Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1863.

I have been a witness for many years, to a considerable extent, of the labors, toils, and exertions of the Elders of this Church. I have rejoiced in the result of their labors and the blessings which God hath bestowed upon them. Though many, as has been observed, have fallen out by the way, yet a large majority of the Elders of Israel who went in early days to proclaim the Gospel are still in our midst, or have died in the honorable discharge of their duty, with promises of salvation and eternal life upon their heads.

Circumstances have changed. When Presidents Young, Kimball, and others left Nauvoo to go to England without purse or scrip, they left a few houseless, homeless people, a great proportion of them sick, lying out of doors, with no covering only the broad canopy of heaven, on the banks of the Mississippi, robbed of everything they possessed by the benevolent Christians of the State of Missouri, and driven away into Illinois, and from exposure and overexertion and suffering reduced by disease and sickness to the last extremity of human endurance. It was under such circumstances as these that the brethren started forth on their mission to England. When they had gone a few miles they were met by an old friend, who, on seeing their sick and wan condition, inquired who had been robbing the burying-ground. These are circumstances which have passed into history.

What is our condition now? We can hear occasionally from our brethren in England; many of them who have been long years in the Church, saying to their children, “I will give you a little bit to eat, but when you get to Zion you can have as much as you want, but now you must make this little do.” In the cotton-spinning districts of Great Britain there are thousands of such cases among persons belonging to this Church; they are reduced to the last extremity of want in consequence of the great revolution in America.

We should not send Elders there to beg of them a division of their scanty pittance, or to solicit aid in paying their passage back again to America, or to give them something to carry home to their families; not at all. God has given us possession of this goodly land; the labors of the brethren and the blessings of God have caused it to bud and blossom as the rose. Where desolation dwelt, now is the abode of plenty. We are under no necessity of sending forth the Elders of Israel in the condition that we have hitherto had to do; in fact, it would not be safe for a man to shoulder his valise and tramp through the States as the Elders used to do. Bloodshed, robbery, murder, jay-hawking (a polite name for robbery), stalks abroad throughout the land, and the only chance for safety is for every man to pass along about his business and be silent; this is the case in many parts of the country.

The fact that Joseph Smith predicted the present trouble and state of affairs—prophesied the result of mobbing the Saints in Missouri and elsewhere, enrages them; instead of the fulfilment of that prophecy making the people of the country friendly to us, it makes them bloodthirsty, more filled with hell, more eager to waste and destroy and crush out the last remaining particle of truth that may exist on the face of the land.

Again, the places of our missionary labor are a long distance away, and it is important, when an Elder leaves here, that he should commence the exercise of his calling at the place he is destined to labor at the earliest practical moment. A few dollars contributed to this purpose will pass the Elders directly to the fields of labor to which they are appointed. Perhaps when a missionary gets to Italy, as my brother tells me, he would be cordially received and treated to a few honeysuckle leaves put into some water, boiled, seasoned with salt, and dished up for a meal. A man could make a meal of this with a loaf of bread by the side of it and a shank of good Tithing Office beef to season it. Some of the Elders have had cause to rejoice at receiving from the hands of the poor and needy a small pittance of this kind; and, perhaps, when the cold weather comes, these poor persons may be found crawling among the sheep to keep from freezing. We do not want to take any donations at the hands of such people, and where men are working for ten cents per day and paying eight dollars per cord for wood, we do not expect them to contribute much to the Elders. Such is the condition of a great number of Saints in Switzerland.

In relation to the families of the Elders at home, there is plenty in the land. If we have listened readily to the call made upon us today to donate to the support of the missionary interest, there will be no difficulty whatever. The suggestion of placing in the hands of the families of our missionaries cotton, flax and wool, and the means for them to work it up, is very important; I recommend it especially to our wool and flax growers in this country. Remember this in your donations: let the wives and daughters of our Elders, some of whom have been absent six out of eight years in foreign lands, have an opportunity of making some homespun clothing and of fixing up something that is comfortable to wear.

Let us be diligent in these matters and thoughtful, and remember that when we do these things we participate in the blessings of sustaining the Elders who are preaching the Gospel to the nations of the earth—a great duty which Joseph, the Prophet of God, has laid upon this people.

May God bless us to accomplish this work is my prayer: Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 8, 1862.

Brethren, there is a subject which has been spoken of during this Conference in regard to the mission to the cotton growing district of our Territory, to which I desire to again call your attention.

We have been instructed in the principles of the kingdom to a wonderful extent during this Conference. The instructions which we have received have been of a character that they may be reduced to practice by every person whose feelings are so disposed.

The President remarked that he desired to strengthen the missions to the cotton country by sending down two hundred more families. It will be recollected that a request was made last year for the brethren to volunteer to go on that important mission. There were a few who came up and gave in their names, but the great mass of the brethren did not feel to do so. They were aware that it was the wish of the Presidency that certain things should be done, but they seemed as though they needed taking by the ears and shaking to make them sensible of the great importance that ought to be attached to this mission. It appeared as if some of the brethren (to use a figurative expression) had become fastened to the earth with tremendous roots, so that it was with considerable difficulty that they could be got up, but they had to be taken up root and branch.

We, as a Conference, voted that the President should call, but none of us felt like volunteering. [President B. Young: I volunteered, on the condition that the people would consent to it.] Yes, the President volunteered, but it is well known that the Presidency are required here; most of the time they must be present to superintend the building of the Temple and direct the affairs of the Church in all the world, but the Elders are set apart to go into all the earth and labor as directed by the Presidency. It is also well known that the master builder has influence and power here and that he understands how the foundation, the walls, the timbers, the roof, and all connected with the Temple of our God should be put together. It is likewise well known that the Presidency never ask men to do a service except that their labors are required in that new position. One particular remark which I wish to make is, that notwithstanding the unprecedented high water in Washington County and the damage and disappointment consequent upon the flood, the settlements made by the last year’s mission have proved a decided success. That mission has proven the nature of the climate more perfectly than it had before, it has tested the soil, and accomplished many other things of immense advantage and worth. It was stated by many that the mission would prove a failure, that there was no country there, but the truth is, that the elements, including the water, the soil and all that surround them are actually aching for the brethren to combine them together and make them into good cotton and other choice productions of a mild climate; all these elements are ready to render aid to build up Zion.

I consider that we should feel ready and willing to do anything that may be required of us, to lend our exertions to establish the kingdom of God permanently upon the earth.

When the people first settled in San Pete Valley some were discouraged, they never thought that wheat could be produced in such a country as that; they did not believe that anything would grow there; the white-colored soil alarmed them, but it is now the granary of the mountains. Now, there has recently been just such a feeling in regard to Washington County, but the past year’s experience has demonstrated more fully that most excellent cotton, sugar cane, grapes, peaches and many other commodities of life can be successfully raised there in that desert-looking country.

There are quite a number of men who have remarked to me that they would willingly go if they were called on. I wish to say to such brethren that they are called on now, and I sincerely wish that two hundred brethren would volunteer today by giving in their names to me at the Historian’s office. By going this fall you have all winter to prepare, and the advantage can be taken of the early spring season, thus giving the brethren an excellent opportunity to raise a crop of cotton the first year. By sowing wheat in October tolerable crops can be raised, and by planting corn early in March two crops can be raised in one year, or one good crop of cotton. The fact, in brief, is, that so far as the country has been tried it has proven a success, and many of the brethren have said that the country is a great deal better than they expected to find it.

I hope all that has been said by the brethren in reference to the culture of hemp, flax, indigo, and in fact all that will tend to build up Zion will be attended to, for let it be remembered that it is coming to this necessity of producing for ourselves or to go without, and the question resolves itself into the simple proposition, “Clothes or no clothes.” We must make our own woolen, flax, hemp, and cotton goods or we must go naked. We cannot get these articles much longer from the States, according to the present prospect. The vengeance of the Almighty is sweeping the land with the besom of destruction; millions of men are forsaking their industrial pursuits for the purpose of destroying each other. Let us each and all attend to this, that the beauty of our garments may be the beauty of the workmanship of our own hands, or we shall find ourselves without many of the necessaries of life altogether.

May God bless the people, in the name of Jesus: Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 11, 1862.

It appears in the economy of Heaven that there are a variety of gifts. Gifts differ, as described by the Apostle to the Corinthians, in the 12th chapter of his First Epistle. He says—“For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”

These gifts are very apparent in the organization of this people. We possess a great deal of zeal, and sometimes it has proved to be not according to knowledge. For instance, the third number of the Evening and Morning Star, which was published in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, by W. W. Phelps, held out the doctrine rather strongly that about nine or ten years would be sufficient to wind up the whole matter of the warning of the wicked nations and the gathering of the Saints preparatory to the coming of the Messiah. So zealous were some of the Elders at that time, and so certain that the Lord would shorten his work, that we expected long before this to see the mil– lennium in full blast; and yet, although these anticipations have not been fully realized, the work has progressed as rapidly as it possibly could without doing injury to itself. In order that this may be properly understood it may be well to consider the material of which this Church is composed. Its doctrines have been taught to every nation, kindred, and tongue, where the Elders have had an opportunity of preaching to the people, and those who have from time to time embraced the doctrines of the Saints have been gathered together, bringing with them all manner of prejudices, notions, and whims, and if too great a body of such material had been hurriedly brought together it might have been impossible (though some people say there is nothing impossible with the Almighty), but still I think that it might have been impossible to hold such an incongruous mass of materials together.

When the Elders were scattered among the Gentiles to preach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, many would say how wonderfully these men preached! What smart men they were considered by those who heard them! These men acquired the ingenuity and the tact by which they handled the Scriptures with such ability that they were actually considered by the world to be very learned and talented men and some of them are known yet by the sobriquet of “Walking Bible!” And all these men in their way are shining and brilliant items of talent and wisdom; a comparatively ignorant man, if he is humble, can go and preach the Gospel, and proclaim by the power of the good Spirit the principles of life and salvation. An ignorant man, who goes forth from nation to nation to declare the truths which God in his mercy has revealed, generally goes forth in humility and faith, and, by diligence and perseverance, he picks up and gathers into the Church men of every imaginable tradition, of every habit, of every custom and of every nation; after which they go and make each man throw away part of his foolish traditions just as fast as possible, and teach him true principles instead thereof; make the people live together in a city, a country, and a State, and all pull together, as one well-organized community.

Now, I know really that we ought to be ashamed of our ignorance, and yet brother Musser has told us that we are a great deal ahead of the Western States. Really, if we are not we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. We have had wiser teachers, and not only have we had good tutors, but we have had practical lessons.

