think, if we were reduced to the level of those
who have violated the laws of God and of man. We have violated, some
of us, the laws of man, but we have not in our faithfulness
violated the laws of God. We are sincere in our belief; and give me a
fanatic any time in preference to a scoundrel. I can tolerate a fanatic
who does what he believes to be right; but I have no sympathy for a
man or woman who commits an act knowing it to be wrong. We have been
excluded from registering because we have done something enjoined upon
us by the Lord; but men who have done things knowing them to be wrong,
who have acted contrary to the laws of God and of man, men and women
both, can take the oath and register.
Well, I am glad of it; I am glad I am not in that category; I do not
want to be in that crowd. I want to be able to say, as I can say, that
because of my religion, because of my doing that which I believe I
should be damned if I did not do I have been disfranchised; I believe
with all my heart that God gave a command of that kind, and it rested
with such power upon me that I believed I would be damned if I did not
obey it. Now, I am willing to take the consequences of that; but I
would hate to be put on a level with every adulterer and seducer in
the land; and I am not by the ruling of the Commissioners. There is a
sharp, well defined line of demarcation drawn between the Latter-day
Saints, who practice plural marriage because of their religion, and
the adulterer and seducer.
I see the hand of the Lord in it all, and I acknowledge it. God is
overruling and will overrule these things for our good. He will test
us, He will prove us, and if there is a weak spot in us that is not
seen, He will find it out. We expect to attain to the glory that
Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, has attained to. We pray for it, we
have striven for it, that we might be counted worthy to sit down at
the right hand of God, our Eternal Father; be counted worthy to dwell
with Jesus in the eternal worlds; and with the holy ones who have gone
before, with men whose blood has been shed, who have not counted their
lives dear because of their religion—we expect to be with them. Can
you imagine, then, for one moment that we can attain unto that glory
unless we, like them, are willing to endure all things for the sake of
the Gospel?
Now, the world thinks this is a very strange practice for a religion;
they wonder at it; they cannot understand it. Yet, let any man look
abroad in the earth and see the floodtide of corruption, the evils
under which mankind groan in the various nations of Christendom, as
also the division and strife that exist in all religious matters.
Marriage and morals rightfully belong to religion and are part of it.
Go out into the world and ask the ministers of religion: "What shall I
do to be saved?" One will tell you one thing and another another
thing, each man walking his own road, every congregation divided from
its fellow congregation—strife and confusion of every kind amongst
those professing to be the followers of Jesus Christ. But I have often
thought, when I have been traveling in the world and seen the spirit
that is manifested, that if I had no other hope than that which I see
all around me, I would not care to have a family, I would not care to
have children, there would be so little to live for; men seeking to
take advantage of their fellow men in every possible way; men seeking
to destroy their fellow men; professors of religion having none of the
spirit that the Bible teaches us is the Spirit of God. I never go from
home without turning my face towards these valleys, and the
people of these mountains, and without a profound feeling of
thankfulness to God that my lot has been cast among this people, with
all their faults, and they are numerous, and with all my faults, and
they are numerous. We have a love for each other and are striving to
overcome our faults and to cultivate that love which belongs to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, let us be patient. As I said to some friends whom I met
yesterday, I never felt happier in my life than I do at the present
time. True, I have had to endure domestic affliction, which has made
me sorrowful. Yet I am gladdened by the hopes I have for the future,
and I can truly say I never felt happier among our people than I do
now. All is peace; God is with us, His angels are around about us, and
His Holy Spirit is being poured out upon us. I do not know that the
sun is any less bright, that the moon is any the less clear, that the
elements are any less pure and delightful than they were twelve months
ago. Our grain, our vegetables, our fruits, all ripen, the earth
yields of its strength and gives us of its increase for our good.
Peace reigns in our habitations; peace reigns in the hearts of the
people. We know that God overrules all, and that He will control all
things for His glory, and for the accomplishment of His purposes. Why,
then, should we be sad? Why should we mourn? Why should we dread the
future? Why should we anticipate that which will never occur? There is
no need for it. Let us enjoy today. Let us rejoice today in the
goodness of God, and when tomorrow comes it will be laden with
blessings as today is. And so it will be every day and every week and
every year until we are ushered into the fullness of the glory of our
God.
I have not had the opportunity before of thanking you for your faith
and good feelings towards me while I have been gone. I can assure you,
my brethren and sisters, I have appreciated them. Men have said to me,
in view of that which we are passing through, and the bitter feeling
manifested towards us—How cheerful you seem to be! I replied that I
had cause to be cheerful; that there was not a man on the floor of
Congress that had more cause for cheerfulness than I had. Behind me
stood my constituents in solid columns, giving me their support and
kind feelings and love. And I have several times said, that from
almost every habitation in Utah, from north to south, where Latter-day
Saints dwell, I knew that prayers to Almighty God ascended morning
and evening, not from men alone but from women and children, in my
behalf. I knew that, and it gave me great comfort; yea, indescribable
comfort. I thank you for your kind feelings, as I do all my brethren
and sisters.
I pray God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon you; to preserve you from
every evil; to keep you in the truth; to cause you to love it more
than anything else in the earth, and to follow it even to the end,
which I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon