I am greatly pleased at having the opportunity of meeting with the
Latter-day Saints in this place, and I trust that our meeting will be
profitable to all. It is a most excellent thing to come together as
we have done today, and as we shall do tomorrow, and have an
interchange of views and partake of that spirit which is accessible to
all of us—that is, to all those who have placed themselves in a
position to receive it, by keeping the commandments of God.
We have had from Brother Lyman much good instruction, and if it is
remembered and carried out practically in our lives it will be of
great profit to us. There is one thing that suggested itself to me in
listening to his closing remarks, and that is, that if there are any
strangers here—I suppose there may be—I am not so well acquainted with
your people as I might be—they will imagine that we are dwelling
considerably on this idea of listening to the counsels of the
Priesthood. If there is anything more objectionable than another in
the eyes of those who are opposed to this work called "Mormonism," it
is that feature of it. I do not think there is any feature that is so
much disliked and so much found fault with as that peculiar feature of
our religion which requires us to listen to the counsels of the
Priesthood. In this respect we differ from every other people
upon the face of the earth. It may be said that the Catholics take the
same view that we do about listening to the Priesthood. But then the
Catholics are not gathered together as we are, and are not combined as
we are, and are not, therefore, in the opinion of those who are
opposed to us, so much a menace to others as we are because of that
feature of their religion. Nevertheless, though this doctrine is so
distasteful, we have to preach it. It is the burden of the Lord upon
us, and it would be woe to us unless we did preach this very doctrine,
with all our zeal and all our power. I can readily understand why this
doctrine is so much disliked, and why men find so much fault with it;
because if that peculiarity were to disappear from among us, and we
ceased to listen to the voice of God, as we believe it to be
manifested, through those whom He has chosen to be His servants, this
great latter-day work would amount to nothing in the earth; it would
soon melt away and be like the sectarian systems from whence these
Latter-day Saints have been gathered out.
God had a purpose in revealing the Gospel in these days and in
restoring the everlasting Priesthood, and that was to prepare the
earth for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an important
work, to prepare the earth and the inhabitants thereof for the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think that everyone who ever
believed in Him, or that ever believed in God, will admit that when
Jesus comes, everybody will listen to Him, and will do as He requires;
for it is written that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that He is the Lord. He will be accepted as the King of kings
and Lord of lords, and the ruler over the whole earth; and it is the
constant prayer of those who are most devoted upon the subject of
religion that the Lord Jesus may come and reign king over the whole
earth as He does in heaven; and, of course, if He does that it will be
expected that He will sway a scepter that will not be disputed, and
will exercise a dominion that will not be questioned.
Now, the first announcement that was made concerning this work of our
God in these last days was, that the object in its restoration was for
the purpose of preparing the way for the coming of the Son of Man.
That was the announcement that was made. And when the Priesthood was
restored it was told to those to whom it was restored that it should
not be taken away from the earth again until the sons of Levi should
offer an acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord; and they were also
assured that it never would be taken away from the earth again, but
that it should continue until it accomplished all that God designed
for it. In the organization of this people, in the settlement of these
valleys, in the framing of our first provisional form of government,
in the enactment of our laws, in the building of our settlements, and
in the polity that has distinguished this people from their first
settlement until now, the wisdom of God manifested through the
Priesthood which He has restored to the earth, has been plainly
discernible. Though these are civil matters, its influence, through
the knowledge and power which it possessed, has been most beneficent.
I think that if there is any people upon the face of the earth who
should listen to the Priesthood and to the counsel of God's servants,
it is the Latter-day Saints; and I think if there are any men
upon the face of the earth that can claim loyalty from the people and
allegiance to the Priesthood, it is the men who have borne it and who
have exercised its authority from the time we settled these valleys
until now. I think they can do so with the best possible grace, for
the best of possible reasons; for when ever their counsel has been
listened to it has always been attended with unquestioned success, and
when it has been disobeyed it has always been followed by disaster.