Mr. Trumbull, member of Congress from Illinois, made a remark at a meeting during the Mormon war, to this effect—“I have been to Nauvoo; I was there when the Mormons were there, and if the inhabitants and citizens of the United States were as intelligent and industrious and as thrifty as the Mormons were then, they would be a long way ahead of what they are now.” Lyman Trumbull is considerable authority upon this subject, he was Secretary of State in Illinois when we lived in Nauvoo, and no particular friend of ours. If we have not advanced as much as we might have done, we have scattered the truth abroad. The wisdom of our President has taken the poor from the distant nations of the earth, brought them here and made them rich. You pass through this Territory today and you strive to find the man or woman that cannot get bread for supper. You cannot do it. You find the man or woman that is destitute of clothing, if you can. Such destitution does not exist. You may search the world in vain for a similar people, and you will find that a people so universally comfortably situated do not exist; and yet, these are the people who were so poor, who have been several times robbed and plundered of all they possessed, and who then came into the most desert country in the world, and here they have acquired this abundance which surrounds everybody. A polity has been introduced that benefits everybody, instead of leaving us to lay our own plans, and be at the shrine of wickedness and corruption. When a poor man comes to a Bishop and says, “I am hungry, I want some bread.” The Bishop, like a Father, says—“Well, what can you do? We must find you some work, we must show you how to manage in this country so that you can get a living.” The Bishop might take the old Gentile plan, give the hungry man a dollar, which he would spend and do nothing to provide more, and thus he will be kept eternally poor, but instead of this he finds him work, the man’s way is opened, and, in a short time, he is rich, for he is able to live from his own exertions. Herein is manifested the wisdom of Heaven, which should be in the breast of every man in Zion, and it also shows the wisdom of that head which God has placed to guide us and make us a self-sustaining, independent people.

If we go down into the States now we find them engaged in a war, and I suppose that the language that is generally denominated the King’s English, fails to tell the extremes of folly, wickedness, corruption, and degradation that brought this war on. Tongue cannot tell it, the language we speak has not got words enough to describe it accurately. Friends and brothers are killing each other. It actually seems as though the vengeance of God was poured out upon them, and every time that either party suffer a defeat that party is filled with increased rage and vengeance, and they thirst for each other’s blood. Such are the facts in the case.

The Prophet said the Lord was about to sweep the earth with the besom of destruction, and in that day the wicked would slay the wicked. I cannot tell how fast things will go, but I feel astonished when I see how the work has progressed since its commencement in the year 1830. You go into a corn field where the stalks grow too rapidly and you find them weak, and a very slight wind will break them down. You look at the progress of nations when they grow too rapidly, you will perceive that they immediately fall to pieces. It was so with the Mahomedan empire; it swelled in eighty years from a solitary wanderer to an empire constituting about a third part of the then inhabited globe. It is not so with us. This people is rising gradually. You can find men who have gone forth and baptized their hundreds, but few who have baptized their thousands, and if all the numbers that have been baptized into this Church since its first organization were added together I do not suppose that there would be less than a million, and but few of these have remained to the present time, the rest have built up cities for the Gentiles, and have populated such towns as St. Louis, San Francisco, and in fact almost all of the cities of California and the Western States. The rest are still laboring to build up Zion, to spread abroad the fulness of the everlasting Gospel and to save all who will give heed to its teachings and the dictates of the Holy Spirit, while those who cannot “bear the sieve of vanity” are occasionally leaving the Church and going again to wallow in the wickedness of the world. There is now and then, one will go off and come back again, and they profess to be good brethren. They put me in mind of an anecdote. A wealthy parishioner sent his negro servant Jack to carry a sucking pig to his parson as a present for a Christmas roast, while on his way, Cuffy was called into a public house by one of his comrades to have a drink, and while quaffing his ale, some of his mischievous friends took the pig out of the basket and placed a puppy in its stead; Cuffy then went on his way and presented the basket to the parson, saying, “Sir, massa has sent you a present of a fine pig for a Christmas roast,” the rev. gentleman pleased with the prospect of a fine dinner, looked in the basket, and exclaimed, “pig, you black rascal, it is a puppy; tell your master not to insult me by sending me a puppy.” Cuffy, on his return home, called at the ale house for another glass, when his comrades slyly exchanged the pig for the puppy: when Jack got home, his master said, “what did the parson say for the fine present I sent him?” “Parson said the pig was a puppy, that you insult him to send him a puppy.” “Bring the basket to me.” He opened it, and exclaimed, “it is a pig, you black villain.” Cuffy in astonishment, and unable to account for what he saw, cried out, “Massa, I believe he can be a pig or a puppy just as he likes.” This is just the character of those men that act in this way, they can be pigs or puppies, Saints or apostates, just as they like, and I do feel that if such men will leave and stay away we will be contented with what we can raise independent of all those who are wandering abroad and trying to shake hands with the Devil. But I find that those who stay here, and do their duty and struggle to fulfil counsel, will increase in all that is good, while the others—pig and puppy—will all go to hell together. I know that we are very pious, and for want of better understanding make mistakes in reference to blessings. Joseph used very often to get up and bless the congregation in the name of the Lord; President Young does so sometimes in a very emphatic manner, but are these blessings appreciated?

Now I do not care how much wealth you pour into the laps of men, unless there is in their bosoms the Spirit of God they are unhappy. You may also fill a woman’s lap with riches, surround her with every imaginable comfort, and if she has not the Spirit of the Almighty within her, and the spirit of contentment she will be miserable. It is so with all of us; unless we have the spirit of contentment in our hearts we are miserable, and unless we can enjoy that spirit which brings happiness, inspires the soul and makes a heaven in every home, we shall be constantly uneasy. Watch the men who have gone abroad; if they become discontented the Spirit of the Most High leaves them, but if they do not get uneasy and unsettled in their minds they have no fear of death, but they rejoice in the enjoyment of the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of mercy, then the light of revelation, peace, happiness and contentment are and forever will be their portion. So will it be with all of us. These are the blessings of the Lord unto his faithful people. If a man has all the wealth in creation, and has heaped upon him all the honors and powers that the world can give, his soul is discontented and miserable, unless he possesses the Spirit of Christ.

I recollect reading in Seers’ History of India of “an English envoy sent on a mission to Delhi about ten years before the emperor’s death, on being introduced into their imperial presence, was surprised to see a little old man, with a long silvery beard, dressed in plain white muslin, standing in the midst of a group of omrahs (Hindoo noblemen) whose rich robes sparkling with jewels, formed a striking contrast to the unostentatious appearance of their sovereign.” This Aurung-Zeb was remarkable for the simplicity of his habits and manners, which he constantly maintained amid the splendor of the most magnificent court in the world. He died at the advanced age of eighty-nine, in the fiftieth year of his reign. The very wealth and riches that were around him were misery to him, and the crimes that had put the other claimers to his throne into the grave, made him, in the midst of splendor miserably miserable.

Brethren, study to be content, and when we want to see if we can’t go off to California and get some more spices and some things that we cannot get here; to surround ourselves with sweet meats, let us just remember brother Musser’s remark—“Shake your head.” Emphatically, No; I love Zion better than all things else.

Now the facts are, the comforts of life depend upon the manner good things are used. You may get the choicest of this world’s goods; I don’t care if the wealth of the world is used to get the most delicious dishes for a man to live upon, in a short time they become sickening and nauseous and are actually injurious to the human system. Those who live in this way become weak and effeminate, and finally rendered entirely useless. For my own part, I say give me the good wheat and good plain living, then I shall have strength, and stand a good chance for good health and long life.

There was a United States Judge died here, and just before his death he said—“I have abused everything that is good, and know nothing that is good.” This is the condition of the world. But with proper exercise and care, and the common food that is produced within ourselves, is sufficient for us, and it is calculated to develop the mind and body of man, and to lay a foundation for a race of men that shall rule the world. Now this is no wild chimera of the brain, for we are laying the foundation for the redemption of the human race; we are laying a foundation to make a fraternity of brethren, and to secure to each and all happiness and peace. The Lord himself has laid the foundation; and if any man wants to go away from here, let him go, but let him remember that he will be unhappy wherever he is.

May the Lord bless us and enable us to inherit a spirit of contentment, that we may inherit celestial glory. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1862.

The remarks of Elder Orson Pratt are founded upon Constitutional principles. I have long been aware that he was a profound mathematician, but I was not aware that he was so thoroughly read in Constitutional law, as his remarks this forenoon so fully evidence.

I went to Washington with Elder John Taylor in 1856; we were the bearers of the Constitution of Deseret, adopted by the unanimous vote of the whole people, and a memorial to the great men of the nation for the admission of Deseret into the union of States upon an equal footing with the original States.

When we arrived at the capitol we found the gates closed against our admission by the acts of a national convention, pledging the great and rising party of the country to united opposition to our admission in consequence of an item of our religious faith being objectionable. Notwithstanding this flat refusal before we had asked, we conferred with many of the principal men of the nation—of all parties by whom it was generally conceded we had a constitutional right to admission, and that we had manifested that energy, perseverance and intelligence in exploring, settling, and subduing this country, which clearly proved that we were capable of self-government, and able to sustain ourselves as a State. We had organized a civilized community, framed a Constitution, republican in form, and unexceptionable in principle and called into order an efficient government. But, said Congressmen, there is an objection, and although we ought not to name it, the religious views of your people are objectionable to the great body of the American people—Constitutionally this is no objection, but politically it is an impassable barrier. For any member to vote for the admission of Deseret, or advocate it would entail upon himself, what we all dread, a political grave. “You must know, yourselves, you cannot help but know,” said Senator Douglas, “that there is an awful prejudice against you—ahem! ahem! an insurmountable objection. We have no right to talk of religious tests or institutions—ahem! ahem! but I know of but one objection; your peculiar religion, your domestic institutions!”

Well might Congressmen use interjections while trembling between the influence of priestcraft, and a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and faithfully perform those duties required by it.

The Constitution declares, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prevent the free exercise thereof.” “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States.”

General Hall, of Missouri, who was at that time somewhat distinguished for his prowess in knocking down the doorkeeper of the Democratic National Convention, at Cincinnati, for refusing admittance to the delegation of the Benton Wing of the Missouri Democracy, raised a new and somewhat novel objection to our admission while canvassing the subject with a company of gentlemen at the National Hotel in Washington, he declared it would never do to admit Deseret, for it would recognize polygamy, and that would ruin all the houses of ill fame in the country, in a short time. Why, said he, no woman would ever consent to become a prostitute if she could have a husband, who would honor and protect her, and maintain and educate her children; and under this new arrangement every woman could obtain such a husband and protector, and every house of assignation would be closed, and the gentlemen of the country undone.

I went on my Mission to Washington in full faith to ask for the admission of Deseret, never asking myself the question whether I would accomplish it or not, striving to believe with all the power and faith I could command, that we would accomplish our Mission.

I sometimes sat in the gallery of the House of Representatives and heard the members wrangle, and asked myself if it was possible that the Lord wished us to join hands with such unhallowed confusion and political chicanery. After my return home, some of the brethren asked me how much faith I had that we should be admitted. I concluded my faith had been like that of a certain pious lady, whose minister called upon her and inquired concerning her religious welfare. She replied that she was well satisfied with her spiritual progression, but in her temporal welfare she was not equally prosperous. She was destitute of bread and had nothing to sustain life. The minister kindly told her to exercise faith and she could make stones into bread. She thanked him for his timely advice, she had never thought of that, and accordingly went and procured some stones of suitable size for loaves of bread, washed them, put them in pans, heated her oven in which she placed them, closed the door, exclaimed, “I have firm faith, that when these stones come out of the oven they will be good bread.” After patiently waiting the proper time, she opened the oven door and looked anxiously in; “There!” she declared, they are stones yet, and I knew they would be all the time.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

I arise simply to call the attention of the brethren of the Priesthood now present to an item of counsel, which was disseminated among the people a year ago by the Presidency, and while they traveled through the Territory north and south during the summer and fall. It was enjoined upon the people and Bishops to make a change in the policy of herding cattle.

