Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Sixth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, October 8, 1875.

Our Conference, thus far, has been exceedingly interesting to me, and I have no doubt it has been to every one present. We have heard a great many ideas and counsels, and have received instruction which, if treasured up by us and carried into practical effect in our lives, will have a very beneficial result in the midst of this people. There has never been any lack of instruction among the Latter-day Saints. I think it was President Wells who said the other day that he sometimes thought we had too much preaching and teaching. I have no doubt myself that the ease with which we obtain instruction, the abundance of it, and the readiness with which it is imparted have made very important counsels that would, if carried out, have a very beneficial effect upon the entire people, seem cheap and unimportant. There are some duties, however, that have been dwelt upon with considerable plainness in order that they may be kept permanently before the minds of the people. The leading points among these are those which relate to our self-preservation, because if we do not adopt and carry out in our lives principles that will preserve us, the gathering together of the people in these valleys and all the labors that have been expended in our behalf will not amount to much. God has blessed us with a good land; he has multiplied upon us many favors, that, when we came here, some of us, at least, did not expect to enjoy. He has given the land a fertility that we never dreamed of. I say that we never dreamed of, but I will speak for myself, and say that I never thought that this land could have been made so fruitful as it has been. Others, probably, who had had more experience, might have entertained different feelings. I have heard President Young say a great many times that he saw all that has been done, when we first came here he saw what the result would be. But the land was barren, and the fertility that it now possesses, could scarcely then have been expected. God has given unto us this and many other favors, and as a people we should wisely appropriate them for the extension of the principles of truth and righteousness.

I was very much pleased yesterday with the remarks which were made in relation to the principles of the United Order. This is a subject which I have thought of considerably, and it is one which I think ought to appeal very strongly to us. The efforts which are being made to unite us and bring us together, to blend our interests and to amalgamate us and make us one are of the utmost importance to us, and I suppose that a great many of the Latter-day Saints who have come to this Conference have had the desire in their hearts that something might be said in relation to the course that they should adopt in order to become more united. I think I made a statement, about a year ago, that many of the people were far more willing than many of their leaders to enter upon a system having that end in view. I still entertain that same opinion. I believe that the bulk of the Latter-day Saints are anxious to understand what they shall do, and are willing to carry out, when directed, any plan that shall he suggested to them. Several plans have been suggested, but there have been feelings of one kind and another and difficulties interposed to prevent the general carrying out of any plan. However, the President has felt of late, and has thus spoken to those who have been immediately around him and to several others, that it would be well for us to carry out the plan that was spoken of yesterday, and that has been referred to a good many times of late, namely, individual stewardships. There is something about this which appeals strongly to most men’s minds. They can see how this can be effected; they can see that under such a system what are called individual rights might be better preserved, and property not be absorbed in a way to cause loss or waste, and yet the great principle be carried out that is aimed at, namely, the uniting of the hearts of the people in one.

We have had meetings here in this city, at which these principles have been laid before a number of the Latter-day Saints, all of whom have seemed to receive the ideas with satisfaction, and have felt that they suited them exactly, and they were willing to do that which was required of them. And I believe that this feeling will be extended throughout all the Territory and throughout all these mountains; for wherever we have gone this summer, laboring among and talking to the people in relation to their economy, and the management of their temporal affairs, we have found a great willingness manifested on the part of the people to do whatever they were counseled to do, and to carry out the principles to the extent of their ability, and I believe that this will be the result.

We, as a people, must change our policy if we become the people which we aim at, and which we believe God designs that we shall be. There is nothing clearer than this to every thinking mind. We can see very plainly that we must be a self-sustaining people, that we must manufacture in our own midst, to the greatest possible extent, that which we consume, that is necessary for our comfort and convenience. Unless we take this course, it is an impossibility that we can become the people that we design to be, and that God in his revelations has predicted we shall be. No people who are dependent upon others can become a great people. A people who are constantly producing for others to manufacture, never can become a great people. If we produce wool, and hides, and grain, and other things from the earth, and send them away to be manufactured, we shall con– stantly pay tribute to other people, and the object of the United Order is to stop this. We have skill here, for there is probably no community on this continent, of our numbers, which has as many skilled artisans as are to be found here. Men who are familiar with every branch of industry almost that can be named are in these mountains. But we have not capital; yet by combining our means we can obtain all the capital that is necessary; and then, if there can be a public sentiment developed here which will induce the people to sustain these manufactures, the whole question is solved, and we are placed upon a pinnacle of greatness that we never can attain to unless we pursue this policy.

You take a pound of wool, and it costs what? You can buy it here in our market for twenty-five or twenty-six cents. You send that pound of wool to the Eastern States, and let the looms of the East manufacture it, the workmen of the East bestow their labor upon it, and that pound of wool comes back to us manufactured into cloth, and contrast the price of that wool before it is manufactured, with its cost when it is manufactured, and you can form some idea of how much we have to pay the skilled men of other communities. A case was given to us yesterday. A hide was sold to a purchaser who sent it from this Territory. It came back to Cache County, where the brand, still legible on the leather, was recognized as one of their own brands. Now the difference between the price obtained for the hide in its raw state, and the cost of it when manufactured into leather, was the amount that we paid to some manufacturer in the East for changing that raw hide into leather suitable to be worn.

What, then, ought to be our policy? It ought to be to bestow all the skill and labor possible upon everything we produce. Not one pound of wheat ought to go out of this Territory until it has received all the labor possible to be bestowed upon it, or, in other words, until it is made into the finest of flour. This is the true policy for us. To send our wheat away for other men to grind and take a toll off, and then send it back to us manufactured into flour, why it is suicidal! To send our hides away for somebody else to manufacture them into leather, and boots and shoes, when we have tanners, bark, and all the material and skill necessary to do the same lying idly here! Why, it is folly in the highest sense, or in the lowest sense, whichever you please to call it, for us to pursue a course of this kind. And so with everything that we have here. We are probably sending away a million pounds of wool this season. We have not machinery enough to manufacture all our wool, but we can manufacture a great deal, but our machinery will not manufacture all we need to supply our present wants, and a million pounds of wool go east to be manufactured, and we have to pay manufacturers for the cloth made from that wool, and we are thus paying tribute to other communities. And so it is with everything that we use that is manufactured abroad. When you buy a jar of pickles, a gallon of molasses, or canned corn, tomatoes, or fruit, or anything of this kind, you are paying your money to sustain communities afar off, while your own people are suffering for want of labor.

We ought not to have an idle man, woman or child in these valleys. Says one—“But we cannot afford to pay the prices that are asked for home-manufactured goods.” Let me ask, Can we afford to sit idle? Can we afford to do nothing, and to pay money to, and employ others? I say that we cannot; but we are doing it all the time. We are bringing wagons and carriages into this country, when we have abundance of skill here to manufacture them. And the same is true of many other things which we might manufacture and supply our own wants.

Now what is the object of the United Order? It is to enable us to appropriate the means which God has given us to manufacture those things that are necessary for our own sustenance. Let us take the illustration that is afforded us by Brigham City, brother Lorenzo Snow’s place of residence. In that little town, numbering probably three thousand people, they have over thirty branches of manufacture. They have a circulating medium of their own—a little nation, as it were—and the workmen are paid in that medium, and with it they buy what they want of the various articles which they manufacture; and by the combination that has been effected, they are gradually growing to a degree of independence that is unknown almost everywhere else. But the great difficulty there, is, that the masses of the people do not see their own interests, but many of them are as blind there as they are elsewhere, and a few wise men have to take the lead and the responsibility, and to labor and contrive to maintain these branches of manufacture. But what will be the result if this be continued? All the surrounding country, unless the people do the same, will be paying tribute to Brigham City and its manufacturers, and every youth in Brigham City will be learning some branch of skilled handicraft, and the rawhides and everything in its raw state will be brought to Brigham City, and Brigham City will pay in manufactured articles which its arti– zans have made, and upon which they have a profit; and if that were to go on, Brigham City would, in a little while, own all the surrounding country.

