I am satisfied that that portion of the citizens of Utah who first
sought out this mountain retreat have seen and experienced enough of
the actions of State Governments and of our National Government—have
suffered enough at the hands of officers of State, and by the
treatment they have received from mobs organized to operate against
them, independent of all law, or nominally under the color of law, to
discern clearly the tendency of that spirit which pervades this people
and the spirit of opposition which pervades our enemies.
The unbelieving world, which have rejected the Gospel revealed unto
us, and a large portion of this people—those who have immigrated to
this Territory within a few years past, have not had the benefit of
the experience which the minor portion of this people have had;
consequently, they have not had forced upon them that series of
reflections so well calculated to mature their minds and enable them
to contemplate with great precision the final result of all efforts
brought to bear against us by our enemies for the overthrow of the
work of God in the last days. I presume there is not one of the early
members of the Church but what fully anticipated the crisis which has
now come upon us. The spirit of prophecy and revelation has been in
the midst of this people from the beginning, and has continually
foretold this event; and one who was no more than the son of a
Prophet, with the benefit of past experience and an observation of the
spirit of this people and that of our enemies, could not fail to see
that such must be the result, sooner or later.
At every step this kingdom has advanced, the opposition of the ungodly
has also advanced. Their hate of the truth has never been laid by. It
has seemed to slumber at times, only to wake up with renewed vigor
and fresh determination and strength to operate against the truth;
while on the other hand the Lord has given this people seasons of
rest, that they might take breath and have an opportunity of sending
their missionaries to preach the Gospel, that the honest in heart
might be gathered out from among the wicked, who are struggling to
crush out of existence the last vestige of truth and righteousness
upon the earth.
That portion of the citizens of this Territory who were personally
acquainted with the history of this Church and with the Prophet Joseph
Smith in his last years are now able to view, in the present movement
of the United States troops, in the measures of the General Government
and Governmental officials, and in the spirit of the people at large,
an attempt to carry out, if possible, the same policy that was
enacted in the last days of Joseph, which resulted in the expulsion of
this people from Illinois.
There is, however, some little difference. Since that period this
people have grown a little more numerous; and, instead of being within
two hours' ride of Carthage and Warsaw, they are a thousand miles from
the frontier settlements of their enemies. Instead of a military
encampment in a cornfield just on the outside of the city of Nauvoo,
it is now on the other side of the mountains, about 115 miles from
the City of Great Salt Lake.
The pretended designs of our enemies towards us remind me of the
speech of Rolla in the play of "Pizarro." Descanting upon the
promises
of the bloody and treacherous Spanish conquerors of his countrymen, he
says, "They offer us protection. Yes, such protection as vultures give
to lambs, covering and devouring them."
To their unsought and uncalled for protection, our answer should
be—"When the State of Missouri, in obedience to her own laws, shall
have hung up by the neck ex-Governor Boggs, Austin A. King, old
Generals Lucas, Clark, and Wilson, and about twenty-five hundred of
her citizens, who were engaged in murdering the Saints, plundering
them and driving them from their homes—when they have repudiated the
acts of their corrupt Legislature and returned fourfold to all whom
they have robbed, with the lawful interest thereon until the time of
payment, reinstating those who have been driven from their homes and
possessions, making good, as far as money and means can do it, their
losses—when Illinois shall have done the same, and the General
Government shall take action to maintain the citizens of this
Territory in the rightful possession of all the land they have
purchased of them, from which they have been driven by the force of
mobs, and then admit this people, without a groan or complaint, but
with brotherly love, kindness, and fatherly care, to the free and
undisturbed enjoyment of life, liberty, and all those political rights
that belong to American citizens in common, of which the chief is the
right of being governed by men of their own choice and of worshipping
God according to the dictates of their own consciences, the principle
thing for which our fathers fought—when our Government shall do all
this and cease their threats and menaces to intimidate free men, call
home their "dogs of war," and set them to administering justice on the
scoundrels at home, and keep away their mean, dirty sycophants, whom
they wish to force on this people for their rulers at the point of the
bayonet—then we may begin to think of having a little confidence in
their high pretensions; then they may talk to us about their boasted
protection and their regard for the rights of mankind."
Until they have done all these things and are willing to pay this
Territory some portion of the few hundred thousand dollars which it
has expended to preserve peace with the savages around us, we shall
have no reason to think that they are honest or sincere in their
intentions. Otherwise, we shall be compelled to regard them and their
armies as we now look upon Governors Ford of Illinois and Boggs of
Missouri, and their murderous clan of mob forces, even as whited
sepulchres, fair without, but within full of dead men's bones,
rottenness, and all uncleanness. Until then, we shall have no
guarantee for trusting one particle to them or their promises.
When we have trusted in the Lord our God, kept his commandments and
revered his laws, he has not betrayed us nor forsaken us in trouble;
but he has ever stood by us and led us forth out of affliction,
and has given unto us Governors and Judges and Counselors after his
own heart, to feed this people with knowledge and understanding—to
lead them forth in the paths of peace, unity, and love.