The Latter-day Saints are the witnesses of this themselves. We can
appeal to them with the utmost confidence upon this point, because
they know, they have had experience; they have tested these things for
themselves, and they know that these are not idle statements; they
know they are true and well-founded; and that God has, in His mercy
and kindness, confirmed the labors of His servants and the counsels
they have given by bestowing prosperity and blessing upon all those
who have accepted their counsels and have carried them out in the
spirit in which they have been given. The Latter-day Saints themselves
are living witnesses to this.
The men who followed President Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles
over whom he presided when they left Nauvoo and came across to Iowa
and followed the Indian trails to the Missouri River and built Winter
Quarters, and then in the spring of 1847, traversed the plains, the
untrodden—that is, to them they were—wilds, of which they knew
nothing—people who followed him and them to Salt Lake Valley, and laid
the foundation of Salt Lake City, they have been the people who have
been the most blessed of God and most prospered; they have prospered
in their religion, they have prospered in temporal things, and they
have been blessed with peace all the day long; while the men who
disobeyed that counsel and concluded that they had had enough of this
work and of following the counsels of the leading men of this Church,
have had sorrow and difficulty and have not prospered. God confirmed
the leadership of these men by bestowing His blessing upon them and
upon those who followed their counsels. He delivered them from perils,
He delivered them from Indians, He delivered them from famine, He
delivered them from pestilence, and prosperity attended their labors,
and every settlement that has been formed in these mountains from the
day Salt Lake Valley was reached has been attended with similar
prosperity. The men who have gone forward and listened to the counsels
of God's servants have been the men who have been blessed; they have
been the men who have had influence, while the men who have taken a
different course are the men who have not. Where is there any
apostates from this work that have influence in the earth? A few have
had temporal prosperity. But is that all prosperity consists of? Is
that all success consists of? To have a little of this world's
goods—and there are very few of them that even have that. There is
something else. There is the blessing of God; there is the peace of
heaven; there is the joy of the Holy Ghost; there are the gifts and
blessings that attend the faithful servants and handmaidens of Jesus
Christ, in addition to temporal prosperity, before which temporal
prosperity fades. I am speaking now of money and that which perishes
with money. I have seen the richest people living in the
lowliest homes. Why? Because they were rich in their feelings. I have
seen the richest men who were poorer than the poorest of earth's sons.
Why? Because they did not have that rich feeling. Such a feeling does
not belong to riches and earthly prosperity. It comes from the
blessing of God. In this respect the Latter-day Saints may be said to
be the richest people on the face of the earth. They are rich in that
glorious feeling that God gives. You may strip them, as I have seen
them stripped, of earthly possessions, and turned loose in a
wilderness without a place of security and not knowing where they
would find a resting place, and yet they were as happy a people as I
ever saw in my life. Destitute of many things that men and women
consider essential to earthly comfort, yet they had that which is
above price, and which riches cannot bestow, namely, the peace of
heaven, the peace of God resting down upon them. And they have been a
rich people from that day to the present. If they have not glad hearts
and cheerful countenances it is their own fault. But this is one of
their characteristics. They do have glad hearts and cheerful
countenances. Wherever you go you see them. They may not have rich
surroundings, an abundance of this world's goods, elegant houses, nor
elegant furniture for their houses; but when they have this spirit
they are happy and they are full of peace and joy.
