Brigham Young on the Mormon Troubles.
The following piece of bluster is quoted from a sermon preached by Brigham Young, on the 13th of September:
I do not often get angry, but when I do I am righteously angry, and the bosom of the Almighty burns with anger toward those scoundrels, and they shall be consumed, in the name of Israel's God. We have borne, enough of their oppression and hellish abuse, and we will not bear any more of it, for there is no just law requiring further for-bearance on our part. And I am not going to have troops here to protect the priest, a hellish rab-ble in efforts to drive us from the land we possess, for the Lord does not want us to be driven, and has said, “if you will assert your right and keep my commandments you shall not be brought into bondage by your enemies." Admit of corrupt ad-ministrators sending troops here, and what would be the results? All hell would follow after. I naturally dislike to have any trouble, and would not were I not obliged to; but we are obliged to defend ourselves against the persecution of our oppressors or have our constitutional right rent from us and ourselves destroyed. We must either suff-er that or stand up and maintain the kingdom of God on earth. We have known all the time that the kingdom of darkness was opposed to the king-dom of God, that the powers of earth and of hell were combined against it. Christ and Baal cannot make friends with each other; you cannot mix oil and water, rightousness and wickedness. This is the kingdom of God; all others are of the devil.—They can never be united in this world, nor in any other; no possibility, of the two kingdoms becoming one. Those who believe and obey the gospel of the Son of God, forsake all for interests, belong to the kingdom of God, and all the rest, belong to the other kingdom. There is a distinction, and the line must be drawn, and you and I have to stand up to it, even though it may take from us our right eyes and right, hands. We must stand up to the line and maintain the kingdom of God, or we will all go to destruction together. If the troops are now this side of Laramie, remember that the Sweetwater is this side of that place. They must have some place to winter, for they cannot come though this season. We could go out and use them up, and it would not require fifty men to do it. But probably we shall not have occasion to take that course, for we do not want to kill men. They may winter in peace at some place east of us, but when spring comes they must go back to the States, or at any rate they must leave the mountains. We have no desire to kill men, but we wish to keep the devils from killing us. If you hear that they are near the upper crossing of the Platte, they will probably stay there till they can collect fifty thous-and troops. We will say that nine and three e-qual seventeen; and if that is so, how long will it take to get those troops here? Let the arithme-tician figure out how long it will be before nine and three will make seventeen; for that will be just as soon as our enemies will get fifty thousand troops here. I am aware that you want to know what will be the remit of the present movements against us.
Mormonism will take an almighty stride info in-fluence and power, while our enemies will sink and become weaker and weaker, and be no more; and I know it just as well now as I shall five years hence. The Lord Almighty wants a name and a character, and He will show our enemies that He is God, and that he has set to His hand again to gather Israel, and to try our faith and integrity. And He is saying, "Now, you, my children, dare, you take a step to promote righteousness in direct and open opposition to the popular feelings of all the wicked in your government? If you do, I will fight your battles." Our enemies had better count the cost, for if they continue the job they will want to let it out to sub contractors before they get half through with it. If they presist in sending troops here, I want the people in the West and East to understand that it will not be safe for them to cross the plains. It has cost the government hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the Indians in the other Territories than it has in this, and I have saved the government hundreds of thousands of dollars by keeping the Indians peaceable in Utah. Hundreds of miles have the Indians travelled to see me to know whether they might use up the em-igrants, saying, “they have killed many of us and they damn you and damn us, and shall we stand it?" I have always told them to hold on; to stop shedding blood, and to live in peace. But I have been told that the first company of packers that went through here this season, on their way from California to the States, shot at every Indian they saw between Carson Valley and Box Elder: and what has been the result? Probably scores of per-sons have been killed, animals have been taken from nearly all the emigrants that have passed on that roach and the Indians in that region have now more stock than they know how to take care of, and they come into the settlements with their pockets full of gold. The whites first commenced on the Indians, and now if they do not quit such conduct they must stop travelling this country, for it is more than I can do to keep the Indians still under such outrageous treatment.
In his sermon in the Bowery on the 6th of Sep-tember Bringham attended to Mr. Buchanan in this prophetic fashion:—
I will say in reference to President Buchanan, that for big outrageous wickedness in this move-ment he shall wear the yoke as long as he lives; be shall be led about by his party with the yoke on his neck, until they have accomplished their ends and he can do no more for them, and his name shall be forgotten; and “Old Bright, "as brother Kim-ball calls him, shall be free. I am persuaded that for their horrible wicked treatment to this people—the only loyal people in the United States, the only people who know the worth of the constitution they will be sorely punished.
