UTAH AND THE PLAINS.
What Capt. Van Vliet Saw and Heard
THE SAINTS MEAN TO FIGHT
REVIEW OP THEIR TROOPS.
DISCOURSES BY BRIGHAM AND HIS ELDERS.
THE INDIANS OF THE PLAINS.
THE UTAH EXPEDITION.
From Our Special Correspondent.
FORT LARAMIE, N.T., Sept. 28, 1857.
Capt. Van Vliet, a member of Gen. Harney's Staff, arrived at this post yesterday morning, on his way to the States from Great Salt Lake City. He was detached by the General, at the beginning of August, to proceed to Utah, to gather necessary information concerning the disposition of the in-habitants, the geography of the routes to the Terri-tory, the condition of the crops, & c., and to report to headquarters. He returns with news which, perhaps, justifies inferences that the Utah compli-cation will present in history the most prominent feature of the administration of Mr. Buchanan. The expression of a determination to resist the entrance of the newly-appointed officials, and of the U. S. army into Utah, is unanimous among the people of the Territory. You are probably aware already of the result of his mission, for a courier, bearing dispatches to the head quarters of the army, preceded his arrival here one day, reaching this post on the evening of Saturday the 26th, and de-parting the same night. But, in view of its im-portant character, the following details cannot fail to be interesting.
Capt. Van Vliet arrived at Salt Lake City on Sept. 8 and remained there a week. His measure-ment of its distance from this post, by the Odome-ter, was 518 miles, corresponding very nearly with that of Capt Stansbury in 1849. Adding to it the distance of Fort Laramie from Fort Leavenworth, 628 miles, as measured by Brevet Col. Smith, who arrived here on Saturday in command of Compa-nies A and D of the Tenth Infantry, who were de-tained in Minnesota from their regiment, the total distance of the city from Fort Leavenworth is 1,146 miles, 22 miles less than that given by Capt. Stansbury.
He left his escort on Ham's Fork, about twenty miles west of Green River, and proceeded to the city, attended only by his own servants. He had been assured by every party he encountered en route for the States that his visit would be attended with personal danger; but, on the contrary, he was recieved and treated with the almost hospitality, offered many facilities for ascertaining the condition of the Territory and the disposition of the inhabit-ants and no obstacle was put to his departure. An official dinner was given in his honor by Heber C. Kimball, and he had daily interviews with Brig-ham Young and the other dignitaries of the Mormon Church.
Their expressed determination, from first to last, was this; to resist at all hazards the ingress of the troops this Autumn. When they were reminded of the certainty that in case their resistance one year should be effectual, a force would be dis-patched to Utah the next, against which twice their population in arms would strive in vain to close the passes, they replied that they had consid-ered all that, and that when such a force had stormed those passes, they would enter a valley in which not one shrub would be green nor one stone remain upon another. They took pains to show him their gardens and vineyards, their harvest, barns, houses, and livestock, and to contrast their present prosperity with such a scene of desola-tion. Their object now, they said, was to gain time to enable the National Government to retrace its steps, and they intend to present their case to Congress through their delegate, Dr. Bernhisel, who accompanied Capt. Van Vliet on his departure, and is now in his camp. It was at one period his determination not to proceed to Washington this Winter, but that was reconsidered.
They said that they would regard the entrance of the troops as the beginning of a repetition of their sufferings at Kirtland, Independence and Nauvoo; that they had learned a lesson from experience, and would now meet aggression at the start, and resist the wedge before it should enter the wood; if they could not keep the troops out this year they would sacrifice all for their religion, take to the mountains, and fight a war of glory and extermina-tion. Brigham Young remarked repeatedly that this was the most glorious era of his faith, and that a happier day never dawned on Mormonism than that on which the advance of the troops was ordered, for the more his church was persecuted the mere it would thrive.
On Sunday, Sept. 13, Capt. Van Vliet was asked to attend religious services in the Bowery, and was escorted to a prominent seat upon the platform, and invited to make an address, which invitation he de-clined. By counting the number of persons upon certain tiers of benches he estimated the audience to exceed 4,500. After some remarks by Heber C. Kimball, a discourse was delivered by Elder John Taylor, formerly editor of the The Mormon, the newspaper organ of the church in New-York City. At the close Mr. Taylor called the attention of the people to the Captain, and alluded to his business in the city, recounted the substance of his conversa-tions, and said that he would make a request in order that Captain Van Vliet might learn that he had been made acquainted with the deter-mination of the whole people; he would ask that all those present who were willing to raze their houses, burn their crops, pull down what they had passed ten years in building up, make their beauti-ful valley a desert, and retreat to the mountains, in ease the troops should force an entrance, would rise; and the audience, without exception, rose to their feet, and remained standing long enough to enable him to see that they were absolutely unani-mous.