Those who have listened to the counsels of God's servants have had
this blessing. But, as I have said, where is the apostate, the man
that has denied his God, broken his covenants, dissolved his
connection with the Church, turned his back upon the people with whom
he was for merly associated, that can lay claim to this? It may be said
that this is all delusion; but if delusion brings happiness, then
delusion is a blessing. And is it not better to know and feel as we do
respecting a future, to feel that there is a future before us that is
bright and glorious, than it is to have our mind a blank in regard to
a future, to be without hope, looking as it were into a horizon that
is darkened by the densest clouds, which are impenetrable to our gaze
and beyond which we cannot see? Certainly it is. Certainly it is
better to have this hope that God has given us. We know that it is of
God. But our enemies say it is a delusion; but if this delusion brings
peace and joy and happiness and certainty, and all those feelings that
fill our soul with inexpressible delight, why, then we are in a better
condition than those who are not thus deluded. But we know that we are
not deluded. We know that when a wife is sealed to us by the authority
of the holy Priesthood, that that ordinance is binding as eternity if
we are faithful. We know that when we have children born to us in the
everlasting covenant and death takes them away, we are comforted with
the assurance that though they be consigned to the silent tomb, we
shall yet have them in eternity. Thus the sting of death is taken
away, and the grave has no victory. Death does not fill us with gloom
and apprehension and doubt and uncertainty. We know as well as we can
know anything of that character that when time ends we shall be united
with our children and dwell with them eternally. We know also that
when a man buries his wife, the faithful partner of his life, if she
were married to him by the holy Priesthood, he knows when he lays her away in the grave that that is not an eternal separation,
but that they will again be united. And so with the wife when she lays
away her faithful husband, she knows as well as she knows she lives
that they will be united, and that they will dwell together throughout
eternity, if she continues faithful to the truth.
It is the Priesthood that has brought unto us these blessings. There
is not a thing connected with our existence in these valleys that I
do not in my feelings give credit for, under God, to the Priesthood.
Do we have peace in our hearts? Do we have order in our settlements?
Do we have good order throughout these mountains? Yes, we have, and it
is due to those men whom God has inspired to lead the people. This
good order is due to the Priesthood. We cannot give any credit to
anybody else, however much we might be inclined to do so. We have had
Judges here; we have had Governors here, some of them men of ability;
but we cannot in honesty and truth give them credit for any of the
blessings we enjoy. On the contrary many of them have been our worst
enemies, and if they could have had the power they would have
destroyed our peace and introduced strife and disorder and confusion
and war and bloodshed in our midst; and that these things do not
exist is due to the Priesthood, and to the people also, who have
listened to their counsels and been guided by them.
Now, it is our duty to honor our God, and in honoring God we do not
show dishonor to others. Because I feel in my heart to honor the
Priesthood that God has restored to the earth, I do not therefore mean
nor do I feel any sentiment of dishonor towards anybody else. It does not
make me any the less a loyal citizen or a true man because I do this;
not in the least. On the contrary, I am a better citizen for this,
because I am more peaceful, I am more easily controlled, I maintain
good order, or endeavor to do so. The influence, therefore, of the
Priesthood upon me, as upon all the rest of the community, has not
the effect to make us disloyal to our trust, nor to make us any worse
citizens of the government of which we form a part. On the contrary,
there is no more loyal men to be found within the confines of the
Republic than are to be found in this Territory; no men more true to
the Constitution, or who love it with more devotion, or who are
willing to make greater sacrifices for it, than are to be found in
this Territory, and I think I am in a position to speak
understandingly.
I say there are no people who will do more to maintain true republican
government than the people who form the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. I would shoulder my gun to defend an Episcopalian
against a mob, and I would do the same to defend a Methodist, or an
infidel. I would do as much to maintain the rights of all men and all
women under this form of government as I would those of my own faith.
I would consider myself unworthy of my position if I did not have that
feeling, and this is the feeling, I am sure, of this entire people
called Latter-day Saints. They hate oppression, they hate it in every
form, and they will fight it as long as it exists upon the face of the
earth, until it is stricken down, and until it ceases to exist. They
are bound to do that. The principles of their religion compel them to
do it. To resist tyranny in a governor who may be sent here? Yes, if
he comes here and exercises unjust rule. And the same with a
Judge. Because a man is sent here as a Governor or a Judge does that
make him a king, or give him the authority to trample upon the rights
of his fellow citizens, or upon the Constitution, and the laws of the
land? Not by any means. And are we disloyal because we reject his
claim to that authority, and the claim of others who band themselves
together and say, "Oh, you poor Mormons, you poor, miserable
wretches—you have no rights here?" No, we are not. They may try to
usurp this authority, but they will always find us in their path under
the Constitution, and under the laws; not by force of arms, not by
violence, not by lynch law, not by mobocracy; but contending in the
right place and under the right circumstances for those liberties that
God has given to every human being and especially guaranteed to us as
free men who were born free and who live under a free form of
government. Mobocracy, from the bottom of our hearts, we hate every
form of it, and every form of violence. Where men take the law in
their own hands and seek to redress their own wrongs, it is
abominable, and should be frowned upon everywhere. Better for us to
suffer any number of wrongs than that we should resort to violence. It
would not be right for us to do so, however just our cause may be. We
must maintain law and good order, and we must frown down and put down
every form of mobocracy and lynch law, and this disposition to execute
vengeance outside the pale of the law. It is just as wrong for us to
indulge in that spirit as it was for the mobbers of Missouri when they
drove us from our homes there, or those in Illinois when they drove us
from there. We should learn a lesson from these things; we should
profit by this experience and stand up steadily and maintain
constantly the rights of man, no matter who that man might be. He may
be our enemy; he may be opposed to our principles; but that should
make no difference in our determination to execute justice and right.