I mention this as an illustration of what can be done, and what we ought to do. We ought not to produce more wheat than we need for our own use, that is, we should not depend upon exporting wheat, we cannot get enough for it, it does not pay us. But we should turn our attention to other articles and to manufactures. There is Bear Lake country, abounding in timber, the men of which live nearly half the year housed up. If they would organize wisely, and combine their capital, skill and labor, they could manufacture everything out of wood that we need in this country, and they have the best of timber there to do it with. But instead of that their time is spent during the winter in feeding their cattle and doing such chores as are needed around their places; and during the remaining five months they are worked exceedingly hard. This is impolitic and unwise, and if persisted in would be called bad management.

These are the lessons that have been taught us all the day long. It is not a new thing, but is something as old as our residence in these mountains. I have heard such instructions as these from my boyhood, when we first came here. But we have been slow to hear and carry out these practical lessons of wisdom that have been delivered to us by the servants of God, and have been, to some extent, reluctant, fearful and suspicious that, if we did these things, somebody would be a little more benefited than we. Now it is time for a reformation. I do not wonder at the Lord calling upon his servants to ask the people to go and be baptized, and rebaptized into a different spirit, a spirit to obey the counsel that is given. All of you have proved by your experience the wisdom of this counsel. We know that we have a man leading us who has more wisdom in managing the affairs of a community than any man on the American Continent or anywhere else that we know anything of. He has proved this; it is no boast, it is a fact that is recognized by thousands outside of this Territory. Those who are unprejudiced in other parts of the nation see the results of the policy that has been urged upon the people of this Territory; and if that policy were carried out we would soon become an independent people, we would soon be full of wealth and means, and instead of seeing men walking around with their hands in their pockets, because of not having work, there would not be an idle man in the Territory. For any portion of our people to be idle is wrong, and there is something radically wrong about a system that admits of or has a tendency to keep a portion of the community in idleness. There is no necessity for such a state of things, and we are to blame if it exists here. If every man and woman worked, and every child worked as soon as it is capable, after having received the necessary schooling, you would soon see the difference there would be in this country in our means and appliances. It is skill, and that skill well applied, that contributes to the greatness of a nation. Look at France, today. France was burdened by an enormous debt, laid upon her by Germany, and which Germany hoped would cripple her for years. But France, with her wonderful industrial resources, has a stream of wealth flowing into her today from all the nations because of her taste and skill. By these means she has paid her debt, and Germany is alarmed at the rapidity with which it has been paid. To what is it due? It is due to French skill, to their workmen of taste and ability, and when people elsewhere want fabrics of the greatest elegance they send to France for them. A lady in fashionable society in Washington, or in leading eastern cities generally, does not consider herself dressed in the leading style, unless her dresses, as well as the materials of which they are made, are manufactured in France. The highest fashion demands that her dress shall be made in Paris. And look at Geneva, it is another of the workshops of the world. You travel through Switzerland, and you will find that in her secluded valleys the people, in their little cabins, manufacture the finest kind of watches and clocks, and other articles that are valuable and rare, which are sold to all the nations round, and the skill of her people has made Switzerland a comparatively rich country.

We have skill here, and we have materials here that we should utilize, instead of letting them go to waste. I have heard parties say, and it is true, that there is more waste in Utah Territory than in any country they had ever seen in their lives. I have heard men of experience say this, and I believe it. We have got so much that we waste that which God has given unto us, instead of using it for the purpose for which it was designed.

Now, my brethren and sisters, you who have come to this Conference, do try and put into operation the teachings that you hear. It is no use talking unless we go to work. To say after Conference—“Oh, what a good Conference we have had,” “What excellent teachings we had!” and then forget all about them, and do nothing practical connected with them, would be folly in the extreme. When you get a principle try and carry it out, try and make it practical in your lives. Endeavor, in your communities to organize branches of labor. Let the Bishops and the men who have wisdom provide means of employment for every man and every woman in their settlements and wards, and let their brains be exercised, as President Young’s has been, for the good of the whole. We should use the power which God has given us in these directions in endeavoring to lift ourselves up from our abject condition, and not think—“I must have five dollars or four dollars for a day’s work;” but go to work if you cannot get as much as that. We should all be employed in doing something every day. We should train our boys and girls to work; the best education that we can give them is to give them skill and teach them habits of industry, not forgetting, of course, the principles of our religion, without which they cannot be truly great. You know the old saying—“An idle man’s brain is the devil’s workshop;” and it is so. If you want a good people, a people who can be easily managed, a temperate people and a sensible people, have an industrious people. But have an idle people and they become intemperate, and I believe that many of our young men, because they have no opportunities to develop their energies, take to drinking, chewing tobacco, and rowdyism, whereas, if labor were provided for them, and their energies were rightly directed, they would be useful members of society and be ornaments to their father’s houses and to their friends. Youth is full of energy, and wise rulers will utilize, husband and direct it for the good of the whole, and not let it be expended on foolish objects or in a wasteful manner. This is one of the difficulties with us. We have plenty of energy? Our young men are full of it, and our land is full of young men. Their energies should be rightly directed, and they be trained to be useful men in society; and the girls should be trained to be useful women in society.

That God may bless us in our Conference, and help us to treasure up the counsels that we hear, and to carry them out practically, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Sixth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Wednesday Afternoon, October 6, 1875.

It is exceedingly interesting to me, as I have no doubt it is to all Latter-day Saints, to hear the Elders who have been on missions bear a faithful testimony, on their return, to the truth of the work in which they have been engaged. It is a tolerably easy matter to tell, in listening to them speaking, whether they have been faithful or not in magnifying their Priesthood and calling, for a man who does not magnify his Priesthood, and who is not faithful in the discharge of the duties entrusted to him, generally manifests it by the spirit which he possesses and with which he speaks. And so, also, when men have been faithful and have striven to magnify their calling, a spirit and influence attend them that bear testimony of their faithfulness. No man can go out, ordained by those who have the authority, in faith and in humility to preach the principles of the everlasting Gospel, however peculiar and difficult the circumstances may be that surround him, however great the trials and the persecutions that he may have to contend with, without receiving an unction from the Holy One, that will bear testimony to him that the work in which he is engaged is of God, and that he has been called of God to declare the principles of life and salvation unto the people among whom his lot may be cast. There is this peculiarity and influence about this work, there is the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, which descends with convincing and overwhelming power upon all those who place themselves in a position to receive it; and there is no labor under the sun, I care not what it may be, or how pleasant the circumstances that surround him, at all comparable with the labor of an Elder in this Church, who endeavors, in humility and meekness, to magnify his calling; there is no joy which a human soul is capable of comprehending, that approaches the delight and the satisfaction which laboring in the ministry of the Son of God confers upon him who does so in faithfulness. He may be destitute, he may be without purse and scrip, as our Elders travel, he may be in the midst of enemies, he may be haled to prison, and treated with contumely, and have all manner of evil heaped upon him; but if he is faithful to God, if he is faithful to his Priesthood, and magnifies it to the extent of his ability, there is a power, an influence, and a joy resting upon and accompanying him, and filling him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, that are incomprehensible to those who have not experienced them; and for such a man to doubt that God is with him, and that the work he is engaged in is the work of God, would be as difficult as to doubt that the sun’s rays ever beam upon him, or that there is no warmth or light connected with them; in fact, such a man could as easily doubt his own existence, and the testimony of every sense that he possesses, as to doubt the testimony of God which rests down upon him.