During the previous proceedings, in order to answer practically an inquiry by the captain con-cerning the proportion of foreigners present to na-tive born and naturalized citizens, Mr. Taylor re-quested all present who belonged to the two latter classes to raise their hands, and about three-fourths of the audience complied.
The Captain confirms the fact of the concentra-tion of the population of Utah in Salt Lake Valley by the abandonment of the remote settlements, and he estimates the force the Mormons can set in the field at between five and six thousand. They have abandoned the cobble-stone fortification at Fort Bridger, a description of which I sent to you from Fort Kearney, as it was given to me by a party of Californians, and the men employed there have fallen back about twenty miles to a redoubt called Fort Supply. He was also given to understand that they intend to recall their missionaries from the States, but not from foreign countries.
With regard to divisions in the Mormon commu-nity, he satisfied himself that there does indeed ex-ist in certain quarters a dislike of the present au-thorities of the Church, but he is also satisfied that it is in such subjection that nothing less than the presence of a commanding Gentile force will en-able it to develop itself.
A review of about 500 troops of the Nauvoo Legion was held in his presence. The arms and uniforms of the officers were homogeneous, but the rank and file were as eccentric in equipment as Down East militia at a shirt-tail muster. A num-ber of little boys marched in the companies carry-ing wooden guns. Capt. Van Vliet states that there is no powder mill, to his knowledge, in the territory, although there is a manufactory of fire-arms. With regard to provisions, Brigham Young told him that the Mormons had a three years’ sup-ply on hand to take with them to the mountains.
The Deseret News of Sept. 16 was intended to contain a narration of all the circumstances attend-ing Capt. Van Vliet's visit, but it was not pub-lished at the time of his departure. I inclose to you copies of the issues of Sept. 2 and 9. From the sermons of Messrs. Young, Kimball, Taylor and others, which they contain, and from this nar-ration of Capt. Van Vliet's visit, I leave you to draw your own inferences, for those drawn here are discordant. It is significant that nearly every ser-mon reported contains exhortations to the Mormon people to continue their routine of life, planting, reaping, laboring as usual.
An important element in any inferences you may draw is furnished in the fact that the Captain was selected for this service on account of peculiar qualifications which he possessed in having an ex-tensive acquaintance among the Mormons, and being a cool, keen and experienced observer. For myself, I cannot and will not believe that a man who has displayed the practical sagacity of Brigham Young, in guiding his Church to their Promised Land by a journey attended by difficulties which justify his favorite comparison of it to the flight of the Israelites from Egypt; who has elevated him-self to his authoritative position over the drawbacks of lowly birth and deficiency of education, and who has ruled a Commonwealth for ten years with the absolutism of a Czar, will all at once stultify him-self by butting his head against a wall which, per-haps, he might have climbed.
On his return, Capt. Van Vliet passed the 10th infantry and Phelps's battery of artillery on Sept. 21, a few miles east of the South Pass. On the evening of the same day he passed the 5th infantry and Reno's battery. He reports that there is al-most no grass between the bridge across the North Fork of the Platte, 115 miles from this Fort, and a point 30 miles west of Green River, and that there are portions of the road where the carcass of an ox or a mule is encountered at nearly every step. He will, start for Fort Leavenworth to-morrow, with Dr. Bernhisel in his company.
At the time of his departure from Salt Lake City no copy of the book of John Hyde, jr, 3 had reached the Territory.