Now, God has blessed us wonderfully in this land since he led us here.
I can see a great improvement here in your place. In fact I see this
in all the settlements. God is blessing this people. He is causing
them to increase, and He is giving us a firmer foothold. I am glad of
it. I want to see this work increase, because I love it, and because I
love everything connected with it. It is not a partisan feeling. It
is not a selfish feeling that a certain portion of people may be
blessed more than other people. I do not believe that Latter-day
Saints entertain any such feeling. But I take delight in this work. I
consider everything connected with the future growth of the human
family is connected with the growth and development of this people. I
know this is saying a great deal, but nevertheless it is true. And as
God lives the day will come that constitutional government and the
rights of man will have to be maintained by the Latter-day Saints, and
that at a time when there will be no other power upon this land that
will be able to make headway against the tide of evil that will flood
the country. And it will be due to our organization that we shall be
able to stem it. God has given us an organization that is magnificent,
as our enemies freely admit. We are a consolidated power. And when
anarchy reigns, as it will do, for it is coming, and every man that
opens his eyes to see the evils that abound—if he does not
persistently resist the truth—must have a secret dread of it
in his heart; when that comes, there will be no power upon this
continent that will be able to stem it, except the organization which
God has given to us. We have shown our capacity for self-government
ever since we came here, from the very fact that we had no government
except that which we framed. We had to form our own government and
make our own laws. We have had Governors who have fought our laws even
when our Legislature has enacted them unanimously. So that that which
we have today in the shape of good government is due to ourselves,
under God. It is due in Beaver to the Latter-day Saints under God. If
we have maintained order and resisted anarchy in Salt Lake City, it is
because of this man [President Taylor] and the man that preceded him
in his office, controlling and guiding the people all the day long; to
them, under God, the credit is due. So it may be said with reference
to our entire Territory. We have shown our capacity in the midst of
all the obstacles that have been thrown in our way, and in the face of
all the attacks that have been made upon us in various forms and from
various quarters—we have been able to withstand these and maintain
good government. That power we still retain. We are gaining experience
day by day. God is training us in this way. We are receiving a
training such as no other people receive. Men are being made
statesmen in spite of themselves. Such men as John R. Murdock, and
others around him, have been compelled to learn these things. So with
others. They have had to acquire a knowledge of practical
statesmanship, that they might preserve the liberties of this people.
And God has given us the necessary wisdom to do it. I thank Him for
it. He has given us this wisdom, and he will continue to bless us in
this way. And the day will come when we will exercise this authority
in a far wider sphere than in this limited Territory. The same wisdom
that has maintained the organization of this people, and that enables
us to withstand attacks that would swamp any other people, will enable
us to act in a far more extended sphere.
We have had conspiracies against our liberties from every quarter; we
have had conspiracies of every conceivable character; you cannot
conceive of anything scarcely in the shape of conspiracy that has not
been formed against us, and yet we live and are a free people today.