And these blessings are not confined to those who go forth as missionaries, but they extend themselves to all who enter into covenant with God, take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, and resolve in their hearts to repent of their sins, and to tread humbly and meekly in the path which the Savior has marked out for all to walk in. They receive also, according to the measure of their responsibilities, and the position which they occupy, the same gifts and blessings, and the same joy fills their hearts that does the hearts of the faithful Elders.

When I listen to the Elders, as we have today, speaking their experience, and relating that which they have met with, and the joy they have had, it has seemed to me that, if any of the Elders, or if all the Elders, could comprehend this and enter into the spirit of it, they would say that they would devote themselves with all they possess, with every feeling of their heart, with every power of their mind, with all the strength and the ability which God has given them, to the rolling forth of his work upon the face of the earth. But the difficulty with us as individuals is, that we are like the man of whom the Apostle James speaks: we look in the glass, we see ourselves, our features are distinct to us, everything is plain to us, we see the mirrored resemblance of ourselves in the glass that we look upon, but we turn away, and we speedily forget what manner of men we are. And so it is with many who are in this Church. They have experienced joy, they have had testimonies from God, they have had the power and the gifts of God resting upon them; but after a little while, coming in contact with the world, and the spirit of the world, they forget these things, the remembrance of them fades away from their minds and other things appear more desirable to them. This is the difficulty that the servants of God have to contend with in their ministering among men. It would appear, looking at matters naturally, that if men and women had tasted the word of God, had received revelation from God, had knowledge poured into their souls concerning this being the work of God, they would always be faithful to the truth; but it is not so, and this is evidence of the great power which the adversary exercises over the hearts of the children of men. Men may behold the heavens opened and see Jesus, they may see visions, and have revelations given to them, and yet if they do not live as they should do, and cherish the Spirit of God in their hearts, all this knowledge, and these revelations and wonderful manifestations fail to keep them in the Church, to preserve them from the power of the adversary, and to deliver them from the snares that he spreads for the feet of all the children of God. And in our own experience we can comprehend very easily how the Church of God, in ancient days, fell away from the truth, wandered into darkness, and lost the knowledge of God and the ordinances which he had established in his Church for the salvation of his people. How long would it be, were it not for the teachings, warnings and reproofs of those who are set to preside over them, before many of the Latter-day Saints, and probably a majority of them would stray into by and forbidden paths, and forget the knowledge that they once had and the blessings they once enjoyed? And yet I am thankful that people cannot stay in this Church and practice unrighteousness. I am thankful that God allows those who do not keep his commandments to fall away, so that his Church may be cleansed, and, in this respect, this Church is different from any other that is upon the earth. A man may practice iniquity and do wrong in other churches, and he may cover it up for years, and nobody, or probably but a few—himself, his God, and a few others—be aware of this wrong, and he may pass along and nobody ever imagine that there is anything wrong with him. But it is not so in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—no man can stand in this Church, or retain the Spirit of God and continue in a course of hypocrisy for any length of time. God will tear away the covering of lies and expose the wrong; he will leave the transgressor to himself, and the strength that he formerly had, which enabled him to stand and maintain his associations with the people of God, will be taken away from him, and he will be left to go down to destruction unless he repents. It is true that the Lord has said that the tares shall grow with the wheat until harvest, but it is not said that tares will not be plucked up from time to time, for if it were not so they would overpower and choke out the wheat. The sifting or weeding process has been going on from the commencement of this Church until the present time; hence it is that the leaders of this Church are stirred up in their feelings from time to time to call upon the people to repent. They understand clearly that unless there is a godly life and conversation corresponding with our profession, this people would soon fall into darkness and error, and stray from the path of righteousness.

Our enemies are not mistaken in some of their ideas respecting us, that is, respecting the power that can be brought to bear to destroy us. They seem to be well aware of the fact that, if we only conform to their customs, fashions, ideas and practices, we would soon fall away and cease, as a people, to preserve our identity. They understand this, and hence the efforts which have been made of late. It has seemed as though the adversary has been exerting every power and bringing every influence within his reach to destroy us; and the most lamentable feature—the one that has given me most concern connected with it—has been the apparent blindness of our people respecting these designs; it has seemed as though we could not see and understand their nature, and we have to a certain extent yielded ourselves willing captives and dupes to the plots that have been undertaken in our midst to destroy us. The fact that God predicted, through the mouth of his servant Daniel, and through others, that this kingdom should stand forever, has seemingly lulled a great many to sleep and caused them to think that we are perfectly safe, and that no danger can overtake us; and the fact also that we have remained in these mountains, now, for twenty-eight years without mobs, and that so many of the people who have grown up and have come here and never knew anything about them, who have joined the Church since the days of mobocracy, these causes combined have had the effect to cause a great many to be very supine, and to imagine, apparently, that we could not be disturbed, or that our safety could not be endangered by anything that might be done against us. Hence, when the servant of God has called upon us, and given us counsel upon many points, we have not seemed to understand the benefit of the counsel.

We are here in these mountains, Latter-day Saints. We have made this country, notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary, all that it is today. Why, the very officials of this Territory today may thank God that he raised up Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, because if he had not done so there would have been no governors, judges or other federal officials of Utah Territory; there would, in fact, have been no Territory of Utah if it had not been for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Men may say what they please, but, every thinking man in this country must admit that our settlement of this country has forwarded settlement in the adjacent Territories and States for more than a quarter of a century. We have demonstrated one great fact—that men can live here, that fruit, corn and wheat, and all the cereals which belong to this latitude can be raised here by a judicious application of water, combined with industry and perseverance. We have demonstrated this; it is no longer a problem as to what this country can produce, hence you now hear of agriculture in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada; but it is a very great query whether this would have been the case for another generation, at least, had it not been for the Latter-day Saints. What could have induced men to come here if they had not been prompted by the feeling that started us out? We had no place to go to excepting this. We wanted the meanest and most undesirable part of the continent, so that our enemies would not rob us of it, as soon as we had improved it; and when we came here we hoped we had reached a place where we could live, at least for a time, undisturbed, until we could increase and raise a generation who would be firm in the faith, and be so numerous that they could carry on the work whose foundations their fathers had laid. We came here in that spirit and with that view. Not to exclude other men from the land that we had settled; but to create homes, and a place to which men and women of every nation could come, and where they could worship God unmolested, as we desired to worship him. We cared not what their creed might be, or whether they were Jews, Pagans, Muslims, or Christians. We asked no man who came here to believe as we believed, and we had no disposition to deny them the rights that we enjoyed because they did not believe as we believed. It was in that spirit that the foundation stones of this superstruc– ture of government in Utah Territory were laid. It was that here, not only Latter-day Saints, but, as I have said, men of every creed and clime might come and worship God unmolested by their neighbors.

But there were others who did not feel as we felt, and they were determined to curtail us of our privileges, and now for years there has been a studied and unrelenting effort to destroy the work that we have done, and to strip us of all the advantages we have gained by coming here; to wrest from us by any means that could be used, however despicable and illegal, the power that God has given us, and to which we are entitled under the laws and constitution of our country. There has been no concealment of these designs, no attempt made to gloss them over; they have been avowed, plainly and publicly, to all the land and to all the Latter-day Saints throughout these mountains, that if they could get the power to strip us of our rights they would do it without any hesitation or compunctions of conscience.