The manner of herding cattle has been to gather the horses and cows together and let some boys drive them out; then the boys would go and gamble, or get into some kind of mischief while the cattle went astray, and those boys would plot and get up some ill-conducted scheme so that our herding proved to be a nursery for thieves to be planted amongst us and eat up our vitals, the vitals of the whole people. The counsel was given to have the system of herding changed and put into the hands of wise, judicious men, and have the boys sent to school or kept at industrial pursuits under the control of their fathers, and not any longer make this system of herding our stock, which has been adopted in the different wards of this city and Territory, a school of hell.

This has been impressed forcibly upon our minds, not only here but north and south, and in some instances attempts were made and perhaps in a few in– stances it may have been carried out, but as a general thing, so far as last season was concerned, proved a failure. Perhaps the Bishops would announce what the counsel was, but did not see that it was carried into effect. But now that the people have got the counsel and we are now opening a new season and getting ready for the spring and summer’s operations, I therefore feel anxious to remind the brethren in regard to this important item, for I tell you if we do not look after our boys and lay a foundation for keeping them in the right way they will go to destruction. It is therefore important that all the brethren should unite in carrying out this instruction according to the advice given.

I felt to make these remarks, and I will further say that I am delighted to hear and see so many together at this time, and I consider it is a good opportunity of disseminating good instruction throughout Deseret.

May the blessing of God attend you and all the inhabitants of Deseret, who desire to do right.

There is a proposition that we put it to vote, and that we carry into effect this counsel. [The motion was put and the brethren voted unanimously to obey this counsel.]

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”—Hebrews v. 12, 13 and 14 verses.

It may seem to my brethren and sisters a little surprising, that I should introduce the remarks which I have the privilege of addressing to you this morning, by reading the sentiment which is conveyed in this text. For when for the time we ought to be teachers, we have need that one teach us again the first principles of the oracles of God. But how often is it necessary, and has it been necessary, for those who are inspired of the Lord to complain of the brethren making such slow progress in the things of the kingdom of God? How often do we hear our Presidency lament the ignorance, folly and vanity that are exhibited by many of those who are called upon to be and who should be teachers indeed. I have thought that in some circumstances there was a neglect in the Branches of preaching to and rehearsing in the ears of the rising generation, those first principles of the Gospel which were taught to us when we received the Work of the last days, and especially the principle of faith. We grow up in this community and the principles of the Gospel become, to a great extent, natural to us. But many of the young are untried and without experience, and they lack the power to contrast the principles of truth with those of error, and hence it is regarded as important by the Elders that they should have the opportunity, at some period, of going abroad to preach the Gospel and have a chance to test, by actual experience, the power of the principles of truth when brought in contact with the wild fanaticisms which the world has dignified with the title of religion.

It was remarked yesterday, that the progress of the people was so slow, that the Presidency could not develop those principles which were for the benefit of the people, for their glory and exaltation, only at a very slow rate, powerful as we may think the “Mormon” mill to be. The President tells us that he has to regulate the feed very moderately, or injure the weak minded. Some of the brethren, for want of a more perfect understanding perhaps, give way to temptation and turn away, and become to a considerable extent like a man who comes out of the dark into a well lighted room, he is blinded with the light, his eyes are unprepared to meet such brilliancy. This is illustrated very clearly in the organiza– tion of the several Branches, settlements, and stakes of Zion throughout Deseret. To use a figure, in almost all the Branches containing from one hundred to three hundred families, it has been found necessary to combine all the authority of Presidency in one man, at least I will say this has been the case in many instances; there are a few exceptions to this rule, but not many. A Bishop while he presides at the meetings looks after the spiritual welfare of the settlements; he preaches on the Sabbath day, gives counsel to the people, spiritual and temporal; he gives counsel in relation to the donations, public buildings, the erection of schoolhouses; and almost everything is made to devolve upon the head of the Bishop.

In the first instance many of these places were organized with a President and Bishop who were expected to act in concert, and, with their counselors, work and exert themselves for the general good of the people, and with a strong hand all pull together and strive to strengthen each other. And when for the time these men ought to have been teachers they have proven that they required to be taught, for the very first question that would arise, was “which of us is the biggest man, for it is important that we should know the precise line between our authority, to know where the jurisdiction of the one ends and the other begins.” A man of this disposition and feeling would want a rule and tape-line to draw his line of jurisdiction on the ground and stake it out. Then it would be, Bishop you must toe this line, and President you must keep your side of it. No familiarity. You must not tread on my toes, remember that.

Now, I have had experience in these matters to some little extent, by visiting and attempting to regulate, explain and set in order these diffi– culties. At one place, containing about three hundred families, the President held the doctrine that the Bishop was a mere temporal officer, and therefore he had no right or business to talk on the Sabbath day on temporal matters. If he wished to talk about donations, emigration, teams, building meetinghouses, or of Tithing, he was told that that was temporal business and that he must call a meeting on a week day. Elder E. T. Benson and myself went to that place after they had been contending upon this subject, and it had become well understood that no man must talk there on temporal subjects on the Sabbath day. But we occupied the whole day in telling how to make bread, build cities, make farms, fences, and in fact we told them how to do every useful thing that we could think of. We asserted that a certain amount of temporal preparation was necessary in order that a man might enjoy his religion. We also asserted, that if a man made no preparations for the future he was constantly subjected to annoyances. For instance, a man lives in one of our agricultural villages, and he makes little or no preparation for taking care of what he has around him; he neglects to fence his field and stackyard. Now, I have thought that a man could not enjoy his religion as he should do unless he had a good fence around his field and stackyard; for if he has no fence, or only a poor one, when he gets ready for praying there is perhaps a rap at the door, and when the door is opened, the message delivered is, “there are twenty head of cattle destroying your wheat in your stackyard.” “The Devil there is,” says the man, “and whose are they?” He puts them in the astray pound, and he puts an exorbitant tax upon them, and charges the poundkeeper not to let them go until he gets this pay, say, damages to the amount of $50. The next thing is, another neighbor who is religious also, but perhaps a little later in his devotions, is aroused by the report, “your cattle are all in the astray pound and there is $50 damage against them.” “The Devil they are, who put them there?” Why brother—; his feelings of reverence and devotion having been badly shaken by this report, he rises from his prayerful mood in a rage and uses very violent language; and, suffice it to say, that much trouble is caused by men not having a good fence, and it is exceedingly doubtful whether many men can preserve an even temper of mind under such circumstances. Now, all this was the result of ignorance. If that Presidency had known their duties they would never have closed a meeting without asking the Bishop if he had anything to say, or any business to attend to; it was a matter of courtesy and of duty also; and instead of pulling against each other they should have united and all pulled together for the accomplishment of the same object. For this reason we have had to organize several Branches with a Bishop and his counselors only, and, as I express it sometimes in the settlements where I visit, we have had to use a wheelbarrow instead of a six horse coach. The Bishop must do this, that, and the other, in fact everything. He must preach, collect the Tithing; for if we set another man to assist him, men are so ignorant, they have learned so little that they will immediately start up and strive for the mastery, and hence contentions have risen among the brethren acting in the capacity of Bishops and Presidents.

In most of the settlements there have been quorums of High Priests organized, and they call meetings and watch over each other, blow the coal and keep the fire alive within each other’s bosoms, and see if they can keep one another wide awake. The same thing has occurred in reference to the Seventies, and the organizations are very numerous. Well, the question arises have these Quorums a right to call meetings at the same time the President has called a public meeting of the whole Branch? Here comes a question of jurisdiction. For instance, when half of the males in a Branch are Seventies, the President of the Mass Quorum notifies that they are to have a meeting at 10 or 11 o’clock, the very hour that the President of the Branch has his meeting. Has the President of the Seventies a right to do this? No, he has not; it is a discourtesy. Every Quorum should so arrange its appointments that there will be no difficulty, no necessity for any law to regulate the matter, but that of common decency and common manhood, and it does seem that a man with less than half a share of discernment could see that while the meeting called by the President is going on all the Branch ought to be there, and therefore that there should be no other meeting held at the same time.

Brethren, we should so arrange our appointments when our High Priests and whatever other Quorums meet, as not to conflict, and in this way have and show our respect to the President of the Branch. Have our meetings of course, but submit to the President of the Branch as the first to be attended to, and then have our other meetings subordinate in point of time.

Well, now, almost any man in the world would say that a man is a fool that would raise such a question, but men that have been ordained Elders, High Priests, and Seventies are just such teachers, for when, for the time that they should be teachers, they have need to be taught, for they seem to operate like children and pull against each other; they labor to define each others duties, to mark out the whereabouts of the line of demarcation, whereas they should each and every one strive to build up the kingdom of God, and so live as to enjoy the Holy Spirit; each man should strive to be humble instead of exalting himself; instead of drawing the line and saying I belong just here and nobody must interfere with my rights, he should feel to sustain the hands of his brethren. I will here say that there have been places where these two organizations have existed for years without any difficulty, and there are other places where the two have existed at the same time, and the matter has been taken up by the people and worked at until it has been found necessary to reduce the organization by uniting the Presidency and Bishopric in one person, or, as I term it, the wheelbarrow arrangement, or if you please, a three-wheeled coach.

There was one settlement where the people got so very wise that the Bishop had to have two sets of counselors, and they had to be selected according to the wishes of the parties that took sides with the President, or rather that were in favor of having one, and then those who were willing to be contented with a Bishop had to have their choice, and thus was formed what I call an unlimited democracy.

The fact is that as soon as the brethren can realize that they are to be servants of God, and that it is their individual duty, to sustain each other and put away that jealousy which in many cases, exists at the present time, and which in fact is the chief cause of all this trouble; and so soon as they find that they are not to be as large as they desire to be, and as they think they ought to be, it will be found that these organizations will be increased in numbers; they will also increase in faith, in good works and in power and influence with the heavens, and if they will be faithful the idea will be fairly illustrated that a man with a wheelbarrow cannot travel as fast nor accomplish as much as the man who drives a four horse coach. Still, I know, that owing to the ignorance and shortsightedness of the people, a case of this kind will occasionally occur. There seems to be a disposition to put everything in a nutshell. For instance, a few years ago, there were some Bishops sent out of Salt Lake City to explain to the country Bishops their duties. These brethren would go into a settlement where there were both a Bishop and a President, and they would go on and tell the Bishops what their duties were, and in doing so, embrace the whole circle of duties required of both Bishop and President, and never think that in that Branch of the Church those duties were not united or centered in one man but divided between two. And in some instances, there would be a sort of half sharp-looking fellow get up and ask what the President was to do, if all those explained and fully defined duties were centered in the Bishop. “O,” they would say, “we were not sent to instruct anybody but the Bishops;” and as might be expected, the result was a contention, if not among the authorities, among the people, and I had some of these difficulties to settle, and I found that the best way to do it was to dispense with one of the officers.