In many respects there are no freer people in the United States than
we are. But our enemies do not deserve any credit for it. To God the
credit is due, and He gets it, I believe, from all the Saints. But He
has given the men whom He has chosen the wisdom to govern and control
this people, and to point out the path of safety. And I predict that
we will be just as prosperous in the future as we have been in the
past, and more so. God will always prepare a way of escape for His
people. Even if everything should be as dark as it was fourteen or
fifteen months ago, when it seemed as though the whole heavens were
covered with the blackest clouds, with no ray of light to break the
darkness, and when it seemed as though overwhelming destruction was
about to come upon us—even under those circumstances God will prepare
a way of escape, He will open out the path and make it plain, and we
will emerge from the difficulty stronger than we were before, and be
full of additional thanksgiving unto God our heavenly Father,
for His goodness and kindness to us. This will be the result in the
future just as it has been in the past, and it will continue to be the
result. For I tell you there is a great future before this people. We
have all the elements which are necessary to make us a great people,
and we cannot be deprived of them. We are a united people to begin
with. And then we are a temperate people, we are a frugal people, we
are a loving people, we are a virtuous people, we are a brave people.
Yes, we are a brave people; for it takes courage to be a Latter-day
Saint. A man that is a coward cannot be a Latter-day Saint. A woman
who is not a heroine cannot be a Latter-day Saint. It requires just
that kind of courage which is so rare in the world to be a Latter-day
Saint—the courage to maintain one's convictions. This famous young
lady—Belle Harris—has given us an exhibition of it. She preferred to
go to the Penitentiary rather than answer the questions propounded to
her. Such an exhibition of courage must have a wonderful influence.
There is something about it, even if the cause were a bad one, that is
admirable. Men admire that quality wherever they see it. There is
nothing so admirable as courage of that description. It impresses
even our enemies. "Why," they say, "if this girl can do such a thing,
what shall we do with a people of that kind?"
Well, courage is a quality that this people have always manifested.
They have submitted to wrongs, it is true; but their having done so is
not an indication of a want of courage. On the contrary, it is
sometimes an evidence of the highest and the purest and the best
courage, to be willing to suffer wrong rather than take a course that
could not be approved of to resist it, and these qualities in the
struggle that lies before us will tell. You find a people who are
frugal, who are temperate, who are industrious, who are united, who
are loving, and who increase as we do, and they will make their mark
on the earth. Such qualities always did tell in the struggle for
existence among men from the earliest days. The nations that have
possessed the qualities which our people possess have always been the
honored nations. They have been the nations that have won their way
to power and have compelled admiration even from their enemies. These
qualities we possess, and we mean to cultivate them. We mean to train
our children in these virtues. We mean to make them a virtuous people
above everything else. That is the most desirable quality in this age
of sin and corruption, when women, in many instances, are unsafe in
the society of men. I want to see it in our country that our young
ladies in the company of our young men, in any place and under any
circumstances, in the darkest hours and in the most unprotected
situations, will feel as safe as if they were in their mothers' bed
chambers so far as anything wrong from the opposite sex is concerned.
I would rather see men punished with death—which we believe is a law
that should be put in force against any man who ruins woman—than that
there ever should be a time in our country when corruption and wrongs
of this character should run riot and be unchecked. Virtue lies at
the foundation of individual and national greatness. No man can amount
to much who is not a virtuous man, who is not strong in his virtue; I
do not care who he is. He may be as talented as Lucifer; but
if he is not a virtuous man his greatness will not amount to much.
Virtue lies at the foundation of greatness. We mean to promote it and
encourage it in the rising generation. In order that the rising
generation should have it, the mothers must have it, and feel its
importance, and the fathers also. And then we must teach all those
other virtues that belong to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our religion
is admirably adapted to every circumstance of life. We can carry it
with us every day. It is not like our Sunday clothes—to be worn on
the Sunday and laid away on Monday. It is an eminently practical
religion, and is adapted to every day alike and not for special
occasions alone. I like it on that account. I am very much pleased
with it, always have been, and with those virtues that it instills,
the everyday virtues of life.