Now, my brethren and sisters, let me ask you, this being the case, what is our plain and bounden duty? It is to preserve ourselves, not only for our own sakes, not only for the sake of our children, but for the sake of humanity everywhere, and for the sake of civil and religious liberty, upon this land which God has given to us. Many will pass away after a little, and here are children, and here are mankind, many of whom, in witnessing the bold stand we have taken, are anxious to see us preserve ourselves and to see civil and religious liberty maintained by us on this land. And we owe it to them, as well as to posterity, that, by every means in our power; we do preserve ourselves and our liberties intact. If we do not, we are recreant to our high trust, and to the high calling which we have received from our Almighty Father. In doing this, must we intrude upon others? Is there any necessity for this? No; our policy is not aggressive; the true policy of the Latter-day Saints is a preservative and defensive policy; to preserve and defend ourselves when we are attacked; not to be aggressive, not to intrude upon others’ rights, but to preserve our own rights. Every man and woman belonging to this community should therefore keep constantly in mind that this is the policy for which we should labor, and not consult individual interests; not say—“I can make one dollar or two dollars by stepping aside from the policy that has been marked out.” Many so-called Latter-day Saints have done this. We have people among us who, if we may judge by their actions, would sell every liberty that God has given unto us for a few dollars, and yet they call themselves Latter-day Saints. When counsel has been given by President Brigham Young—than whom a wiser counselor does not live upon the face of the earth—instead of accepting that counsel and looking at it in its true light, in its elevated light, there have been persons who have looked at it from their picayunish standpoint. They have asked—“How is that counsel going to affect my individual interests?” And many have said by their actions: “Now is my chance to make money; while the bulk of the people are obeying counsel, it will be to my advantage to disobey it. I can make money by so doing.” And they have actually taken advantage of the obedience of the people to make money by their disobedience, and yet have called themselves Latter-day Saints! Is not this the case? Do you not know it to be the case? And that spirit has been spreading and diffusing itself among this people, the example of one encouraging another, until too many have indulged in and given way to it, to the injury of the cause of God. And hence the leaders of this Church have been so deeply impressed, of late, to go forth and call upon this people to repent and turn from their folly and listen to God’s voice through his inspired servant, lest He should send calamities upon them; for it is plain to be seen, as brother Squires said, except we are one we are not Christ’s, we are not God’s, and that union is the only principle upon which we can be preserved. We have not strength, we have not numbers, we have not wealth, but we have union when we choose to avail ourselves of it, and with union there is strength, especially when God has promised his blessings.

Now, can you not see, you Latter-day Saints, how unwise it is for us to disobey counsel, when that counsel is given for the benefit of the whole people? This man says—“I can gain some advantage by disobeying that counsel;” this woman says—“I can gain some advantage by going contrary to that counsel,” not caring anything as to what the results may be, so that their little ends can be served to some trifling extent, and being blind to the fact that we must preserve ourselves by looking after our own interests, and taking care of the great work which God has entrusted to us. Why, it took all the eloquence of President Young for years to cause this people to see that it was not to their interest to sustain their enemies, foster their enemies, feed their enemies, take all their wealth and give it to their enemies, and those enemies plotting all the time against their liberties and their lives, and avowing it pub– licly and undisguisedly. Do you not remember, before cooperation was started, how long and loud the President of this Church and his counselors, and other men, had to plead with the people to get them to see this plain matter of self-preserving policy? They could not see it, that is, a great many could not see; and when cooperation was suggested they could not see that, and there are a great many who cannot see it now, and who are opposed to it in their hearts, and they are opposed to everything that will bring this people closer together, and make them more one, and they fight it, and they do not know the spirit that prompts them. It is the same today respecting the United Order; many seem to be blind, they cannot understand what it is that blinds them; but it is miserable selfishness; they become so eager after money that their judgment is beclouded. If we were united, we could control things in this country to an extent you have no conception of, and we could become rich, if riches were the desire of our hearts, there is nothing to prevent us; if we will be guided by the counsel of God’s servants, we can have all the riches that heart can desire. But our miserable, shortsighted selfishness, that miserable, contracted, narrow policy that is not of God, blinds our eyes and darkens our understandings, and prevents us from seeing the true policy of building up the Zion of God on the earth, and preserving the liberty which God has given unto us.

God requires one thing of the people called Latter-day Saints, and if they will receive and obey that, everything else will follow, and that is—to obey the counsel of God’s servants. If you will do that, everything else will follow in the train. And why should we not do so? Have we not a leader whom God has blessed as he has no other man of whom we have any knowledge at present on the earth? Look at what has been done! See how God has prospered him and those who have received his counsel! Whenever he has told us to do anything, as a people, and we have done it, God has blessed us in its performance; and whenever the people, or a portion of them, have disobeyed his counsel, they have not been prospered. They have invariably lost the spirit and gone into darkness. Do you not know this? Has not the experience of the past thirty-one years confirmed this to us? How was it with us when we crossed the plains and when we came here? Did any of you know whither you were coming? I know the people did not know, but they followed his lead, believing that God led and inspired him, and that God would lead him to a place where we could locate. And look at what we see throughout these valleys today! Where is there anything like it on the face of the earth? A people gathered from every nation, speaking almost every tongue, brought up in the midst of every creed, and with every kind of habit, and yet homogeneous and dwelling together in union and love, without litigation and strife! Where can you see anything on the face of the earth that compares with it? Is it any wonder that we have faith in God and in his servant? I tell you that if there is any condemnation resting upon these Latter-day Saints, it is because of their unbelief and hardness of heart in not listening to his counsel.

Now let us be taught; let us profit by the experience of the past, and not allow ourselves to be deluded by the adversary, and by any, even if they should call themselves our friends. But no man who weakens or tries to weaken that counsel which has led us all the time, is a friend to this people.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with his Holy Spirit, rend the veil of darkness that beclouds our minds, darkens our eyes, and prevents our seeing the truth, and the true policy of the kingdom, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on Friday Afternoon, April 9, 1875.

We have abundantly proved in our experience that if we do not sustain ourselves, no other people will sustain us, and that we must be united, as was said this morning, in our temporal as well as in our spiritual affairs; and that if we would build up and strengthen ourselves in the earth, it must be by union of effort, and by concentrating our means in a way that shall produce the best results for the work with which we are identified. Cooperation, or a union of effort, has been proved in our experience, when properly carried out, to be most successful. With small means and limited incomes we can accomplish, by wisely uniting our efforts, great results, and to bring about greater union should be our continual effort. As has been said, there may be failures and mismanagement occasionally, but the principle itself is a true one, and it recommends itself to every reflecting mind. We, however, in our mercantile operations in this city and Territory, have been more than ordinarily successful. I have heard reproaches indulged in, or rather reflections cast, upon our general cooperative institution. I think it has been one of the most successful establishments and institutions that we ever have had among us, and I do not know that it has been equaled anywhere, when we reflect that in the short space of three years those who in– vested their means in that institution made one hundred per cent—doubled their original stock; and when the financial crisis came in the east—the panic as it was termed, and many strong houses went down before it, our institution was able to withstand the storm, and tide over, and has met every dollar of its indebtedness promptly, or at least to the satisfaction of its creditors. We have been subjected to a great deal of expense in various ways; but the experience of the past few years enables us to see now how this expense can be curtailed; and profiting by this wisdom and experience, as a community we should take the necessary steps to establish, or rather to arrange it so that it will give the greatest satisfaction. A good deal might be said on this subject in this connection, but as we shall have a meeting very shortly in relation to our cooperative business affairs, probably that would be the proper place for remarks of this character. But I would say, as one individual, to all the Saints—Let us by every means in our power, that is, by collecting the little means that we have, seek to build up and strengthen these institutions in our midst, and they will prove profitable to us, and be a great blessing to the entire community and to Zion.

At this afternoon’s session of the Conference the authorities of the Church will be presented, and it is desirable that there should be a general attendance of the members of the Church, as far as they can possibly come.