There are several stakes of Zion in the country, where High Councils have been organized, composed of twelve Councilors and a President of the Stake and his two Counselors, in settlements where, in the commencement, the inhabitants were very small in numbers, and it was natural that some member of the Council should represent or be personally interested in each and every party in the town that might be litigant before that body. In some such instances it has become necessary to dissolve the High Council altogether. The fact is, that every High Council should have enough of the Spirit of the Lord with them to investigate every case, so that when the decision is given, it will be the decision of Heaven. Instead of this, little petty disputes arise among the brethren, and two or three members of the Council, perhaps, would have their minds made up beforehand what they would do. There is one thing I have noticed in regard to High Councils; the organization is well understood. One portion of the Council takes the side of justice and investigates the facts in the case, presenting them as they should be presented by an honest attorney; then the other portion of the Council brings up the defense and shows what the side of mercy is, in an unprejudiced manner. After the Council have investigated the subject before them thoroughly, the case is submitted by both complainant and defendant. There have been cases where men have tried to drag in attorneys to plead their cause before these councils, and in some instances, it has been permitted. If this kind of practice were allowed, and pettyfogging, contriving lawyers allowed to practice before the High Councils, the organization of heaven would soon be superseded altogether. I wish to see all High Councilors magnify their own callings. I do not know that I would carry out this rule strictly myself, but I believe that, if I were a judge, and a lawyer were to come before me and assert an absolute lie, and I should find it out, I never would allow him to plead in my presence again; I should set him down as a lawyer not of good moral character, and not legally entitled to be a member of the bar. It appears that I have got off from religion to law, still I believe that however a man may try to pour on the oil and soft soap, the decision of the High Council will be according to the principles of equity. If there is to be an investigation before a council of this kind, it is the duty of that body of men to strive to learn the truth for the sake of doing justice to both parties; and if a man for the sake of a fee, for the sake of gain, if bound and will come into court or council, and state a lie, he has no business there, and I am sorry to believe, if this principle was tried, it would pinch some of our brethren who have dabbled in the law. (President B. Young: I wish it would pinch them to death.)

I believe that there never was a more correct organization of a court on earth than our High Councils, for these men go to work and investigate a case, hear the testimony pro and con, the Councilors for each party litigant present the case, it is submitted to the President who sums up, gives his decision and calls on the Council to sanction it by their vote, and if they are not united, they have to go to work and try the case over again in order that they may ascertain more perfectly the facts in the case and be united in their decision. Why, all the courts in the world are boobies compared to it. It is an organization that shows its own authenticity and divine origin.

Perhaps it is not well for me to further describe the operation of the High Council, but I will take the liberty of saying that men occupying this high position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should constantly cultivate the principle of justice and study to know what is right and what is wrong, always keeping within them the Spirit of the Almighty. If they have got prejudices against anybody, they should do as the President said yesterday. And so long as a man acts upon this principle upon which Presi– dent Young gave us instruction, he has me for a friend, and just so sure as a man comes up without envy or prejudice, simply to learn what is right, and I understand my position and my duty, and so long as I can vindicate myself, I will put that man in the path of right and in the way of salvation.

What has caused the corruption and wickedness that exist in the world at the present day? It is the feeling that exists among the people that one man cannot tell another his faults, because he tells them to everybody else to the injury and prejudice of the guilty party. The Prophet Joseph in his day would tell a man of his faults to save him from error and destruction, but he offended many because he told them of their faults; they thought he wished to injure them, because they were unwilling to forsake their follies, but his purpose in thus reproving was to redeem, to bless and to save. It frequently happens that men who commit faults are not aware of it. The man who can and will show you your faults, your follies and blindness, and make you fully aware of your position, can awaken up in your mind those reflective powers that will cause you to square yourselves up with correct principles and cause you to prepare yourselves to inherit life, light and glory. But the very moment that a “Mormon” Elder can be instructed by the wicked, and allow those acts of folly and vice to creep in in all their hideous deformity, that man is on the road to destruction. The Elder, Priest, Teacher, or any man in this kingdom that will suffer position to cause him to compromise principle for wealth, is blind and cannot see afar off, and is bound to destruction.

We have got to turn right round from that track, if we have been walking in it; if we have coveted other men’s goods, if we have suffered or caused our hearts to fall in love with property that is not our own, we are laying the foundation for destruction.

I can look over the history of this Church, the great apostasy there has been from it at different periods, and I can see that the apostasy of many has been the result of dishonesty, adultery, selfishness, and wickedness in general, and this has been the key to the whole trouble.

These are my sentiments, the honest convictions of my heart, drawn from long experience and attentive observation; and I know that the man who would stand upon the holy hill of Zion, his hands must not be filled with bribes.

Brethren, I know these principles to be true, and it is my desire to walk so that I may be prepared to stand upon the holy hill of Zion. This is what I labor and strive for. I can tell you, if you encourage a spirit of faultfinding and complaining, you will suffer the cankerworm to gnaw at your vitals, to cause you to distrust everybody, and you will begin to say that you have not been respected, put in office and encouraged as you ought to have been. Suffer these feelings to come into your bosoms, and they will speedily gain possession and control of the whole passion.

What a glorious thing it is for men to meet the Elders of this Church, as some met me in the States in 1856! They would say, we should have been with you still if we had been treated right! What a glorious consolation it will be when a man lifts up his eyes in hell and says, I should have been up there in heaven if I had been treated right!

Brethren and sisters, let us ever remember that it is our business to tread ourselves right.

May the Lord enable us to do right, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 6, 1862.

I desire to offer a few reflections that are now suggested to me by the abundant blessings which surround us. I need not say that I have been delighted with the remarks of our brethren that have spoken today; but I will say that while we enjoy the multiplicity of blessings which now surround us, we should remember the poor Saints that are scattered abroad in distant lands.

It is only a few days since I re– ceived a letter from Bishop Jacob G. Bigler, who is now on a mission in Ireland. He writes that the brethren and sisters are very kind to him, and feed him a great deal better than they are able to feed themselves. He says they give him meat twice a week, while they cannot get it at all; and he feels thankful for the kindness manifested by the people to him under such extreme poverty, and wishes me to importune with the brethren here that they may be delivered from the poverty and bondage with which they are environed.

Not long since, a letter was received in Provo from Elder William Cluff, who is now laboring in Denmark. He incidentally remarked that a sister sheared thirty-seven head of sheep to get money to pay the postage of that letter.

A few days since, I received a letter from my brother John L., who is laboring in Switzerland. It is rather a hard country to labor in, in consequence of the oppressive laws and variety of institutions of the twenty-two cantons composing that Confederation. He says that there are a great many of the brethren in that country who labor for ten cents per week and their board, and there is no earthly prospect of their condition being improved; but every year the oppressive bonds that grow upon them become tighter and tighter. I merely refer to these incidents that we may compare the situation of the Saints in the old world with our own in the fertile vales of Utah. Will we exert ourselves to relieve those brethren that are scattered abroad? We believe, ere long, that the vengeance of the Almighty will be poured out upon the inhabitants of the whole earth. Peace having been taken from the earth, men thirst for each other’s destruction; and in their conflicts and destructive wars, our brethren and sisters who desire to emigrate to these peaceful vales may be overwhelmed, and have to suffer with the multitude of the wicked, unless we stretch forth our hand and use our means for their deliverance.

We are exhorted this morning by our President to send back teams and wagons, and to go ourselves to aid in bringing the poor and worthy Saints home. Are we on hand? Are we fully awake to this important matter? I recollect, last season, passing through the settlements south, when I was told repeatedly that the number of teams called for would paralyze the farming interests. In the same region, only a few months after, while passing through, they said, “We have more grain than we can actually harvest and secure: we never had such a crop before.” There are thousands of our brethren abroad who are reduced to the greatest extremities, and as a wise and provident people it is our duty to provide for ourselves, and as far as possible to provide an asylum for the oppressed of all nations.

Great Britain, so famous for political economists and statesmen, has planned so unwisely, that, through a family quarrel between the Northern and Southern States of America, five millions of her subjects are in danger of starvation. Some of them are members of this Church. We must plan differently, and combine the talent, enterprise, and ingenuity in our midst to develop the resources of our country, so that outside complications cannot reduce us to starvation or deprive us of the comforts of life. “The wisdom of the wise shall perish in the last days.” True wisdom in the rulers of a nation would dictate a system of political economy that would provide the means of living and sustaining the nation within itself as one common family. When a nation fails to do this, it lacks the exercise of that prudent policy which makes the country self-preserving.

We talk about going to the States to procure a few articles which we cannot at present produce. But, suppose the people of the States should become as infuriated as the Jaredites, or the Nephites and Lamanites of old were, and should fight and slay each other as they did, whom would you get your supplies from? Who would grow or manufacture cotton for you, or supply you with mill saws, scythes, axes, cotton or wool cards, steel, or silks and satins? We should have to supply ourselves or go without. Think of these things, and realize that the Lord has taken peace from the earth, and is suffering the wicked to slay the wicked, and that the Prophet Brigham has this day blown the trumpet and warned us to prepare to supply our own wants. “But,” says a brother, “I want to follow that business I can make the most at.” I would manufacture combs, but I can make more by raising wheat. Suppose all the tradesmen in the country should do the same, what would you do? No blacksmiths, carpenters, tanners, or shoemakers, but all farmers, and farming without ploughs, hoes, and going barefoot, would soon be the inevitable result of this policy. We must all act our part, and act it prudently and wisely.

I wished to add my testimony to the things you have listened to. May the blessings of God rest upon us, and give unto us wisdom and ability to contribute our aid to make the people of Zion self-sustaining. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 20, 1861.

I regard it a distinguished privilege conferred upon me, whenever I have the opportunity of arising in this congregation and speaking to my brethren and sisters. The Priesthood which the Lord has conferred upon my head through his servant, and which in his abundant mercy he has enabled me thus far to magnify, is my joy, my theme, and the thoughts and reflections of my soul are how and by what means I may in the best possible manner make honorable all those blessings and ordinations which have been conferred upon my head. It is and ever has been, since I entered into this Church, my desire to be found among those who are valiant for the truth.

The light of the fulness of the everlasting Gospel which, through the voice of the servants of God in the last days, called through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith the Prophet, has been caused to shine or to glimmer in every part of the earth, gives me joy. It is still shining forth, and has caught the attention of thousands that are now here in this Territory, and caused them to come to Zion for the purpose of worshipping God under the instruction of the Prophets, that they might learn more fully the mind and will of Heaven, and the ordinances of the Gospel that are necessary for the living and the dead.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days,” saith the Prophet, “that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”—Isaiah, chap. 2, verses 2 and 3.