While I was in Leavenworth City at the beginning of August, making preparations for the journey, I passed a morning at a blacksmith's shop superin-tending repairs upon our ambulance. While I was there, a German named Schwekendik brought two little mules to be shod. I recognized him as one of the passengers on the boat in which I had come up the river, and he told me that he was about to start for this post alone. He had emigrated to America six or seven years ago, and cumulated some thou-sands of dollars in California. He invested his property in live stock, and started for the States with the drove, overland, in July, 1856. In the In-dian country, near this fort, he was attacked by a bend of Cheyennes, and his cattle were stolen, his wife and brother killed, and his son taken prisoner. He himself effected his escape, and ar-rived at last in Missouri. This Summer the child had been recaptured by a squadron com-manded by Lieut. Smith of the Second Dragoons,' and the object of the father's journey was to re-claim it. We passed and repassed one another several times between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Kearney, but owing to our delay at the latter poet we saw no more of him until we reached hare. I was so interested in his story that one of my first inquiries upon my arrival was, how Schwekendik had found his son; and I was told that the boy, only seven years old, had fallen into the hands of a chief named White Crow, who had abused his per-son almost daily in a manner too monstrous to be described, and that he was so emaciated and de-formed at the time of his recapture, that he will not probably survive the journey to the States.
I have received the details of other instances of infernal cruelty. No male prisoner falls into the hands of such devils without reason to thank God if a bullet or a tomahawk puts an immediate end to his life, and no woman escapes from their clutches without suffering that to which death by any torture is preferable. A Mexican lady, deli-cately reared, died at Fort Kearney last year from the effect of the outrages she endured during an imprisonment of three months in a Cheyenne lodge. And yet our national Government' arms the very hands which inflict these injuries on the residents and travelers upon the plains, and with extraordi-nary inconsistency, presents to the savages the rifles and ammunition, one month, which are, turned against its own troops the next. I have been assured, on what I believe to be reliable au-thority, that at the very moment that Col. Sumner's expedition was marching against the Cheyennes, a present which embraced guns, powder and ball, was on its way from the Indian Bureau to that tribe, but fortunately was arrested. Like most other administrative evils, this incon-sistency has its root at Washington, and lies be-tween the Departments of the Interior and of War. In nearly every instance it arises from want of con-cordance between the Indian Agents and the Com-manders at military posts, or of troops in that field. Such a lack of concordance has existed here at Fort Laramie for several years. As an example of its effect, I may, mention that, at the time of the recovery of Schwekendik's boy some of the party of Cheyennes, from whom he was recaptured, were actually within the precincts of the Indian Agency. I have never conversed with an experienced officer who has not attributed it to this cause, and ex-pressed regret that the Indian Bureau was ever re-moved from the charge of the Department of War.
The people of the States need to unlearn many of the lessons about Indian magnanimity and heroism which they have been taught by Fenimore Cooper's novels and Mrs. Sigourney's poems (to say nothing of Congressional literature), and to regard most of these wild tribes of the Plains—whether Sioux, Cheyennes, Camanches or Arapahoes—as treacher-ous, ferocious, bloody savages, as they are, among whom human sacrifices are not yet extinct; who assume the guise of maganimity only when can-ning prompts; and whom no earthly power-neither the Department of the Interior or the Home Missionary Society—can convert to honesty and humanity, or rescue from ultimate extinction.
The Cheyennes are at present the most promi-nent, but by no means, the most formidable tribe of the Plains, for they are excelled in strength by each of the other tribes I have mentioned. They are estimated to number about 1,200 warriors, but this is a wonderful increase from the time of Lewis and Clarke's expedition, in the journal of which the number of their warriors is counted as 300, and their original seat located on the Rod River of the North, from which they have wan-dered or been driven to their present location. They certainly display a daring which commands praise, and what is more dangerous, a disposition to which I have previously alluded, to unite their stronger neighbors in a crusade against the whites. The Cheyenne prisoner whom I described at Fort Kearney stated, while I was there, through an in-terpreter, that before Col. Sumner's fight their chiefs designed to send the war-pipe around to all the Southern tribes.
Major Lind of the 7th Infantry arrived at this post on the same day with Col. Smith, with two companies of his regiment, who are to constitute the garrison during the Winter. Col. Smith, who marches on after his regiment (the 10th) to-mor-row, will leave fifty men from his command, in charge of Lieut. T. J. Lee, to act as an escort to Gov. Cumming.
The prices of all articles essential to a Winter on the Plains are enormous in this neighborhood. No corn can be procured at the Fort or any of the fading posts. A few sacks were sold last week at $6 per bushel. For good buffalo robes the prices range from $12 to $18. The cold weather has begun early among the mountains. Ice froze in the pails of Lieutenant Bryan's Company, among the Black hills, on the 3d of August: and Capt. Van Vliet reports that snow fell at Fort Bridger on 21st of September.