To refer again to this subject of cooperation. We have seen its good effects in the settlements throughout the entire Territory. I consider that if it had not been for our institution regulating prices and governing and controlling the mercantile interests of this Territory, we should have lost, by having to pay high prices, thousands and thousands of dollars that we have saved. In Brigham City particularly, judging by accounts that we have heard, have the principles of cooperation been exceedingly beneficial to the people, because of the perfection to which they have been carried out. The great difficulty with us heretofore has been that, as a people, we have not had capital to achieve any very great results. No one man, until quite recently, has had sufficient means to carry on any great undertaking; but by the masses of the people uniting under a cooperative plan, and putting their funds in the hands of those who are judicious and good business men, we can establish every kind of manufacture that is necessary in this country to make us self-sustaining. The manufacture of iron into hollow-ware, and everything of this character that is made of iron; the manufacture of rails for our railroads, of woolen goods of the best character, the establishment of sheep and cattle herds, of cheese factories and tanneries, and of every branch of manufacture that is adapted to our climate and Territory can be carried on upon this principle, and efforts should be made by us as a people to establish and make them successful. I took down with me, when I went to Washington last fall, a suit of clothes manufactured here in this Territory—the wool was grown here, the cloth was made at President Young’s factory, and the clothes were made by our tailors. There was a good deal of discussion in the early part of the session concerning the resumption of specie payments. I remarked to a good many of my friends that if I were a believer, as some of them were, in the power of the General Government to make laws respecting such matters, I should be in favor of making a law that would prevent the importation into this country of anything that we could make ourselves; and I believe that specie payments will be postponed until there is a stop to the extravagance which reigns throughout the country. The stream of gold which ought to be setting in the direction of the United States, in consequence of the multiplicity of our productions and the greatness of our trade, is constantly flowing toward Europe; and while this is the case, we may struggle in vain to get back to specie payments. That which is true concerning a nation is true concerning us as a Territory. If we would be independent, if we would keep the circulating medium in abundance in our midst, we must stop the stream that is flowing from the Territory, and every dollar that we spend here in sustaining a home institution, for making clothes, paying the cloth manufacturer for his cloth, the wool grower for his wool, the tanner for his leather, or the shoemaker for making that leather into shoes and boots, is that much saved to the entire community. One very prominent free trade member of the House, during a discussion on this subject last session, remarked that the suit of clothes he had on cost him but a comparative small amount, and that he had them sent from Canada. Someone replied, by way of joke, that he had probably bought a secondhand suit; but there is no doubt the clothes were new. But suppose they cost less in Canada than the same suit would in the States, cannot you and everybody see, without lengthy reflection, that that money all went into foreign hands, and did not benefit the people of this country? The producer of the wool, the manufacturer of the cloth, and the maker of the clothes in Canada received the benefit. But supposing that thirty-five or forty dollars had been paid for that suit of clothes in the United States, or in the community where the purchaser lived, you can readily perceive that by the circulation of that money in his immediate vicinity, he, himself, if he were in any business, would receive the benefit of the expenditure, and that the extra cost would not be an entire loss to him like paying it out to a foreign community. And so it is with our own manufactures. We talk about brooms and about cheese, butter and other things which can be brought from the east at lower figures than we can produce them; but it is better for us to pay twenty-five per cent more, and I do not know but even a larger percentage, for our home productions, than to send the money away to a distant community where it is circulated and we receive no benefit from it. If we bought homemade cheese, and had to pay ten or fifteen cents a pound more for it (which, however, we are not required to do) than if it were brought from abroad, it is not an entire loss to the community, for we all derive some benefit from the means so spent, because it is circulated amongst us, and if we have anything to sell we get prices in proportion for it, and thus we sustain ourselves. Men may say that such and such things can be bought cheaper abroad than they can be bought at home, and therefore it is better to buy them; but I say that it is suicidal for any community to pursue such a policy, and we, with the experience that we have had in this country on these points for upwards of a quarter of a century, should begin to learn wisdom, and begin to foster home manufactures and home institutions. Our cooper– ative institutions should take into consideration the people’s good, and, if there is ink, matches, cloth, leather or anything else to sell that is manufactured in this country, they should give the preference every time to the home manufactured article so far as possible, and endeavor to stimulate and foster home production and not operate against it.

By this means we build ourselves up, and the people themselves, where they are ignorant, will soon perceive the propriety and the advantage of taking this course; whereas if we pursue the old and opposite course we shall be impoverished and stripped of our means, and, having no branches of home manufacture, we shall continue to be a poor, dependent, helpless people.

Remarks by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on Friday Afternoon, April 9, 1875.

We have abundantly proved in our experience that if we do not sustain ourselves, no other people will sustain us, and that we must be united, as was said this morning, in our temporal as well as in our spiritual affairs; and that if we would build up and strengthen ourselves in the earth, it must be by union of effort, and by concentrating our means in a way that shall produce the best results for the work with which we are identified. Cooperation, or a union of effort, has been proved in our experience, when properly carried out, to be most successful. With small means and limited incomes we can accomplish, by wisely uniting our efforts, great results, and to bring about greater union should be our continual effort. As has been said, there may be failures and mismanagement occasionally, but the principle itself is a true one, and it recommends itself to every reflecting mind. We, however, in our mercantile operations in this city and Territory, have been more than ordinarily successful. I have heard reproaches indulged in, or rather reflections cast, upon our general cooperative institution. I think it has been one of the most successful establishments and institutions that we ever have had among us, and I do not know that it has been equaled anywhere, when we reflect that in the short space of three years those who in– vested their means in that institution made one hundred per cent—doubled their original stock; and when the financial crisis came in the east—the panic as it was termed, and many strong houses went down before it, our institution was able to withstand the storm, and tide over, and has met every dollar of its indebtedness promptly, or at least to the satisfaction of its creditors. We have been subjected to a great deal of expense in various ways; but the experience of the past few years enables us to see now how this expense can be curtailed; and profiting by this wisdom and experience, as a community we should take the necessary steps to establish, or rather to arrange it so that it will give the greatest satisfaction. A good deal might be said on this subject in this connection, but as we shall have a meeting very shortly in relation to our cooperative business affairs, probably that would be the proper place for remarks of this character. But I would say, as one individual, to all the Saints—Let us by every means in our power, that is, by collecting the little means that we have, seek to build up and strengthen these institutions in our midst, and they will prove profitable to us, and be a great blessing to the entire community and to Zion.

At this afternoon’s session of the Conference the authorities of the Church will be presented, and it is desirable that there should be a general attendance of the members of the Church, as far as they can possibly come.