It is for this purpose that we may be taught of the ways of the Lord, and that we may walk in his paths that we have gathered from almost every nation under heaven.

It is well understood that the human race have been traditioned to the utmost extreme that tradition could possibly be impressed in the human breast, in the practice of covetousness, the worship of money, the love of earthly goods, the desire to possess property, to control wealth, has been planted in the breast, soul, and heart of almost every man in the world from generation to generation. It has been the great ruling Deity, and the object worshipped by the whole Christian world. It has found its way into the pulpit, into the monastery, into the cloister, and into every department of life. No man seems to desire an office, or is called upon to fulfil an office for the public good, but the first thing to be considered is, What will it pay? How much can we make? “Is there money in it?” The god of this world has dominion over the souls of men to an unlimited extent. Let an Elder go among them to preach without purse or scrip, and tell them so, and they will immediately say, “We can believe your religion a great deal better than we can believe that you come to preach without having your salary paid. Why, the assumption is ridiculous; do not think to stuff us with such a doctrine as that.”

With these traditions firmly imprinted upon our minds we have been gathered, and have brought along our schooling and notions that we have imbibed while at school; but with all these things we brought along a feeling in our souls to build up Zion, and to be faithful in all things so long as we remain in this life, that we may inherit blessings in the life which is to come. We came here inspired with a feeling to awaken in our breasts an unlimited desire to labor for the building up of Zion, and this desire exists in a great many Elders. Some of the brethren have desired to go to different parts of the earth to preach the Gospel, part of them for the sake of making it a matter of profit: yes, men who have been ordained to the Priesthood will dare to ask how much they can make of a Mission, when their business is to labor for the building up of the kingdom of God. This feeling of speculation has gone so far as to engross the attention of men in the ministry, so that wherever they have gone they have levied grievous contributions upon the people, and it seems to have been the first thing about which they have planned, and that every step they have taken has been with a view to a reward in gold! In some instances the poor have been taxed, those to whom the Gospel should have been preached freely, without money and without price, to furnish money to gratify the ambition that reigned in the breasts of certain Elders; I hope they are not many, but there are a few instances no doubt.

On the other hand, the Elders that have remained at home ever since the Church was driven from Jackson County, and that have continued to farm and perform different services at their business, have not by any means been idle spectators, but they have been pillars in the Church. For as soon as the Church was organized, Bishops, Councilors, and Teachers were necessary to give counsel and to preside in the temporal affairs of the Church, thereby sustaining the kingdom; and while these and many other Elders have not been conspicuous as Elders traveling abroad, they have yet been pillars at home in constructing and building up the kingdom of God on the earth.

While we take this into consideration we will again review, for a moment, the present acts of the Elders generally, for very few of the whole body of the Elders can be pointed out as having done a great work at a particular place. What the world call having done a great work, or big things, is somewhat different from the kind of work that the Elders in this Church are expected to do. For instance, it is said that Saint Patrick went to Ireland and banished all the toads and frogs, and then converted the whole of Ireland, and that he not only converted the people, but the best of it is that the greater part of them remain firm to the faith of Catholicism until the present day.

There are a few Elders who have baptized their thousands, and an account may be found in the records of the Church of some who have gone on Missions and baptized their hundreds; but as a general thing it is hard to find but few who were very distinguished in this respect. Constant labor, diligence, and humility may and does gather many; they are baptized and receive the fulness of the Gospel. But only a portion of those who have embraced the Gospel under the auspices of those successful Elders, have had faith and energy enough to gather with the Saints to take part in helping to build up Zion. By-and-by subdivision takes place, and the people spread themselves abroad upon the right and upon the left, forming new settlements all through this great desert. In this way the work has attained its present position, and the kingdom is being built up. It is like the laborer with his spade and wheelbarrow, who commences on a large hill and digs, and finally wheels it away. Well, says the passerby, that is small business; but by-and-by you pass that way and the hill is removed, and a fine city is on its site.

The Elders are steadily and quietly operating for the spread of truth and the advancement of the kingdom of God, and before the world are aware of it, their rotten dynasties and corrupt governments will be undermined and crumble to dust. You notice a bee, it carries a little honey to the hive, and continues to do so from week to week and from month to month, and lays up a store of the most delicious of earthly substance and the choicest of earth’s sweets, and this is the result of the little busy bee. So it is, and so it should be with the Elders in Zion. It is not that we are required to do and perform everything in a minute, but by using the minutes to do the little things that are within our reach, and striving always to do them properly. Zion is silently spreading her curtains, strengthening her stakes, and lengthening out her cords, and she will so continue until her wisdom, her influence, and her power circumscribe the globe. Who is doing this? The Lord is doing it and it is marvelous in our eyes. But in all this we have to contend with our tradition, we have to contend with the god of this world—the love of money—with our covetousness, and we have to contend above all with our ignorance. Men can sit in the congregation and be taught by the Presidency; yes, be taught to the easiest lessons ever taught, year after year, and these teachings seem to make no impression upon them. Those valuable instructions are, to a great many, like pearls cast before swine. Again there are numbers of our brethren who have had to go to the States and to California, in order to see the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the Devil. Then after a few years they come back and say, well I declare I never saw things in such a condition before, how wicked the world is becoming now to what it was before I came into the Church. We have another class of men who can go to ward meetings and say they would labor to build up the kingdom, and even to build a city upon a rock, and farm upon naked land, and settle upon the highest peaks, if counseled to do so. But there are extremes of expression and thought. To go forth and preach the Gospel, teaching faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, and to contend against the arguments presented by the Gentile world, has been and still continues to be one of the most laudable employments in the kingdom of God, but a comparatively ignorant man can do it. It is not the learned, nor the wise men the Lord called to do this, but it is the reverse; he calls the weak things of this world to confound the wise and the mighty. It reminds me of a story that Bishop Hardy tells about Luke Johnson. When he went to preach the Gospel in Massachusetts, he was plainly dressed, his trousers were strapped down to his cowhide boots, because they were not quite long enough. One man said, have you seen the Mormon? No, was the reply, have you? Yes, said the man, I saw one and heard him preach, and he said, “the Lord hath called the weak things of this world to confound the wise and mighty, and by mighty I thought so.” It was but a little while till the only argument used against this doctrine was mobocracy, a row at the meeting, a coat of tar and feathers, a shower of mud or the lighted torch.

The man that exerts his power, his influence and understanding to guide Zion at home, to develop our resources, to shape, bend, and make useful the elements and facilities which lie dormant in these surrounding hills, has to possess superior wisdom, a greater degree of knowledge; and the Holy Spirit influences the leaders of this Church, those that are called to act as Trustees, or in any other department of the home affairs of Zion. It is required of us to seek wisdom out of the best books, that a foundation may be laid and all things properly prepared for the great future, that our institutions may be rendered permanent and self-sustaining, that all things may be properly carried on, according to the mind and will of Heaven. It is in this respect that the leaders of the people called Latter-day Saints have shown themselves to be the wise men upon the earth, and it is in this respect, too, that a large portion of the people have failed to see the grandeur and magnificence of the Counsels of the First Presidency, but have suffered themselves to remain in ignorance and stupidity.

I presume now that in speaking at the present time, I am addressing a considerable portion of those brethren who have been called on to strengthen the stakes of Zion on the southern borders of our Territory. The Twelve being called to act a part in organizing this Mission, has caused me to fall in company with a considerable number of those brethren who are counseled to go south and raise cotton, and I can realize to a great extent the feelings which exist in some of their breasts. A man who has come into this Valley to make Zion his home, has gone to work and by untiring industry has surrounded himself with comforts, and probably with wealth and an abundance of this world’s goods; he can proclaim himself an Elder in Israel who is ready for anything. Such a man would go into the mountains to hedge up the way of our enemies, go abroad and preach the Gospel, and in fact he will find himself constantly called to assist in establishing Zion.

The word of the Presidency is, brethren, it is necessary to strengthen the southern border of our thriving Territory, and this is for the general good of all. Now you go down south and raise cotton and you will be blessed more than you ever have been heretofore, and know that in doing this you are doing your part to build up Zion. But some do not feel so. Why, I have seen faces look as long as a sectarian parson’s face, comparatively speaking; I have seen diseases appear in men that had heretofore been considered healthy, and that too as soon at they heard they were wanted to perform any unpleasant mission. I have sometimes argued the case, and tried to persuade them, in regard to this mission that it would do them good. Oh, but they will reply I have always been sick in a warm country. Well, I have told them, we can, in the cotton country, in a few hours riding, give you any climate from the torrid to the frigid zone. But this is not the difficulty. This cotton mission rouses up covetous feelings, for it must be remembered that the prospects for a large farm are not very good there. We can make more here; we can get more wealth and get along faster if we stay here, than we can raising cotton in Washington County. And in fact a few of the brethren feel disheartened about going south to raise cotton, indigo, and such other articles as we cannot raise in this part of the Territory. A brother came into the office the other day and volunteered to go south to the cotton country, then he came in the next day and said he had been too fast in volunteering, that he had not got sufficient clothes to wear. I told him that it was a great deal warmer in that country than it is in this, and consequently he could do with less clothing. But he felt that he must go to work and get more clothing for his family before he could go. I replied that I considered the best thing he could do was to raise a quarter of an acre of cotton. I showed him some cloth that my wife had been spinning and weaving. Then he said his wife did not know how. I told him mine did not until she learned.

It has been my lot to take part in the starting of settlements in the southern portion of this Territory; I have assisted in settling the country from the cotton district in Washington County to Utah mountain. It used to be nearly as much work to get a man to go to Iron County as it was for Jetta Bunyan in the Pilgrim’s Progress to get poor Christians into heaven. When I got them started south, they would meet at every settlement on the road, men who would discourage them by saying, “you are going to a poor country, Oh how I pity you, you will starve in that miserable country, here is a good piece of ground close by me, you had better stop, I can sell you all the grain you will want for seed and to eat; you are going away out of the world.” In this way hundreds of those who were counseled to go to the far south were stopped in Utah County, or turned aside from fulfilling what was desired of them. When I led the first company to Parowan, some of the brethren insisted there was not grass enough to keep their cattle through the winter, when in reality there was an abundance of feed for thousands of stock, and in a few weeks they hardly knew their own cattle, they had improved so much. These incidents have been a lesson to me, and I felt that I wanted to preach to the brethren upon the subject of going south. We are going down there to raise cotton, and the Presidency want men who are called to go upon this Mission to let it have their undivided attention.

There are a few that have always allowed themselves the indulgence of whining and finding fault whenever they pleased. This is very wrong. A spirit to find fault is an enemy to your peace and comfort, and also to the happiness of those around you. It is a key to your destruction. It is so in our home affairs, when you go abroad and exercise this influence among the people you sow a spirit of dissension in the midst of Israel. If you have a portion of Priesthood upon you; you disgrace it in doing so. If you have been baptized for the remission of sins you dishonor that baptism in doing this. Some will grumble and quarrel, until they go into partnership with Satan to oppose the kingdom, lose the spirit and deny the faith. It is Satan’s business to oppose the Saints, but those professing to be Saints should labor for the good of the kingdom of God.