We are satisfied with our present rulers. When we have trusted in our
God and his servants, we have been happy and blessed; but when we have
trusted to the enemies of our God, we have been pierced with many
sorrows.
If any of the citizens of this Territory have not as yet experienced
enough of the tender mercies of this generation and the promises of
corrupt officials of the United States Government, and they wish still
to trust in them a little further, they have the privilege. The way
has been kept open for them to leave. Although martial law has been
declared in this Territory, and persons are not allowed to pass
through, into, or out of it, without a permit from the proper officer,
yet it has been declared by our Governor, published abroad, and has
been repeatedly acted upon, that all persons feeling dissatisfied,
unwilling to remain in their present position, and wishing to go to
our enemies, and place themselves under their protection, and accept
of their proffers, shall forthwith be furnished with a passport and
escort. If they wish to leave for other climates, and will pay their
honest debts, and not steal their outfit, they can have the privilege.
Two or three small parties have started this fall, embracing the few
remains of our Gentile traders who remained in our midst for purposes
of speculation; and I have heard that one or two small families who
once counted themselves Saints went with them. The road is still open
for others to follow who wish to do so.
My own feelings, and I believe the feelings of all the authorities of
this people, are, that we want no disaffected or indifferent ones to
remain among us. We will not lay a straw in their way, if they will
depart in peace, if they do not wish to remain with the people of God
and share with them in their joys and sorrows.
The principles of our holy religion claim from us the exercise of our
own judgment, and inculcate the largest degree of freedom of soul, and
will extend to every soul of man like privileges. The union which
exists in the midst of this people, and of which our enemies have ever
complained so much, has never been the result of coercion. It has not
been created by iron bands placed around the outside of this people,
only so far as the Lord has made use of the wicked to persecute and
drive them together. That union has been the legitimate result of the
principles of truth revealed unto us from heaven and adopted as the
guide of their conduct by the people.
Although many of those who have left this people and returned, like
the dog to his vomit, and like the sow that was washed to her
wallowing in the mire, and who have gone down again to the filth and
degradation of Babylon, have reported that they narrowly escaped with
their lives—that efforts had been made to prevent their departure; yet
all this people do verily know that they were of their father the
Devil, who was a liar from the beginning, and that their tales were
base and wicked falsehoods, as an excuse for their own mean and
traitorous course. The only tyranny and oppression that ever existed
among this people (if, indeed, any virtuous person would call it so),
has been the sharpness of the word of God reproving the wickedness of
the people, holding the vile and wicked from riding over and trampling
under foot the weak and innocent, saying to the people, "If
you wish to do wickedly—to oppress each other—to bite and devour each
other—if it is your nature to gouge out your neighbor's eyes, to
purloin his property, seduce his wife and daughters—in fine, if you
wish to practice wickedness and abomination after the order of the
Gentile world from which you have been gathered, retire from the midst
of the Saints, return to the hole from whence you have been dug, and
wallow again in the filthiness from whence you have been taken, and
not attempt to carry on your wickedness in the midst of this people,
who love righteousness and desire to put away all unholiness from
them." This is the only oppression which any individual has been able
to complain of, in truth and justice, in the midst of this community.
"Mormonism" does not coerce, but all the time persuades, teaches,
enlightens, instructs, and invites by the beauty, excellence, and
virtue of those holy principles which God has revealed to us,
gradually drawing the people together, cementing their feelings, and
bringing them, by common consent, to act upon the principles of truth
and righteousness.
There is but one alternative for this people: it is our religion, our
God, our liberty, or slavery, the Devil, and death. There is no
drawing back. The wedge has been entered. Our God has led us forth and
directed our course from the beginning to the present hour. "Shall I
cause to come to the birth," saith the Lord, "and not bring forth?"
No. Although the woman in travail and in pain to be delivered suffers
anxiety, mingled with fear, yet soon her sorrow is forgotten, for joy
that a man child is born into the world. So it will be with this
people, and our enemies cannot hinder it. The Devil and all the hosts
of hell cannot prevent the consummation of the desired object that God
has in view.
The kingdom of God is established, no more to be thrown down; and in
it we shall live and reign, and every righteous man and woman who love
God and his truth more than their own lives and the treasures of this
world shall be exalted in the kingdom of God: they shall see the
triumph of truth and righteousness, and the kingdom of God shining on
the earth as the sun in the firmament. But the time will come when the
fainthearted and the wicked, whose knees tremble and who cannot endure
the contradiction of the ungodly world, and choose rather to hide
their heads and retire, making lies their refuge, will lift up their
eyes in hell, being in torment: they will look back, and they will try
to repent as it were in sackcloth and ashes: they will seek repentance
carefully with tears, but will not find it, because there will be no
chance left for them to regain what they have lost. If the Lord has
compassion upon them and hears their cries, their weeping, and their
bitter lamentation in the day of their degradation and misery, it will
be to give them the privilege of becoming, in a future day, the
servants of those who maintained their integrity.
The state of my lungs is such that I shall be under the necessity of
closing. I pray to God to bless all Israel and help us to keep our
covenants to the end. Amen.