The file of The Deseret News up to Sept. 9, dis-patched by our correspondent, fully confirms his state-ments respecting the rebellious spirit of the Saints. President Kimball, in a discourse' delivered on the 30th of August, holds forth as follows:
ELDER KIMBALL FEELS GOOD.
You must expect when you sea Bro. Heber stand before you to speak that you will hear what is called the rough etchel to this generation. I am pretty well satisfied, brethren, that there all only four or five per-sons in this congregation that dislike to hear ma talk; and when you take out those four or five, I know that the people would rather hear me speak than any other man who speaks from this stand except Bro. Brigham. It is not that those four or five have any thing particular against me, but it is because I do at many times give vent to my feelings, and by so doing I hit them a crack where they deserve it. Well, this is all right.
When I went to chop I was always taught to pull off my coat and spit on my hands. I pull off my coat because I am too warm; if I don't talk here, more than twenty minutes I want my coat off.
May I tell you some of my feelings and not have any of you angry with me?
[Voices-—"Yes."]
I hate to have the ladies angry with me above all things; and I will tell you one thing, and that is, all you that are ladies will not find any fault; but the woman that finds fault with me, I can analyze her and show you she is not a lady.
I am a physician. Well, you can hardly mention a thing that is good but what I am. I want to tell some of my feelings here to-day, in a few words, relative to Bro. Brigham. I call him brother, because he says if I call him President he shall call me President, and just as sure as he does I am as flat as a pancake. I shall only call him Presi-dent before the Saints in his calling—I was going to say before our enemies, but, d—n them, they shall never come here.
Excuse me, I never use rough words, only when I come in contact with rough, things, and I use smooth words when I talk upon smooth subjects, and so on according to the nature of the case that comes before me.
You all acknowledge Bro. Brigham as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; then you acknowledge him as our Leader, Prophet, Seer and Revelator, and then you acknowledge him in every capacity that pertains to his calling both in Church and State, do you not? [Voices—Yes].
Well, he is our Governor. What is a Governor? One who presides, or governs. Well, now, we have declared in a legislative capacity that we will not have poor, rotten-hearted curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed to send. We grafted a memorial and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice, as many as from five to eight men for each office, men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory.
We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens.
We just told them right up and down that if they sent any more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send these home, and that is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason be-fore, did you?
Well, we did that in a Legislative capacity; we did it as members of the Legislature, as your representa-tives, and now you have got to back us up. You sent us just as we sent Bro. Bernhisel to seek for our rights and to stand in our defence at Washington.
Well, here is Bro. Brigham, he is the man of our own choice, he is our Governor in the capacity of a Territory and also as Saints of the Most High.
Well, it is reported that they have another Governor on the way now, three Judges, a District Attorney, a Marshal, a Postmaster, and Secretary, and that they are coming here with twenty-five hundred men.
The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point of the bayonet. Is not that a funny thing? You may think that I am cross, but I am laughing at their calamity, and I will "mock when their fear cometh."
HE SUPPORTS HIS POSITION BY THE BIBLE.
Now, gentlemen and ladies, you look at these things, and then right in this book, the Bible, it says, our no-bles shall be of ourselves; that is, our Lords, our Judges, our Governors, our Marshals and our everything, shall be of ourselves. Won't you read the 30th chapter of Jeremiah?
18. Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring again the cap-tivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.
19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them and they shall not be small.
20. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congre-gation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
21. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Gover-nor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.
22. And ye shall be my people, an-d I will he your God.
23. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
34. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it and until he have performed the intents of his hearts in the latter days ye shall consider it. Well, the day has come when our Governor has come out of our midst, and he is in the tops of the mountains, where the prophets said these things should come pass and now the United States are reported to be trying to force a Governor upon us, when the Lord has raised one up right out of our midst.
Now I am going to talk about these things, and I feel as though I had a perfect right to do so, because I am one of the people.
NO GOVERNOR BUT BRIGHAM.
If this people should consent to dispossess Bro. Brigham Young as our Governor, they are just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I know it for God would forsake them and leave them to themselves, and they would be in worse bondage than the children of Israel ever were.