The southern settlements were at first considered rather orderly, more so than some of those nearer this city, but in the spring of 1858, there was an influx from California of a large number of persons, who had gone there because they were not contented to live in this country, and who could not enjoy the liberty that was here. Many of them went to California to get rich, but a spirit came over some of them that the Lord was going to destroy all the Gentiles, and that if they came up here for a while they could go back after the Gentiles were killed off, and find better diggings, and many others thought their brethren were in trouble, and if they could not live Mormonism they would fight for it anyhow. Several hundred persons came into the southern counties under these and similar influences, and intended to stay, no doubt, until the vengeance was over and the Gentiles swept off from the earth, then some thought they could go back and keep tavern. A man who had been among the Gentiles and served the Devil for several years, would come up to this Territory and expect to be respected as much as those who stayed at home and attended to their own business and labored for the good of the kingdom, when it was as much as an Elder could do who had stayed at home and helped to build up Zion, to retain the Spirit of the Lord and magnify his calling. In this way there was grumbling, and a kind of daredevil influence scattered all through the settlements. We saw much of it here, but where the settlements were small, an influence of this kind took deeper hold and had a far more powerful effect. The spirit of avarice was not gratified, the Lord had not designed to cut off the wicked to please a few avaricious Mormons. He designed those who professed to be Saints to live good and upright lives, and to exercise a holy influence over the children of men, that all who loved the truth might be converted and saved in the kingdom of God. As soon as this was ascertained many went back again.

Brethren, you who are going from here have been in the habit of hearing the President, Sunday after Sunday, and where you have been considered examples, here you have acted as Bishops, High Priests, Seventies, Elders, or Teachers, and your example should be a good one and worthy of imitation. A great many Elders have been called to go on this Mission to raise cotton, and they should consider themselves as much on a Mission as if they were among the nations preaching the Gospel. I advise every man to fortify his mind against becoming like Satan in accusing the brethren, or in grumbling, in faultfinding in word, in thought, or in your hearts. If the Mission was to go and build a city on a rock, my advice would be, go at it, for if you did not choose to do that you would have a chance to choose a sandy foundation which would not be proper nor beneficial.

I wish to talk to the brethren on this principle of faultfinding. If we are disposed to find fault with the Bishop, with our wives, with our neighbors, with the Priesthood, and the general authorities of the Church, we shall have all the influences of Satan necessary to help us to carry out our design. Those who practice these things will soon be full of hell and have plenty of devils to help them to carry it on. You are called upon to go and build up a city and villages for a stake of Zion.

When you first came here you dropped down into a desert, went to work and made it blossom as the rose. Then, when you have done this, you have to go to other places and make them blossom also. You have got to lay out the streets, make fences, and build houses, and do everything that will make a city pleasant, agreeable, and inviting. We can get up in our meeting and sing—

“The cities of Zion soon shall rise.” but how are they going to rise? We are going to build them, so that they will rise far above the clouds; and to accomplish this we are going to build them on the high mountains. We are not only going to sing about building them, but we are going to do the labor requisite to carry out our designs.

Now, I do not wish a solitary man to go down there to perform this service that cannot go with his whole heart. If he has got a splendid house, a mill, or farm, or carding machine in this part of the Territory and his heart is set upon it, his soul will be here. He will be like some Elders that are sent to England on missions; they say “yes, I will go and preach,” but when they get there it is, “Oh dear if I was but at home.” If I were presiding over such a man I would send him home, so that I might get rid of the poisoning influence of his company. I want a man that is going on a Mission to say wife, children, the Lord gave you to me, I will go and do my duty, and hereby show to him and to all men that I am worthy of you.

In this case the Mission to which you, brethren, are called is to build a city; it calls for wives, children, for machinery, for mechanics, for everything that is calculated to add to the comfort and happiness of the citizens of a city. We are not going to be a great while isolated from our brethren, but we are going to assist in building up Zion. We want all necessary and important improvements, and if we build a telegraphic line from here to Santa Clara, it won’t cost more than fifty thousand dollars. But you need not be afraid of leaving headquarters, for although we cannot all live at headquarters we expect that headquarters will be connected with every part of the world, and when Zion is not big enough for us, the Lord will be willing to stretch it so as to make room for his Saints. Oh, says a brother, I am perfectly willing to go, but I understand that we are only to cultivate three acres of land each and I cultivate thirty at home. Remember the Lord has said that it his business to provide for his Saints, therefore if we cultivate a small farm when we are required to do so, he will give us a big one, for there is plenty of land in the hands of those who do not respect him, and if we are faithful we may expect to be made rulers over many things.

I want our sisters that are called to go with their husbands, to cultivate a spirit of joy, cheerfulness and satisfaction, and feel a pleasure in going. They ought to feel that they are honored in being called to go and build up the cities of Zion. This is the advice that I give to the brethren and sisters upon this subject, and I do not want the Californians in the southern settlements to say, brother George A., is this a specimen of Salt Lake City grumblers? They can beat us, who have been to California, in murmuring, for although we would rather live here than anywhere else, we should discipline our minds to live where we can be the most useful to the cause of Zion. We should manifest our joy that we have had the high privilege of helping to enlarge the borders of Zion, to inspire them with a spirit of faithfulness and industry. I was pleased when brother Spencer asked me to speak.

May the blessings of Israel’s God rest upon you all. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered at Logan, Cache County, September 10, 1861.

I love to hear the teachings of the servants of God, especially those whom God has appointed to preside over his people in all the world. I love also to contribute my testimony, or to speak to the Saints by way of encouragement, illustration, and instruction. For twenty-eight years past, it has been the feeling of my heart that if there was anything on the earth that I could do to advance the work of the Lord in the last days, I wished to do it; and if I have let anything slip that I ought to have done, it has been for want of understanding and a proper knowledge of the circumstances at the time. I entertain the same sentiments and determination today upon this subject that I have entertained for twenty-eight years past.

I am gratified and rejoice exceedingly in beholding the faces of my brethren and sisters in this valley. From the manner which the people here have received the President and his escort, it is plain they are wide awake. A band of music met us on the mountain side, and they played with a free goodwill. The drummer seemed as though he was determined to beat the head of his drum in; and when the brethren undertook to sing in the meetinghouse at Wellsville, it seemed as though their united voices would tear the house to pieces, so loud were their rejoicings. The spirit in them inspired them to do as they did.

We do not realize to the full ex– tent what we are doing. We are actually settling a portion of the earth that has been considered uninhabitable. We are reclaiming it from a desert, and building upon it a foundation for an immense State; and that State is composed of a united people, who are almost universally of harmonious sentiments. The foundation of this settlement of the “Mormon” people in the mountains really attracted the notice of the Federal Government. We had been mobbed and persecuted and driven from place to place, from city to city. On that kind of treatment we have flourished; our numbers have increased, although many of our brethren have laid their bones in the grave prematurely, and many of our wives and children have perished through persecution; yet from their ashes have seemed to spring thousands.

When we fled into the wilderness, our enemies said, “Now, let the Mormons alone; they will encounter so many difficulties and so many natural objections to their growth, they must come to naught; they will quarrel with each other, and they will soon break up, and we shall have no more trouble with them.”

When James K. Polk, President of the United States, was told that the “Mormons” had occupied the Great Basin, and were making settlements on the borders of the Great Salt Lake, “Why,” said he, “that is the key of the continent.” When the wisdom of the venerable Senator, the late Sec– retary Cass, was brought into requisition on the subject, “What shall we do with the Mormons?” said he. “Send a small army among them, under the command of an intelligent officer; send good-looking, companionable, sociable officers, and a few strong-minded women; yes, send men who are calculated to win away their females, and thus civilize them, by introducing among them habits of modern Christian civilization; and in a short time you will reduce them to the necessity of being satisfied with one wife.” Colonel Steptoe was sent here to fulfil that mission with the gentlemanly officers and soldiers who composed his command. The object of their errand, however, was not accomplished.

In a short time afterwards they came to the conclusion that it was necessary to take a step that should make an utter end of “Mormonism” at once, by a decided and bold stroke of “our gallant little army.” The nation was proud of so grand an undertaking. The press lauded the project, and the members of the Government were proud of the zeal in which this enterprising war was undertaken. The delusion passed current that the “Mormons” would now be broken up. Their first hope was that famine would reduce us to destruction; but this had failed.

And while they were looking for tidings that in the hard winter of 1856 the “Mormons” had all perished of starvation, our Delegates suddenly appeared at the Capitol, asking for admission into the Union as a State. This astonished them.

Do they not remember that from the earliest period of our history, the nation and the different States have recognized us as a separate people? In 1834, Daniel Dunklin, Governor of Missouri, said in an official document that the constitution and laws of the State of Missouri made ample pro– visions for the protection of the Mormons; but the prejudices of the people of Missouri were so great against them, that they could not be enforced, and consequently the Mormons could not be reinstated in the possession of their lands and protected in their rights.

If my friend, Attorney General Blair here, will allow me, I will quote Blackstone, who says that “Allegiance is that ligament or thread which ties or binds the subject to the sovereign, and for which the subject is entitled to protection from the sovereign.” Now, the very minute that the sovereign, king, or government, republic, or whatever form of government it may be, shall cease to extend protection to their subjects, whether they be many or few they necessarily become independent, and are compelled for self-preservation to protect themselves and to look out for their own wants and provide for their own necessities. That is the situation we were in in Missouri when Governor Dunklin declared that the constitution and laws of Missouri could not be enforced so as to protect this people. It was virtually declaring us independent of that State, and acknowledging our right to protect ourselves in that capacity. The truth of this position was further illustrated by the imposition upon us of a treaty by Major General Lucas in the fall of 1838, which treaty was approved by Major General Clark, and subsequently by L. W. Boggs, Governor of the State; and thus, contrary to our will, and at the point of thousands of bayonets, were we compelled to be one of the high contracting parties to a treaty—an exercise of power which belongs alone to independent sovereignty.

From that day, and I do not know how long before, so far as allegiance is concerned, we were cast without the pale of the jurisdiction of the Government in which we lived. It was not we that did this: it was forced upon us. We were law-abiding citizens, and wanted the protection of the laws, the constitution, and the Government of Missouri: we wished to remain quietly in our homes, and have the privilege of eating the bread of industry, and to rear our children in virtue’s ways. But no, “these institutions [constitution and laws] are not for you Mormons.”

We found the same doctrine held good in Illinois, and the same principle has been carried out precisely by the action of the General Government towards us.

I was told at Washington that if we were not Mormons, we should be hailed with generosity and friendship; and the prestige of having subdued this country and brought it into use would have placed us foremost in the rank of Territories. But we were “Mormons.” These are the sentiments, the spirit, and the feeling all over the country and with the Government.

We look at this matter as it is. The General Government is not going to donate land to us, while they were ready to give the settlers in Oregon six hundred and forty acres of land each, half as much for their wives, and a quarter as much for each one of their children. Oregon is located on the seaboard, possessing the advantage of large navigable rivers. It has a flourishing commerce growing up, providing the people with exchanges at comparatively little cost.