To refer again to this subject of cooperation. We have seen its good effects in the settlements throughout the entire Territory. I consider that if it had not been for our institution regulating prices and governing and controlling the mercantile interests of this Territory, we should have lost, by having to pay high prices, thousands and thousands of dollars that we have saved. In Brigham City particularly, judging by accounts that we have heard, have the principles of cooperation been exceedingly beneficial to the people, because of the perfection to which they have been carried out. The great difficulty with us heretofore has been that, as a people, we have not had capital to achieve any very great results. No one man, until quite recently, has had sufficient means to carry on any great undertaking; but by the masses of the people uniting under a cooperative plan, and putting their funds in the hands of those who are judicious and good business men, we can establish every kind of manufacture that is necessary in this country to make us self-sustaining. The manufacture of iron into hollow-ware, and everything of this character that is made of iron; the manufacture of rails for our railroads, of woolen goods of the best character, the establishment of sheep and cattle herds, of cheese factories and tanneries, and of every branch of manufacture that is adapted to our climate and Territory can be carried on upon this principle, and efforts should be made by us as a people to establish and make them successful. I took down with me, when I went to Washington last fall, a suit of clothes manufactured here in this Territory—the wool was grown here, the cloth was made at President Young’s factory, and the clothes were made by our tailors. There was a good deal of discussion in the early part of the session concerning the resumption of specie payments. I remarked to a good many of my friends that if I were a believer, as some of them were, in the power of the General Government to make laws respecting such matters, I should be in favor of making a law that would prevent the importation into this country of anything that we could make ourselves; and I believe that specie payments will be postponed until there is a stop to the extravagance which reigns throughout the country. The stream of gold which ought to be setting in the direction of the United States, in consequence of the multiplicity of our productions and the greatness of our trade, is constantly flowing toward Europe; and while this is the case, we may struggle in vain to get back to specie payments. That which is true concerning a nation is true concerning us as a Territory. If we would be independent, if we would keep the circulating medium in abundance in our midst, we must stop the stream that is flowing from the Territory, and every dollar that we spend here in sustaining a home institution, for making clothes, paying the cloth manufacturer for his cloth, the wool grower for his wool, the tanner for his leather, or the shoemaker for making that leather into shoes and boots, is that much saved to the entire community. One very prominent free trade member of the House, during a discussion on this subject last session, remarked that the suit of clothes he had on cost him but a comparative small amount, and that he had them sent from Canada. Someone replied, by way of joke, that he had probably bought a secondhand suit; but there is no doubt the clothes were new. But suppose they cost less in Canada than the same suit would in the States, cannot you and everybody see, without lengthy reflection, that that money all went into foreign hands, and did not benefit the people of this country? The producer of the wool, the manufacturer of the cloth, and the maker of the clothes in Canada received the benefit. But supposing that thirty-five or forty dollars had been paid for that suit of clothes in the United States, or in the community where the purchaser lived, you can readily perceive that by the circulation of that money in his immediate vicinity, he, himself, if he were in any business, would receive the benefit of the expenditure, and that the extra cost would not be an entire loss to him like paying it out to a foreign community. And so it is with our own manufactures. We talk about brooms and about cheese, butter and other things which can be brought from the east at lower figures than we can produce them; but it is better for us to pay twenty-five per cent more, and I do not know but even a larger percentage, for our home productions, than to send the money away to a distant community where it is circulated and we receive no benefit from it. If we bought homemade cheese, and had to pay ten or fifteen cents a pound more for it (which, however, we are not required to do) than if it were brought from abroad, it is not an entire loss to the community, for we all derive some benefit from the means so spent, because it is circulated amongst us, and if we have anything to sell we get prices in proportion for it, and thus we sustain ourselves. Men may say that such and such things can be bought cheaper abroad than they can be bought at home, and therefore it is better to buy them; but I say that it is suicidal for any community to pursue such a policy, and we, with the experience that we have had in this country on these points for upwards of a quarter of a century, should begin to learn wisdom, and begin to foster home manufactures and home institutions. Our cooper– ative institutions should take into consideration the people’s good, and, if there is ink, matches, cloth, leather or anything else to sell that is manufactured in this country, they should give the preference every time to the home manufactured article so far as possible, and endeavor to stimulate and foster home production and not operate against it.

By this means we build ourselves up, and the people themselves, where they are ignorant, will soon perceive the propriety and the advantage of taking this course; whereas if we pursue the old and opposite course we shall be impoverished and stripped of our means, and, having no branches of home manufacture, we shall continue to be a poor, dependent, helpless people.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday Afternoon, April 8, 1875.

There have been a number of items of interest touched upon by the brethren who have spoken during this Conference, and as it is a time when we meet together for the purpose of receiving general instructions, it seems to me very desirable that the time should be occupied in dwelling upon principles which immediately pertain to our condition and present circumstances. In the remarks which I shall make this afternoon, I trust I shall be led to speak upon those things which immediately concern us, and which pertain to our daily lives.

I rejoice exceedingly in this opportunity, that is, the opportunity of being present at Conference. I believe that I can appreciate it better than I could possibly have done had I been here all the time during the winter. I have, however, during my absence, enjoyed myself better than I could have expected. I have felt that the Lord has been with us as a people, that his power has been manifested in our behalf, and that, so far as the prospects of Zion in the future are concerned, we have abundant reason to be thankful and rejoice. I know that the hope is indulged in in many quarters that the Latter-day Saints are fast losing that faith for which they have been noted, and by the operation of which they have been enabled to accomplish the labors that have devolved upon them in the past in this country as pioneers, and as pioneers in the religious world. I am quite willing, myself, if it is any satisfaction to any individual to entertain this idea, that he should do so; but for myself, and I believe I speak the sentiments of the people, I never, in my life, saw greater cause for rejoicing in the cause of God than I do today. I am not in the least discouraged, but, on the contrary, I feel exceedingly encouraged. I know, it seems to me, better than I ever knew, that God is with this people, that he hearkens to their prayers, and that he watches over them. It is true that there are influences operating upon us at the present time that we have only recently had to contend with, they are comparatively new influences and, to a certain extent, the Latter-day Saints are unaccustomed to them, especially the rising generation. But it has been taught us from the beginning that Zion is to become a great power in the earth, and that she will triumph; but I cannot conceive how Zion can become that which we have expected, or that it will achieve the destiny predicted concerning it, unless it be by passing through ordeals such as those we already have to encounter, and others, still greater, that are yet in the future, by which Zion will show its superiority over every institution and power that exists on the face of the earth.

I have expected for years that the seclusion which we sought in coming to these mountains would be terminated. Everything in the predictions of the holy Prophets concerning the work of God in the last days conveyed this idea to my mind. I looked upon our retreat here as a temporary one, for I well knew from the character of the people and their achievements that, in a short time, we should have the world trooping to us; we should be like a city set on a hill, we could not be hid, and that the eyes of men would be attracted Zionward, therefore I have not been disappointed in witnessing that which we see around us today. It has come probably in some form that I had not looked for, because I could only take a general view, the details I did not understand, but that we should pass through ordeals that should test us, test our faith, test our institutions, test the character of our doctrines, test the practical value of everything connected with us, I never had a doubt; and so far as the future is concerned I look forward to an increase rather than a decrease of these things, to an increase of tests, a multiplication of ordeals that will be calculated in their very nature to test and try us and the system with which we are identified to the perfect satisfaction of everyone connected with it. How else could we expect that Zion should become a power in the earth? How else could we expect that that respect should be accorded to Zion which we are led to believe will be the case? How else will the wisdom and power that God will bestow upon his people be made clear in the eyes of this nation and of the nations of the earth only by these practical tests, by these trials, by surmounting these difficulties, and by showing a capacity to meet, grapple with and overcome every emergency and contingency that may arise? Can we achieve that distinction which is inevitably in store for us as a people if the predictions of the Prophets be fulfilled short of such an experience as this? I think not. The enemies of this work may indulge in whatever anticipations of our discomfiture or downfall they please, but as for us, let us take a practical, sensible view of the work with which we are identified, and prepare ourselves accordingly, so that when the hour of trial shall come, be it severe or not, we may be prepared therefore, having strength and faith sufficient to endure it, and to bear witness unto all men that we have not cherished this faith in vain.

