Brother Kimball, in his remarks, touched upon an idea that had not
previously entered my mind, that is, that some of the people were
dissatisfied with me and my counselors, on account of the lateness of
this season's immigration. I do not know but what such may be the
case, as I am aware that those persons now on the Plains have a great
many friends and relatives here; but it never came into my mind that I
was in the least degree censurable for any person's being now upon the
Plains. Why? Because there is not the least shadow of reason for
casting such censure upon me. I am about as free from what is called
jealousy, as any man that lives; I am not jealous of anybody, though
I know what the feeling is; but it never troubled me much, even in my
younger days. Neither am I suspicious of my brethren, therefore I was
not suspecting any censure of the kind just named.
Aside from entire want of foundation, and aside from my freedom from
jealousy and suspicion, there are other reasons why I could not be
expected to have indulged in the suspicion of such a charge. Our
general epistles usually go from here twice a year, and the
immigration, the gathering of the people, is dictated in those
epistles, with a considerable degree of minute detail; I also advance
many ideas on the same subject, from time to time, which are written
and published; and I write a great many letters on this subject, and
many of these are published.
There is not a person, who knows anything about the counsel of the
First Presidency concerning the immigration, but what knows that we
have recommended it to start in season. True, we have not expressly,
and with a penalty, forbidden the immigration to start late, but
hereafter I am going to lay an injunction and place a penalty,
to be suffered by any Elder or Elders who will start the immigration
across the Plains after a given time; and the penalty shall be that
they shall be severed from the Church, for I will not have such late
starts. You know my life; there is not a person in this Church and
kingdom but what must acknowledge that gold and silver, houses and
lands, &c., do multiply in my hands. There is not an individual but
what must acknowledge that I am as good a financier as they ever knew,
in all things that I put my hands to. This is well known by the
people, and they consider me a frugal, saving man, therefore there is
no ground or room for their suspecting that my mismanagement caused
the present sufferings on the Plains. I presume that brother Kimball
never would have thought of such an idea, had he not heard it.
Say that we start a company from the Missouri River as late as the
first of June, and allow them three months in which to perform the
journey, then they have time to travel moderately and one month of
good weather for leeway, in which to finish the journey, provided
they do not complete it in three months; then they may be ninety days
or more in coming a thousand miles, which a child of four years old
could walk it in that time. They may stop and feed their teams, and
after they arrive they will have the autumn in which to look round and
prepare for winter. This is my policy, and then during the first half
of the journey the cattle can get what is called prairie grass while
it is at its best, for it is easily killed by frost, and cattle must
have the privilege of feeding upon it before it is too dry, or
frostbitten. The month of June is the best month for that grass, and this
all know who are acquainted with the western prairies. Then they come
to the mountain grass in the latter part of their journey, which
though probably dry by the time they get to it, is filled with
nutrition, nearly as much so as grain, and will fatten cattle.
They can come along moderately, take their time, and arrive here in
August. They should be here in that month, what for? To help us
harvest our late wheat, corn, potatoes; to help get up wood, put up
fences and prepare for winter. This plan also puts into the possession
of newcomers time and ability to secure to themselves their winter's
provision. Do you not see that such is the result? I have known this
all the time. I have always said, send the companies across the Plains
early. Companies have suffered loss upon loss of lives and property,
but never by the dictation of the First Presidency. Do you not readily
understand that if the immigration had been here a few months ago, or
by the first of September, that they would have had opportunity to
rest, and then to secure wheat, to lay up a few potatoes, to get up
wood and lay in the staple necessaries for winter?
But our Elders abroad say, by their conduct all the time, that we here
in the mountains do not understand what is wanted in the east, as well
as they do. They do not proclaim it in so many words, but their
conduct does, and "by their fruits ye shall know them." Their actions
assert that they know more than we do, but I say that they do not. If
they had sent our immigration in the season that they should have
done, you and I could have kept our teams at home; we could have
fenced our five and ten acre lots; we could have put in our fall
wheat; could have got up wood for ourselves and for the poor that
cannot help themselves; and thus we might have been providing for
ourselves, and making ourselves comfortable; whereas, now your hands
and mine are tied.
This people are this day deprived of thousands of acres of
wheat that would have been sowed by this time, had it not been for the
misconduct of our immigration affairs this year, and we would have had
an early harvest, but now we may have to live on roots and weeds again
before we get the wheat. I look at this matter as plainly as I do upon
your faces. I have a philosophical forecast, and I do know the results
of men's work; I know what the conduct of this people will produce in
their future life. If I have not this power naturally, God has surely
given it to me.
Well, what shall be done? Why, we must bear it. The Elders east fancy
that they know more about what is wanted here than we do, and we have
to bear it. Let me have had the dictation of the emigration from
Liverpool, and I could have brought many more persons here, and at a
cost of not more than from three to five dollars of what it has now
cost, provided I could have dictated matters at every point. That is
not boasting; I only want to tell you that I know more than they know.