Supposing this thing all blows over and they don't come up here, but they begin to flatter us and be friendly, what will be the result? They may flatter as long as the earth stands, but I never will be sub-ject to one of their d-d pusillanimous curses. They may count and flatter as much as they please, but I never will be subject to them again—no, never. Do you hear it? [Voices—"Yes."]
Do you think we will submit to them? No, never. They have cut the thread themselves.
You are the people who have the privilege to ac-knowledge Bro. Brigham as our Governor and con-tinue him in his office, and you also have the privi-lege, through your agency, to reject him if you please, but it will be to your condemnation if you do, because he has got the keys of the kingdom, and the very mo-ment you reject him you cut yourselves off from the right of the priesthood.
We are the people of Deseret; she shall be Deseret, she shall be no more Utah; we will have our own name. Do you hear it?
Brethren and sisters, these ideas are comforting to all of you, they are most gloriously comforting to me. I tell you the feelings within me are glorious. We are the people of Deseret, and it is for us to say whether the people will have Bro. Brigham for our Governor, or these poor, miserable devils they are re-ported to be trying to bring here. You must know they are miserable devils to have to come here under arms, but they shall not rule over us, nor come into this Territory.
TO ARMS!
We are going to have our own Governor henceforth, Brigham Young was then our Governor, Heber C. Kimball was Chief-Justice and Lieutenant-Governor. I was a big man then; I felt as big as Bro. Morley does in the Legislature. The fact is, he does not un-derstand their gabble; if he does, he understands more than I do.
It is for us to say, according to our rights under the Constitution, whether we will have those cursed Gent-iles to rule over us or not.
I went you to publish this, Mr. Editor.
I am giving you a little of my feelings, for I want you to know that you are under no more obligation to receive those men than Bro. Brigham's family is to receive another man, and to reject him as their hus-band, their father, their friend and benefactor.
I know that what I have said has informed many of your minds, and I choose to present my ideas by com-parison,
I have a right to say the Gentiles shall sever rule over me, although this people might admit of their coming here. I have a right to say also that we shall never be ruled over by them from this day forth white grass grows or water rune; never, no never. [ Voices, “Amen."
Well, we have got to sustain these Amens and we have got to sustain these vows. You, ladies, too, will certainly have to do your part or back out. I told you last Sunday to arm yourselves, and if you cannot do it any any other way, sell some of your fine bonnets, fine dresses, and buy yourselves a good dirk, a pistol or some other instrument of war.
Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the weapons of war, for we may be brought to the test to see if we will stand up to the line.
LOOK AT HISTORY.
I never have never the day for twenty-five years, but before there was a storm there was always a calm. In Kirtland, before the trouble commenced, there was this calm. Joseph and Hyrum were men that would stand the test but finally they had to flee from Kirtland to Missouri?
Well, previous to that we had received our endow-ments and a more calm, heavenly and prosperous time I never saw.
Was it so in Missouri? Yes, it was; after they be-came settled they became composed, and the year of the trouble we never had such crops in the world as we had then.
Was it to in Nauvoo? Yes, and the spirit of com-posure rested upon the people, and it is more or less so now; and such crops as we have this year never were produced.
What does this mean? And the spirit of composure seems to be upon the people more than ever, and what does this mean? I am rather inclined to be jealous of it. Say I, wake up ye Saints of Zion, while it is called to-day, lest trouble and sorrow come upon you, as a thief in the night.
Suppose it is not coming, will it hurt you to lay up the products of the earth for seven years? Will it hurt you if you have your guns, swords and spears in good condition according to the law of the United States?
Some of the States give a man his clearance at 40 years of age, others at 45; they call men to train when they are 18 years of age, but we call upon all from 6 to 600 years old; we do not except any, and I want the world to know that we are ready for anything that comes along. If it is good, we are ready for that and if it is evil, we are, ready to stand against it.
We are calculating to sow our wheat early this Fall, in case of emergency. I throw out these things for you to think upon, and if they are not right, they will not hurt anybody.
But wake up, ye Saints of the Most High, and pre-pare for any emergency that the Lord our God may have pleasure in bringing forth.
We never shall leave these valleys till we get ready; no, never—no, never. We will live here till we go back to Jackson County, Missouri. I prophesy that in the name of Israel's God.
[The congregation shouted "Amen," and President B.Young said, "It is true."]