There is this peculiarity about this work, that no power that has yet arrayed itself against it has succeeded in its attempts to gain advantage over it. It is true there have been seemingly temporary successes; there have been times when mobs and violent men have achieved a temporary success and when they have flattered themselves with the idea that their designs against this work have been successful. But one peculiarity has ever marked the career of this people, that is, that events in our history which have seemed to be deadly blows against us and the work in which we are engaged, have turned out to be magnificent successes for us as a community. Trace our history from the beginning, peruse it care– fully, draw the lessons from it which I believe are intended to be conveyed by it, and what do you see? The Church and Zion of God emerging from the difficulties, trouble and seeming disaster sought to be brought upon it by its enemies, brighter, stronger, more firmly planted, more united than it was when the difficulty commenced, or the trouble was first visited upon us. The loss of houses and lands, expulsion from homes that were dearly bought, had no such effect upon this people, produced no such thrill and such deathlike sorrow in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints as did the martyrdom of our beloved Prophet and Patriarch; had we lost our dearest friends; had we lost everything that we valued on earth, it seems to me it would not have compared with the poignant sorrow, the deep, heartfelt anguish that prostrated this people in the depths of humility when the news of the cruel murder of their beloved leaders reached them; yet deadly as that blow was, to all human appearance prostrating the entire people, who felt that they had lost those who stood nearest to God and nearest to them, God in his mercy, out of that great affliction brought forth a great triumph and raised up a man to take the place of the Prophet, who has been in some respects like Elisha following Elijah, possessing, as Elisha desired it might be the case with him, a double portion of the spirit that rested down on his master, Elijah. And God has led us, God has prospered us, and God gave us success that seemed to be commensurate with the depth of our anguish and sorrow, and lifted us up from the depths of humility into which we had sunk, and placed us upon the heights of gladness and joy, and caused us to rejoice as we could not have done probably under other circumstances. And so, when we were driven out of civilization so-called; when we wended our weary way through the wilderness, not knowing where we were going, it seemed as though the last blow had been struck and we had been left a prey to internal dissensions or to the violence of the savages. But God in his mercy, out of that seemingly great affliction, has brought forth great blessing and glory to us, and has honored us, has enriched us, has raised us up and endowed us with blessings that we could not have had where we lived; so that that great blow aimed at us by our enemies has been overruled to be the means of great and wonderful blessings to us, and as an entire people we rejoice today in the possession of a land that God has given unto us, to which he led us and which he designated by the finger of inspiration as the land which we should occupy, and which we this day possess despite all the machinations of the wicked and their efforts to strip us of all power herein. Until this day he has given unto us the supremacy in this land, from north to south, from east to west, and he has made it productive and fertile for our sakes. When we reflect upon our history since we came here; when we think of the many plots and schemes, of the many men who have lent themselves to these plots, who have done all in their power against and to entrap this people; when we reflect upon it all, so far as I am concerned, I am filled with amazement, and with thanksgiving to God our Eternal Father for his goodness and mercy unto us as a people. I know, as well as I know that I live, that no human power could have saved us time and time again as we have been rescued; that there is no wisdom of man that was equal to the emergencies in which we have been placed; but God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom, in his kindness and watchcare over us as a people, has, at the very moment when salvation was needed, stretched forth his Almighty arm. He has rescued us from the grasp of the destroyer when it seemed as though destruction was inevitable and we could not escape. The last five years have been as fruitful, probably, as any period in our history in events of this character. Time and time again has it seemed as though destruction was sure to come upon us, as though there were no way possible for us to escape; but God has heard our supplications and has opened the way of deliverance in a most wonderful manner, and has rescued us from the grasp of those who would destroy us. Others may not see the hand of God in these things; they may say that these things come about from and are the results of natural causes, but those who have prayed to God, whose hearts have been drawn out in supplication to him and who have waited tremblingly for the salvation which he has promised, have seen and they cannot but acknowledge the hand of God in these deliverances, because, as I have said, they have watched, waited and prayed anxiously and earnestly in the name of Jesus for deliverance, and when it has come their faith has been strengthened and their joy increased in the Holy One of Israel; because he has heard and answered their prayers: and today the Latter-day Saints are the people of all people upon the face of the earth who know that God lives, because he hears and answers their prayers. And he, it seems, is determined to have a people upon the earth who will be compelled to put their trust in him and not in man, because man’s power would utterly fail to save them, and no power but his can do it. When I look at all these things it is a matter of surprise to me that men cannot see the hand of God in this work. Yet there are many whose hearts have been touched by the evidences of God’s favor unto us, and they have been surprised and have expressed their wonder that we have been so signally delivered as we have been.

Now there is a great future in store for us as a people. God has said so, and his words cannot fail in being fulfilled. There is a destiny in store for this people that few can comprehend. We have to teach the world lesson after lesson that they have entirely forgotten, or that they never knew. We have to teach them and show them by our example that there is such a thing as living faith, that there is such a thing as trusting in God, being saved by him, that there is such a power as faith in the land, and that prayer, when offered in faith, is effectual in reaching him. We have to show the nations of the earth that God with a small people can accomplish wonderful results. When I think of our numbers, how few we are—we are a great people in some respects, but in numbers we are few and feeble—yet with this few people what is God doing in the earth! What a name he is gaining for his people, his servants! You may travel throughout the earth, in every land, among every people, and let it be known that you are a Latter-day Saint, and you will find that the fame of the people has preceded you, and you will find yourselves distinguished from everybody else. It is exceedingly wonderful that a people so small, numerically so insignificant, a people not wealthy, but it may be said poor, are so noted in the earth. Yet this is the fact, that God intends to make us still more so, he intends to give us a name and a place among the nations of the earth that shall be distinguished above all other people. We are accused, you know, of being disloyal. This has been a story told of us, a charge repeated against us from the very beginning, because men have thought it would be most effective in destroying our influence. The idea prevails in many quarters that we are scarcely as true to the government as we should be. I have heard it stated that were it not for these troops at Camp Douglas, Utah Territory would rebel. By such nonsense as this do men who oppose us seek to deceive the world at large respecting us and our motives and feelings. I have had occasion frequently to talk upon this subject. I have told men that, from my early boyhood, I have been taught to believe that the constitution of the United States was revealed of God, and that the destiny in store for the Latter-day Saints was to uphold constitutional government upon this land; and, that being the case, how could it be reconcilable with the idea that we were disloyal to the Government? But there is a class of men who consider everybody disloyal who does not dance to their tunes, and who does not re-echo the sentiments which they express and seem to entertain. We have a class of men among us here who talk about the one-man power and the tyranny that exist in the Utah Territory, but at the same time if an official were to come here and associate with citizens of this Territory, “Mormon” citizens I mean, they would put him under a ban and brand him as disloyal and unfit to hold an official position under the Government. And why? For years here it has been considered by certain officials as one of the best recommendations to the favor of those in power to hate and abuse the “Mor– mon” people of Utah Territory; and if a man were to dare to associate with “Mormons,” were to speak kindly of or to associate with them, and to treat them as he would other people he would be ostracized and banished, so far as association with them is concerned a non-intercourse act would be passed immediately. And these very individuals talk about the intolerance of the Mormons.

We have these things to contend with, we have these lies to live down, and as far as we are concerned, let them always be lies; let no man have it in his power to say that the Latter-day Saints are an intolerant, proscriptive or an unjust people. Never let this be said of us with truth; but if it be said, let our enemies continue to lie about us until they are tired of it, or until the world become sickened with the falsehoods that are told concerning us. And for us, let us pursue the path that God has marked out, being liberal, truthful, upright, dealing fairly, honestly and tolerantly with every man, so that every class of men who come into our midst may learn that we have received a religion that admits of toleration in the broadest sense of the word.

It has been a matter of considerable satisfaction to me to state that in Utah Territory our pulpits, stands, tabernacles and meetinghouses have always been open to every sect and denomination to come and preach their peculiar views, creeds and doctrines, and that our people have turned out in large congregations to listen to speakers or preachers of other denominations advancing their doctrines; and that not only have congregations of adults been furnished, but the children of the Sunday schools have frequently been assembled in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, that they might pur– posely hear and become familiar with the ideas and views entertained by other religious denominations. This stands out in marked contrast with the practice of almost every other sect, and it gives the falsehood to the stories which have been so frequently told about us.