But what have we to do now? We have to be compassionate, we have to be
merciful to our brethren.
Here is brother Franklin D. Richards who has but little knowledge of
business, except what he has learned in the Church; he came into the
Church when a boy, and all the public business he has been in is the
little he has done while in Liverpool, England; and here is brother
Daniel Spencer, brother Richards' First Counselor and a man of age and
experience, and I do not know that I will attach blame to either of
them. But if, while at the Missouri River, they had received a hint
from any person on this earth, or if even a bird had chirped it in the
ears of brothers Richards and Spencer, they would have known better
than to rush men, women, and children on to the prairie in the autumn
months, on the third of September, to travel over a thousand miles. I
repeat that if a bird had chirped the inconsistency of such a course
in their ears, they would have thought and considered for one moment,
and would have stopped those men, women, and children there until
another year.
If any man or woman complains of me or of my Counselors, in regard to
the lateness of some of this season's immigration, let the curse of
God be on them and blast their substance with mildew and destruction,
until their names are forgotten from the earth. I never thought of my
being accused of advising or having anything to do with so late a
start. The people must know that I know how to handle money and means,
and I never supposed that anybody had a doubt of it. It will cost this
people more to bring in those companies from the Plains, than it would
to have seasonably brought them from the outfitting point on the
Missouri River. I do not believe that the biggest fool in the
community could entertain the thought that all this loss of life,
time, and means, was through the mismanagement of the First
Presidency.
I know how to dictate affairs; and no man need to have walked in
darkness touching his duty with regard to the foreign immigration. You
can read their duty in our epistles, letters, and sermons; and what is
the purport of those documents, on this point? That we are new
settlers in a wild and uninhabited country, and are thrown upon our
own resources; that we need all our teams and means to prepare for
those persons who are coming, instead of crippling us by taking our
bread, men, and teams, and going out to meet them. And if the present
system continues, this people will be found like the Kilkenny cats,
which eat up each other clear to their tails, and they were
left jumping at one another; such operations will financially use us
up.
Last year my back and head ached, and I have been about half mad ever
since, and that too righteously, because of the reckless squandering
of means and leaving me to foot the bills. Last year, without asking
me a word of counsel, without a word being spoken to me about the
matter, there was over sixty thousand dollars of indebtedness incurred
for me to pay. What for? To fetch a few immigrants here, when I could
have brought the whole of them with one quarter of the means.
What is the cause of our immigration being so late this season? The
ignorance and mismanagement of some who had to do with it, and still,
perhaps they did the best they knew how.
Are those people in the frost and snow by my doings? No, my skirts are
clear of their blood, God knows. If a bird had chirped in brother
Franklin's ears in Florence, and the brethren there had held a
council, he would have stopped the rear companies there, and we would
have been putting in our wheat, &c., instead of going on to the Plains
and spending weeks and months to succor our brethren. I make these
remarks because they are true.
As to the companies now out, we must bring them in; and another year
we will send men to the Missouri River who understand the right
management of affairs, and will send them in the speediest
conveyances, so that they may not get the "big head" before they
arrive there, and then they may be able to do as we tell them.
Can people come across the Plains with handcarts? Ask brothers Edmund
Ellsworth, Daniel D. McArthur and William Bunker, who led the three
handcart companies that have already arrived; and the brethren and
sisters in those companies state that they crossed quicker and easier
than the wagon companies.
Those who counseled the companies to come on have nearly all gone back
to their assistance, after staying at home but about two days, after
their return from a long mission, thus manifesting their faith by
their works.
I cannot help what is out of my reach, but I am on hand to send more
teams, and to send and send, until, if it is necessary, we are
perfectly stopped in every kind of business. Brother Heber says that
he will send another team, and I mean to send as many more as he does;
I ought to send more than brother Heber, for I am fourteen days older
than he is. I can send more teams, but I do not intend that the
fetters shall be on me another season.
I will mention something more. You cannot hear George D. Grant, Daniel
Spencer and others of the lately returned missionaries speak without
eulogizing Franklin D. Richards. They are full of eulogizing Franklin
D. Richards, but they need to be careful or they will have the "big
head" and become as dead and devoid of the Spirit as old pumpkins. And
with them it is, "What could I have done without brother George? And
what could we have done without brother Franklin? And when you hear me
calling you Rabbi, know ye that I want to be called Rabbi;" and so it
goes, but I suppose that this is not what they do it for.
Don't you know that I know whether you are good for anything, or not,
without my praising you? I know all about you, without telling what
great things you have done, and what you have not done. But the very
spirit some have in them of pride, arrogance, and self-esteem, has led
men and women to die on the Plains, by scores, at least their folly
has. And if they had not had any such spirit about them, God
would have whispered to them to have held a council, and would have
stopped them from rushing their brethren and sisters into such
suffering. But we must now rescue those people, and may God help us to
do it. Amen.