Utah is in the heart of the desert. It requires persons of the most undaunted courage and energy to possess it at all. Then, why not give them chance to occupy the land? Why not encourage the settlers of Utah, to reward them for their energy and toil in reclaiming a desert, by giving them six hundred and forty acres of land apiece? Because “they are damned Mormons!” That is the reason they do not give them an acre.

What do we find in the administration of Mr. Buchanan? The very first step he took was to gather the flower of the American army—the finest and best appointed army that ever the United States fitted out. This was the declaration of the members of the Cabinet and the press throughout the whole country. The army under Washington that captured Lord Cornwallis hardly amounted to twelve thousand men; the army that was sent to Utah and actually marched for this Territory numbered over thirteen thousand soldiers; but altogether, with the attaches they employed, it amounted to upwards of seventeen thousand men. Even this vast army was not allowed to pass through the inhabited parts of the Territory until the High Commissioners sent by the President of the United States, exercising, though disclaiming the authority of the treaty-making power, negotiated for their passage into the settlements. Many attempts were made to violate this compact, and in many instances they did so to a limited extent, but they found dangers beset them. An old Frenchman said they would damn the “Mormons” when they would get up, and when they would go to bed, when they would drink, smoke, and gamble, and they would say, “Why not go to work and destroy them?” Then they would reason, “We are here right in the midst of the Mormons: there are only a few thousands of us; and if we commence the play, we shall all go under: then the people will come from the States and kill all the Mormons; but what good would that do us if we were all dead?” God fought our battles.

To conclude the argument that we are an independent people, acknowledged by the United States, and that our Territory was no longer tenable to their armies, but must be evacuated, orders were given by the Presi– dent to destroy everything that could be of use to us here. “Burst your cannon, blow up your magazines, and waste everything you cannot carry away and that would be of any use whatever to the Mormon people; for in vacating a Territory we cannot conquer. We must let nothing go into the hands of our enemies that will in any way benefit them.” The destruction of property in this way is an evidence of hostilities. This is the practice of nations that are at war with each other, to destroy what they cannot carry away.

We have had to protect ourselves and sustain the expense of Indian wars, make our own laws, regulate ourselves in our own way, and no nation, kindred, tongue, or people has the right to say, Why do you so? This right so far has been conceded; the army has been withdrawn from our country, and they have gone away, in a manner acknowledging their defeat. To be sure, many of the officers went away saying, “We will come by-and-by and wipe you out.” But as God would have it, they are employed in paying such compliments to each other as they had designed to inflict upon us.

I have friends in what is now termed the Northern and Southern Confederacies, for now the Federal Union is one of the things that has ceased to be. Such a thing as the Government of the United States as organized by our fathers has ceased to exist. The North claims to be it; but the United States as a Government, as a nation, as organized by our fathers, is among the things that were. Fragments of it, in the shape of separate governments or combinations, may be able to inflict national chastisement upon each other, or make war with foreign nations; but it is only as a fraction, and not as a whole. The State of Kentucky declares that neither the North nor South shall march armies into their Territory. You find in the history of the wars of Europe that an armed neutrality is not an uncommon thing. Kentucky is observing the same. She is a powerful State; she may be drawn into the great vortex of war; she may take sides with the North or with the South, or most likely be divided on both sides; but she is no more in connection with the General Government, as it is called, than with Tennessee or Virginia.

Turmoil and mob power rule. They are destroying each other, demolishing public improvements: printing presses have been destroyed in Missouri and most other States. Blackstone says that a press that publishes falsehood and licentiousness is a nuisance, and that all corporations should have power to abate it. We abated the Expositor in Nauvoo according to law on this ground. Both the North and the South have been doing the same thing: hundreds of papers have been suppressed. Gov. Ford said it was right to abate the Expositor, but it would have been better by mob than by municipal authority; and now mob law rules the whole country and destroys printing presses without let or hindrance.

We will now speak of our mountain home. The Lord has smiled upon these valleys. Colonel Fremont was in the Bear River Valley in August, 1843, when the mercury stood at 29 degrees, showing conclusively that grain could not be ripened here. People in the States would pick up that report and say, “Everything will freeze to death there.” A few years passed away, and you find eight or nine hundred families of Saints in Cache Valley, and they can raise the finest wheat, flax, and wool. I saw yesterday as fine a specimen of tobacco as can be raised in Virginia. Every nation feels it is their best policy and their duty to adopt such a system of political economy as will provide for their own wants, and protect themselves against the exactions of other nations.

We need not expect to get cotton from the Southern States, for they are fighting with the North, and have not time to raise it and communication is cut off by a blockade. We need not expect to get tobacco from the South, for the negroes are at work digging entrenchments and raising corn for the Southern army.

We have got to provide for ourselves as a great family and as a nation. All enlightened nations have endeavored to get control of a northern and southern climate. The God of heaven, in his abundant mercy, has given us the control, in these elevated valleys, of a northern and southern climate.

There are a great many persons among us that use tobacco, and there are some reasons why they use it. For instance, our young men see a Gentile with a stove pipe hat on, a pair of big whiskers, and a cigar in his mouth. Oh, it looks so pretty, think our young men; and if they cannot get a cigar, they must have a pipe. Many of our boys see an old man that has been educated among the Gentiles, and has contracted, unfortunately, a habit of chewing tobacco. While walking along, he spits upon the snow; it colors the virgin snow as though a calf had been there. The boy looks at it, and says he, “That looks nice;” so he gets his tobacco, and spits on the snow also. “There,” says he, “that looks as though a man had been along here.” This habit has become stubborn with many people. You may be astonished when I tell you that it takes about sixty thousand dollars in cash out of our Territory every year for the article of tobacco. Within the last ten years we have paid in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand dollars for this one article.

It is entirely against our interest to pay out this yearly sum for an article we can raise in our own country, and a violation of the true principles of political economy. I will appeal to our individual pockets. I will say I have got to pay for me and my boys for twenty-five pounds of tobacco in a year. Suppose a taxgatherer comes, and my tax is twenty-five dollars, I say I have not a red cent, and I cannot pay it. It cannot be had; I cannot raise it; but twenty-five dollars in tobacco must be raised: there are no two ways about that.

Now, as a State, in this item of political economy, let us raise and manufacture our own tobacco, and learn to think and believe that tobacco of our own raising is just as good and a little better than that brought from abroad.

We sent brethren to the South to raise cotton in 1857. Something like thirty-three of them went, and the next year many more went, so that in 1858, the vote of Washington County amounted to one hundred voters. Many of them were Southern men, who had been gathered from Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and other parts of the Southern States. They were accustomed to raising cotton. The President advised them to go there and supply the Territory with cotton. It had the appearance of a barren country generally. The mountains were barren and bleak in their appearance; red sandstone, and black volcanic rock, and a variety of grey-colored clay prevailing, altogether giving it a kind of somber, deadly appearance. The brethren went to raising cotton in small patches as they could find the land, and every year they cultivated it they found the cotton to improve in quality. They raised better cotton last year than the year before, and so they have continued until it has become a certainty that cotton can be raised there.

I have seen men load up their cotton and start this way to trade it off. Say they, “I want to get a few bushels of wheat, and pay in cotton.” The answer has been, “I can do nothing with your cotton; but if it was spun, I would buy it.” So the cotton raiser has considered it of little use to raise cotton, and went to raising wheat. They did not know what to do with their cotton when it was raised. You may go to those same persons that would not buy from the cotton raiser, and their women say—“Husband I have got to have some cotton batting from the store, to make some quilts of. Now, husband, you need not try to dodge; the batten has got to come.” It costs fifty cents a pound, and one-third of it is paper when you get it. Sister, why did you not buy that brother’s cotton the other day: you would have got two dollars for your wheat you sell at the store for one? “Oh, his cotton was grown at home, and that bought in the stores is made into nice sheets, all ready for spreading in the quilt.” You can take a pair of hand cards and prepare our homemade cotton for the quilt with but a little trouble, and you would have the clean cotton instead of one-third brown paper. For your bushel of wheat, after hauling it to the store, you get a pound and a half of cotton; whereas, if you sell your wheat to the home producer for cotton, you have laid at your door four pounds of cotton for a bushel of wheat.

To buy the foreign cotton in this manner, and discourage home production, is very far from good political economy. Quite an amount of raw cotton is wanted in this Territory for filling quilts and other purposes by every family. The wool answers a good purpose, but it is not plentiful enough; and even if it were, there are many kinds of quilts and comforters for which cotton is far preferable. Did we only encourage this home production of cotton to this limited extent, it would save thousands of dollars of money that is now thrown needlessly into the pockets of merchants to supply this article from abroad. Let us stop this suicidal practice of sending away our money. It would be better to braid our bed covering from oat straw, until we can supply our wants from the elements and soil of our own mountain valleys.

In 1857, the brethren had began to raise flax. I speak particularly of Provo. In 1858, the army came, and there was a chance for a man to make a few dollars by licking the dust of their feet and bowing down to them; so the flax was left to rot. I can find perhaps a hundred places now in the city of Provo where flax is suffered to go again into the ground, while the owners considered they ought to go and do something for the Gentiles to get money to buy clothes.

Some man says, “I worked up some flax, and it was worthless—it was rotten.” It is known in all flax countries that if you get flax too much rotted by laying it up a year or two, it will recover its strength. In Pennsylvania, which is a good flax raising country, some farmers will have five or six years’ flax laid up, and each year they select out of it that which makes the best thread. When you find your flax a little too rotten, you are at once discouraged, and straightway make up your minds to go and work for the Gentiles to get some of their rotten rags.

A great many “Mormons,” when they become wealthy, want to go back to show their former comrades and friends what an amount of property they have got. But with all this bombast and vain show, we do not really possess anything. A man says, “I came into Cache Valley two years ago, I got forty of acres land, and I have raised a good deal of wheat by very hard labor, and that wheat is mine.” You ploughed the ground and watered it; but who made the seed grow that you threw into the ground? The Lord. Then it is his: he let you have a little of it, to see what you would do with it. Have you a right to abuse the Lord’s means which he permits you to use? No. But, as a member in the kingdom of God in the last days, you have a right to use it for the advancement of that kingdom, and the triumph of righteousness, and for doing good in every possible way.