If our enemies force us to destroy our orchards and our property, to destroy and lay waste our houses, fields, and everything else, we shall never build and plant again til we do it in Jackson County. But our en-emies are not here yet, and we have not yet thrown down our houses.
WE ARE THE STATE.
Let me tell you, if God designs that Israel should now become free, they will come and strike the blow, and if He does not, they will not coma. That is as true as that, book (pointing to the Bible).
Go to work and lay up your grain, and do not lay it out for fine clothes, nor any other kind of fine thing, but make homespun trousers and petticoats.
What would please me more than for my family, instead of wanting me to go to the store for petticoats and short gowns, to see them go to work and make some good homespun? What would be prettier than some of the English striped linsey and a bonnet made of our own straw? Those are the women I would choose for wives.
If you want virtue, go into the farming country, for there it is homespun. Farming districts contain the essence and the virtue of Old England.
I do not know as you know what homespun is, but it is that which is spun at home, and it is for your welfare, both men, women and children, to make your own clothing. It is also for your salvation to equip yourselves according to law.
Now I will tell you. I have about a hundred shots on hand all the time; three or four fifteen-shooters and three or four revolvers right in the room where I sleep, and the devil does not like to sleep there, for he is afraid they will go off half cocked.
If you lay a bowie knife or a loaded revolver under your pillow every night, you will not have many un-plessant dreams, nor be troubled with the nightmare, for there is nothing: that the devil is so much afraid of as a weapon of death.
You may take this as some of Heber's wild visions, if you please. I have acknowledged myself as one of the people, and now I say we will take our own name, and we will not be false named any more. We are the kingdom of God, and we are the State of D-eseret, and we will have you, Bro. Brigham, as our Gover-nor just so long as you live. We will not have any other Governor.
Brigham himself is equally sanguine, and not less savage. Here is a specimen of one of
BRIGHAM'S PROPHECIES.
God is at the helm. This is the mighty ship Zion. You stick to the ship and honor it and see that you are in favor with the ship Zion, and you need not worry about anything else. God has the hearts of the children of men in his hands; he puts hooks in their jaws and turns them about at his pleasure. God is here, the Holy Ghost is here and rests upon this peo-ple, and I am a witness to it. I know that the Holy Ghost dwells in the hearts of this people; and the world are afraid of the union that exists among this people. They were afraid of that in the days of Jo-seph, and it has been their fear all the time. You might take a Democrat, a Republican, a ranting Meth-odist and an old, stiff-necked, ranting Presbyterian, and when they came to consider Joseph Smith and the Saints, they saw that they were one in faith, and it scared them all. They would say, "We are Meth- "odists, Baptists and Presbyterians, but we are of "different politics; in our churches may be found all "kinds of politics, but you, Joseph Smith, alter men's "politics; you change them and make them all one."
Brethren and Sisters, do not be angry with them, for they are in the hands of God. Instead of feeling a spirit to punish them, or anything like wrath, you live your religion and you will see the day when you will pray God to turn away from your eyes the sight of their afflictions.
There are thousands and millions in the United States and in the world, whose hearts are like an aspen-leaf because of this little hand of people in Utah. Pity them, for they know not whom they are fighting against; they know not their destiny.
This army that is reported to be coming to this place know no more about you and me than you know about the interior of China; they go because the-y are sent. If they knew our real character the soldiers themselves would turn round and tell their officers to go to h—ll; they would take a stampede, and if their officers urged them to come and fight this people, they would turn round upon them, or tell them to do it themselves.
Now do not feel angry. Are not they to be pitied? Yes. Are you to be pitied? Yes, if you forsake God, or your religion. The Saints need to be pitied for nothing but for forsaking their religion. Be careful that you do not get darkness into your minds.
May God bless you. Amen.
Elder Stuart has also some remarks to make at the same meeting, in about the same strain as the above. The following elegant moral will give an idea of his saintly style:
The feelings of certain portions of the United States, at least I will say of the leading men, the rulers, must be very strenuous in regard to movements against us. When I reflect upon the fact of their calling troops from Minnesota, and sending them to Utah to operate against the Latter-Day Saints, I am convinced that their feelings are wrought up to make some general and united move against this people.
I have felt in my heart, under these circumstances, to say in the words of the old saying, "Let her rip, she's all oak," and I know the Lord will guide her safely into port.
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