If I am a Latter-day Saint, as I should be, I am an honest man. If I
were to trade I would trade honestly, or else I am not worthy of the
name of Latter-day Saint. If I had a wagon to sell I would tell what
sort of a wagon it was and not cheat the party to whom I was selling,
or say that he must judge of the article by his own eyes, that his own
eyes must tell him if there is anything wrong. I do not consider that
good Latter-day Saint doctrine. If I have a horse to sell to my
neighbor and he asks me if the animal has any defect, I ought to be
willing to tell what it is. And so with everything else. We must be an
honest people; for I tell you those who are not honest cannot retain
the Spirit of God. God wants an honest people, a truthful people, a
people whose word can be relied upon, a people whose word is as good
as their bond. I do not know whether you all do or not, but if not,
you ought to cultivate this quality of honesty. It is always
profitable for a man to be honest. Let him get a credit of that kind
and it will bring him profit; but if he deceives then confidence is
gone and people will shun him. I never trade with a man that tricks me
more than once. I do not say much. I suppose everybody has the same
kind of feeling. I never quarrel nor find fault, but then I think a
great deal, and I suppose most of the people have a good memory for
these sort of things.
As Latter-day Saints, we should be honest, truthful, frugal and
economical, and do everything we can to improve our condition. Every
man that has a poor house should seek to get a better. When I started
out in life I attached little importance to the matter of a house. For
many years I was in the missionary field. Fifteen years of my early
experience in life was spent in the missionary field. I was only some
nine months at home during that period, and I attached little
importance to a house. But I soon found out that my folks did not take
the same view that I did about it. I have learned this, that a woman
looks upon a house as a matter of much more importance than a man
does. It is her home. And when I see wives in houses of a poor class
when their husbands might build better, I think their husbands do
not understand woman's nature as they should do. Women with families
should have good houses, and husbands should labor to get them, and
then leave them to adorn them and make them comfortable and
desirable. Children like to have a nice house, because they can
invite their companions to it. Men should strive to make their
families comfortable in this way. It is their duty to do so. I was very much delighted with some remarks President Taylor made on
this subject. He told the husbands to court their wives over again, to
cultivate the feeling they had when they started out in life, when
they were everything to each other, and when they could not do enough
for each other. That is a feeling that should be cultivated. Men
should never treat their wives with disrespect. They should manifest a
feeling of love for them, and more especially when they become
advanced in years. There is nothing that will excite love in a man's
heart so much as to see a wife as willing, even in her advanced years,
to sacrifice her own comfort for his sake as she was when they were
first married; and I am sure it must have the same effect upon a
woman—to have the husband, when her charms are fading and she is
growing old, and perhaps not so attractive as she was—to have the
husband tender and kind and loving, not forgetting her good
qualities, nor what she has done. When a woman sees a husband manifest
that feeling towards her, she in return will manifest her kindness and
love for his thoughtful attentions.
These are little things, but how much they contribute to our happiness
and to our peace! We should therefore cultivate these qualities
ourselves and teach them to our children. Our children should be made
to feel that we love them and that we are disposed to treat them with
proper respect. When we ask a child to do a favor, we should ask it as
though he were a gentleman, or if a girl, as though she were a lady. A
man should never talk to his children as though he were a tyrant. He
should address them in kindness, and as though they were gentlemen and
ladies, and they will grow up with that feeling and treat others with
the same respect. Why, I would not ask my children to do me a favor
without thanking them, any more than I would ask any grown person.
Neither would I ask a favor of a hired hand without doing the same
thing. I have been in such positions myself and know the feelings that
such people have. I know that their feelings are tender and that in
their position they appreciate kindness. And people who are young are
more sensitive than older persons of more experience in life, and we
cannot be too careful about their feelings. We should treat one
another with the utmost respect and the utmost kindness. Women should
talk to their children in kindness; not harshly, and not in a spirit
of scolding. It is a dreadful habit this habit of scolding. A man or a
woman who is always scolding, loses influence with children and with
everybody else.
I pray God to bless you and fill you with the Holy Ghost, in the name
of Jesus, Amen.
- George Q. Cannon