I have heard men say that they have a right to do wrong. In one sense, a man has such a right; and, in another sense, he has no such right. We possess, in reality, very little; and that little the Lord has given us, and that is the power of choice. We may choose to do good, and, if we do good, we get the reward of good; we may also choose to do evil and reap the penalty. A man may knock another down because he has a right to, and have to pay a fine of fifty dollars because he is obliged to. I deny that a man has a right to make thieves of his children and prostitute his family. If he does this, the Lord is justified in cursing him, and he will be obliged to endure it. This power of choice goes a great way. A young man says, I have a notion to go on the road and work for the Gentiles, carry the mail, or anything else. All right. But your friend suggests that it would be better for you to make a farm, build you a house, raise some flax, etc. “But I have a right to work for the Gentiles, if I choose, and I am going to.” You go and build them up with your labor. This young man comes home after a while, he sports a cigar in his mouth among his comrades, he has made thirty dollars per month, he has a few dollars in money in his pocket; it has seemed to come easy, and his soul is contaminated with wickedness. In a little while his money is gone, and he has nothing. Then he must go again among the Gentiles and make a raise. I hope the “Mormon” girls know how to measure such fellows. A sensible girl would much rather marry a young man, dressed in homespun, who will stay at home and mind his business, and never suffer a cigar to come near his mouth, but seek with all his might in every respect to be a good, faithful Latter-day Saint.

Speaking of cigar smoking makes me think of an anecdote of a sick man and his doctor. The doctor asked him how many cigars he smoked in a day; the answer was, Six. That is too much; you must quit smoking. You will allow me to smoke a little. Yes, you may smoke two a day to begin with, and finally quit altogether. The next day the doctor called to see his patient, and found him smoking a cigar two feet long. What are you doing, inquired the doctor? Just doing as you told me; I went down to the cigar maker and got two made two feet long, and they answer first rate.

When a man begins to adopt Gentile habits, a cigar two feet long is only a patching to the extravagance he will become addicted to.

I see in this valley large fields fenced out. In some places, there have been four or five acres ploughed; in some, ten acres: pass on a little further, and there are a few acres more. How is this, brother Maughan? Men enclose more than they can cultivate, water, and improve, and a very large portion must necessarily be vacant, for it was difficult to get water on it. Many acres of grain perish, and the grasshoppers devoured much that remained from the drought. I advise you, brethren, to stop this scattering method of cultivation, and gather your farms together, and make fields well fenced, plough, and put in your grain well, and give it a sufficient amount of water, and you will have three times as much wheat as you got in the start of your settlements in this valley.

President Young is acknowledged by us all the master builder in Zion or, if you please, the master workman. If the master workman walks in among the timber laid out here for your big Tabernacle as the grand architect, planning and assorting the different sticks of timber for certain places and purposes, he does not expect to meet with opposition from the material out of which he designs to make a temple of worship. He comes to a stick of timber, and says, I will make a post of this; and the stick rises up in the dignity of its strength and will not be made a post, but will be a sleeper, and so on with all the timbers of the building: they are not subject to the will of the master builder. Will not this comparison represent a large portion of this people? The master builder points to the South and says, Go and raise cotton; but many reply, It is no cotton country; it is the most wretched, barren, Godforsaken country in the world. This is not submitting to the will of the master builder.

This puts me in mind of Jefferson Thompson, now a Brigadier-General in the secession army in Missouri. After he had been in this country, his comrades got around and inquired, Well, Mr. Thompson, how do you like that country? Any good land there? He replied, It is the most Godforsaken country in all creation. How did you find the Mormons living there? How do they live? Why, they raise plenty of wheat, and the best wheat I ever saw in my life. Can they raise anything else? Yes. The finest potatoes (I never saw finer), and every kind of garden stuff, and very good corn. Any fruit? They are beginning to raise some fine peaches and other kinds of fruits. But you said it was the most desolate, barren, Godforsaken country in creation: how is it, then, that they can raise such good stuff? Well I cannot account for it in any way, only it is a damned Mormon miracle!

That is the correct idea: the Lord is doing it. I have learned that in the county of Harrison, Western Virginia, they have not raised ten bushels of apples, peaches, plums, or a pint of strawberries in the whole country, although I dare say there are a thousand orchards in it, and their crops have failed; their glory has departed. The Lord blesses the land in proportion as they are willing to do good. Last year, the word of the Lord came to this people, Send down two hundred teams and bring home the Saints. The teams were sent down. Some said we could not do without them at home; if so many teams went, we could not raise crops sufficient. But there has not been such a crop in all the Territory as was raised this year. The very sending of the teams seemed to be the assurance of the bountiful blessings of God on our crops. As the President remarked this forenoon, we say all we have is upon the altar: but let it begin to burn, and they begin straightway to pull it off. We are all united in our faith; but when the word comes, Brother, you have a good farm here; but the interests of Zion seem to require you should go to Santa Clara to raise cotton. But, says he, it is no cotton country, and he is awfully discouraged. What does it matter in what part of the building the master builder places us? Every person is placed in a position he is the best qualified to fill, and which he will enhance the most the interests of the kingdom of God.

As the President and his company were going down south, a brother wanted us to go and breakfast with him: he said he could not do very well by us, for he was sent on a mission, and he was not as rich as some of the people. When we went to breakfast, it was not ready. An apology was made that the women had to milk twenty cows: he had ten more on the Plains running with their calves, and he had not time to get them up. He said he wanted to accompany the President, but he had only two animals up; but he had two span of mules on the Plains that he thought would keep up with the President. I have had a hard time of it this season, and had but little time. I had to do all my farming with three-year-olds and four-year-olds. I sent four yoke of cattle to the States this season; yet I have thirty acres of wheat—the best wheat you ever saw. What a poor man! But he was on a mission, and the idea of being on a mission made him think he was poor.

If a man feels rich, and has not a dime in his pocket, if he is righteous, he is rich indeed; but if he has a penurious disposition and is miserly, though his hands are full of riches, he does not turn it to a good account, and in a little while he is like the child that takes an apple in each hand, but undertakes to hold another; he is apt to drop the two to secure the third.

When you raise flax, hemp, wheat, cattle, wool, etc., let everything be placed in the best position to increase the creature comforts of life. Seek the means to manufacture the textile productions into clothing, etc., that nothing may be lost or wasted, and thus learn to do without those things that have to come from abroad. Let us make our own crockery. Let us be willing to drink out of a brown mug or go without. We want to see every man and woman ready to do that which is for the general welfare more than for the individual interest.

We boast about being one, pray about it, and rejoice about it every minute; but let the Lord’s servants try to dictate us how to manage our property in the best possible manner for the general good and the accelerated growth of the wealth and influence of this great people, we declare by our works they shall not touch a dollar. Zion is going to be a great empire, and seeing God has trusted us as stewards of the property we hold, we must use it to build up his kingdom and cause. And when the authorities advise us to put that property into a mill or carding machine, into this or that, for the welfare of Israel, do it cheerfully with a good heart and ready hand, and not with fear and whining.

I pray the Lord continually to inspire President Young with wisdom and knowledge, and judgment above all men upon earth, to dictate the affairs of Zion in a manner that shall be the most approved by his heavenly Master. I really do want to see a feeling of contentment manifested by the brethren who are sent into Washington County to raise cotton there, and make the mission honorable, and gain for themselves credit and the blessings of God and his servants. If a man is instructed to raise flax, and introduce machinery to manufacture it, I like to see him do it cheerfully. In all our works and labor, our first great interest should be the building up of the kingdom of God, and be so gritty that we will actually go without buying a paste– board bonnet or a pair of paper shoes, when we can have something we can produce ourselves that will answer the purpose. All these articles are produced by labor and ingenuity. Let the knowledge of these arts be communicated from one to another, and be the property of the whole to benefit the whole. There is a man in Pinto, Washington County, that makes cheese so skillfully that he never has any trouble with it in summer; he only has to turn it once in a while. Well, brother, how do you make that cheese? “That is a secret.”

Now, brethren, if you know anything that is for the welfare of Israel, instruct others. If a sister knows how to get her up a tablecloth, let her show it to her sister, and let the knowledge pass round. If she understands the process of spinning cotton and flax, communicate that knowledge to others. Let us learn wisdom from our leaders.

The power of the Almighty has been manifested in gathering this people out of the midst of many nations. A greater miracle never existed. It has been done by his wise counsel and fatherly care, and a nation has been established without the shedding of blood. Zion has been travailing and has brought forth. I have traveled this season to preach to the Saints twenty-five hundred miles and stopped with the Saints every night. I have preached to hundreds of congregations, large and small, in houses and out-of-doors.

May the blessing of Israel’s God attend you and your crops, and herds and flocks; and everything that pertains to you, may it be blessed continually. Amen.

An Address delivered by Honorable George A. Smith, in Great Salt Lake City, July 4, 1861.

Fellow Citizens—the circumstances under which we are now assembled are those of no ordinary character. The display made on the present occasion and the vast assemblage on this ground indicate in a great degree, I might say perfectly, the result of liberty, of honest industry, and of adherence to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, of which we have been hearing, and the result of strict obedience to those declarations made by our fathers and transmitted down to their posterity.

Although we as a people are placed under circumstances entirely different from those of every other part of our common country, we were forced to come here unprepared, comparatively, for such an undertaking, and have had to contend with the sterile soil and inhospitable climate. We have had to encounter and overcome a great many difficulties arising from our isolated situation; but still we can here successfully pursue the arts of peace: we can enjoy the blessings of liberty.

While almost all the inhabitants of every portion of our common country from north to south, from the Rio Grande to the St. John’s, are engaged in fratricidal strife, and almost every city, town, village, and hamlet today echoes with the sound of fife and drum, calling men to war, we are all enjoying peace.

The procession today was a display of mechanical skill, of agricultural industry, a display of tools and ingenuity of almost every kind, and men at work with them. What little powder we burn is simply in honor of our country’s flag—not to destroy our fellow countrymen.

We have heard something of the hostile preparations that are going on in the Eastern States. I know of no language adequate to describe the true character of the present civil war. It is the height of folly—the extreme of madness, without a parallel in history; and it does seem like illustrating the maxim of Grecian mythology—“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad!” North and South rushing to battle over an idea or whim, perfectly heedless as to the consequences.

It was the result of that spirit of oppression and violation of the principles of our national Constitution which drove us here; it is the natural result of the training, the education and the foolery with which priestcraft has blinded the people.

We are at the present time the only people in the United States that are willing to be governed by the Constitution, and to grant to all men the same liberties that we ourselves enjoy—the same privileges and protection which are in accordance with the guarantees in the Constitution and the laws of the United States made in accordance therewith. To be sure, there are a great many who pretend to honor the Constitution; but they are determined in the North and the South that they will fight each other, Constitution or no Constitution.

Now, if the Constitution of the United States was actually the supreme law of the land, we could go back to our possessions in Missouri and Illinois, and enjoy our religion, our property, and the blessings of peace and liberty, and our wives and children, in Jackson County, Missouri, and in Hancock County, Illinois, just as well as we can here, and none would dare to molest us. And until the Constitution becomes the supreme law of the land, no man or people having the misfortune to be unpopular can enjoy liberty, or even be protected outside of these mountains.

Now, brethren, are we not thankful that, at least, we can see the providence of the Almighty in suffering us to be driven into these valleys, where we can enjoy the sweets of true liberty—where none dare molest or make afraid? These are abundant reasons for us to be thankful.

I am aware that many of the school children in this vast assemblage have been detained long enough. I have been pleased with what I have seen and heard. I simply say a few words because my name was on the program for an address.

May the blessings of Israel’s God rest upon you all! Amen.