Now respecting all these things that we are passing through, I recognize the hand of God in them all. I think that we have learned lessons of late that have been profitable to us. For instance, we now know and, while the recollection of the past few years is vivid in our minds we shall continue to know, how to value a just man who sits as a judge, and it may be that it will be so impressed upon us, that when power shall come into our midst, and come it will, as inevitably as the sun rises in the morning over the eastern hills so sure will power come unto us; but when it does come I trust that the recollection of the past will be vivid in our minds and that we will always seek to deal justly and fairly with all who may seek justice at our hands. It has been said that when we acquire power we shall be intolerant, as other sects have been. The Puritans, who fled from England because of religious persecution became, in turn, themselves the persecutors when they had the power. Roger Williams fled from them and took refuge in what is now Rhode Island. They persecuted the Quakers and others who came within their borders with an intolerance that was quite equal to, if it did not exceed, the intolerance to which they themselves had been the victims. And it has been said concerning us, that if we had the power, we would probably tread in the same path, that persecution would only harden us and make us deal with others with a severity which we would not know anything about had we ourselves not been victims beforehand. But I think that God in his mercy will strip us if there be any vestige of this about us; I hope he will, at any rate. If we achieve the destiny that is in store for us, certainly to maintain that character and to retain that power, it will be necessary that we should be just, upright, forbearing and tolerant, and that we should be willing that every man in this broad land should worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, whether his god be the workmanship of his own hands, whether it be the sun, the moon, some animal, or the God of heaven, with Jesus his Son, that we shall be willing that every man should worship God according to his own feelings upon the subject, so long as he does not interfere with us, or with others. I think we have learned this lesson in part. I think the lessons that have been impressed upon us have had an effect in this direction, at least they have had the effect to broaden us; and every lesson of this kind will have such a result as this with us as a people, and on this account I am thankful for them.

I am thankful today that we are not a State. There have been times when I have wished exceedingly that we might be released from territorial vassalage and be incorporated in the Union as a sovereign state. I have desired, and labored for it; but this last winter I have been exceedingly thankful that Utah was a territory and not a state. We are told to acknowledge the hand of God in all things, and I do not see why we should not acknowledge it in being kept in this condition of tutelage and vassalage as well as in anything else. But it may be asked—“Why do you think our condition better as a territory than as a state?” When I heard of events in Louisiana, the federal troops maintaining a government there, against which I was informed, and as I believed, the mass of the people revolted, I thought to myself—Better be an insignificant territory than a state if we cannot have the right of choosing our own rulers and have them act in the offices to which they are elected. Thanks to our insignificance federal troops have not interfered with us here; but if we had been a State, with two votes in the Senate, a vote or two in the House, and electoral votes in the Presidential Election there might have been a temptation to have done with Utah as with other states. But we had no vote; our delegate in Congress had no vote; we had no senatorial representation; we had no vote at the Presidential Election, and this denial to us of our rights, by keeping us in a Territorial condition, has thus far helped to save us. With such a feeling as there has been in this city and territory, for contesting elections, when they have been overwhelmingly on one side—twenty thousand and upward against two or three thousand; when men will contest elections under such circumstances, and endeavor by unjust means to wrest the power out of the hands of the people and defeat the will of the majority; when they will do this, as has been done in this Territory, it would not need a very strong pretext to have them to go farther, to have them appeal for Federal interference, and to try and induce the government to say—“Those whom you call the minority are the majority, they have been unjustly dealt with; affidavits have come here showing that the polls have not been managed properly, the ballots have not been deposited as they should be, and we must decide against you “Mormons” and the men whom you have elected, and put your opponents into power.” I do not say that this is the case in Louisiana, I do not pretend to decide upon that question, it admits of a good deal of argument; but I have been told by members of Congress who visited there—the Committee sent by Congress to investigate matters, that if the federal troops had been withdrawn from Louisiana this winter twenty-four hours would not have elapsed until the McEnery government would have been put in power, and the whole difficulty would have been solved. But the presence of federal troops maintained a government that could not be maintained in and of itself. What is the use, then, of being a State government if the Federal government is to interfere in this manner in State affairs? And with the causes that exist in Utah Territory to make interference popular and a thing to be approved of by thousands, a State government would not be so desirable. I have, therefore, so far as my own feelings have been concerned, been very much pleased at being a territory. I have seen the hand of God and his wisdom in this thing, when if my wish or my will could have been gratified we should have been a State long ago.

The Lord, in his mercy, will preserve us from these evils; in his overruling wisdom and providence he will deliver us until the time shall come for us to be a state if that be his will, and I doubt not that we shall be surprised at it ourselves. I have come to the conclusion, as one individual, that I shall not be anxious on this subject in the future, and shall leave it to the overruling providence of God to bring about when it shall seem good unto him.

As to some of the States in the South they are in such a condition that we, if we were in the same, should think our lot dreadful. I have heard stories of usurpation and tyranny by officials in those states that have caused me to think that, notwithstanding all that we have had to endure in Utah Territory, our lot has been a fortunate one compared with that of others. They have drunk the cup of humiliation to its very dregs. You know there was a time here when it seemed as though every effort was made to bring us under military rule in this Territory, and when the provocations endured by the people here come to be read in history surprise will arise in the mind of the reader, and admiration for the people who so patiently endured the wrongs that were imposed upon them, especially when it is remembered what power we hold here. Why, think of it, a few years ago a Governor came to this Territory immediately after a long and bloody Indian war, in which our citizens were massacred, their property stolen, their settlements robbed and their stock driven off; and immediately after that war a Governor came here who prohibited the militia, every able-bodied man in the Territory, from bearing arms—a most unheard of tyrannical exercise of power; and then a Secretary, while acting governor, afterwards repeated the same proclamation. And this people have borne it patiently and never lifted their hands against these contemptible tyrants. It was doubtless hoped that we would commit some overt act to provoke trouble, so that the federal troops could be brought in and be placed under the control of these officials, who for once in their lives happened to hold position. Not only this, but on one occasion when certain citizens met together as a company, to celebrate the fact of their band having got a new set of instruments a federal judge committed them to a military prison for violating this proclamation, as though a proclamation of the Governor was law! With as great propriety might an Executive claim that he has the power to restore the curfew, and say—“You must have your fires extinguished by eight o’clock at night, or we will put you in a military prison; and you must rise in the morning at the tap of the bell, or we will treat you as criminals.” If a Governor’s proclamation is law, and is to be respected as such, where will it end? Will it end with the imprisonment of men who act as militia men? No; if such acts of usurpation continue, no citizen will be safe, and they will end in the overthrow of liberty and constitutional right wherever permitted.

We have borne these things, and we have borne others, the recollection of which, were I to recite them to you, would make our blood boil. It is not necessary that I should do so; but in talking thus do we talk disloyally? American citizens have the right to talk about officials who trample upon their rights in this manner; we all have the right to question the acts of men in power; it is a right given to us, and the man is not worthy of the name of freeman who will not thus criticize acts of oppression and, in a proper manner, resent them and show his abhorrence of them. It is because they are violative of the fundamental principles of our government that I thus talk about them: and in any other Territory than this they would have provoked a storm of indignation that would have overwhelmed their authors. One of the lessons we have to learn is to have patience, but not to stop remonstrating, not stop talking, not stop appealing, not hold our tongues and let our children grow up with the belief that these things are right. No, proclaim against them, let it be known that they are wrong, that they are contrary to the law of the land, to the Constitution and to the principles of our government; let this be known, and let our children understand what is right, and all men recognize the fact that we understand our rights, whether they are denied to us or not.

I expect to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be the people to maintain constitutional government on this land. Men everywhere should know that we believe in constitutional principles, and that we expect that it will be our destiny to maintain them. That the prediction will be fulfilled that was made forty-four years ago the seventh of last March, wherein God said to Joseph Smith—“Ye hear of wars in foreign lands; but behold I say unto you, they are nigh, even at your doors, and not many years hence ye shall hear of wars in your own lands;” but the revelation goes on to say that the day will come among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto Zion for safety. A portion of that revelation has been fulfilled, the remainder will be. The causes are in operation to bring it about. We are not alone in the thought that the republic is drifting steadily in that direction; that we are leaving the old constitutional landmarks, and that the time is not far distant when there will be trouble in consequence of it, when there will be civil broils and strife; and, to escape them, we believe, men will be compelled to flee to the “Mormons,” despised as they are now. Does this seem incredible? Why, look you, today, throughout our Union, the Latter-day Saints are the most lightly taxed of any people upon the face of this continent. I do not know a community as free from debt as we are. There are one or two States I believe free from debt, but they have had to tax heavily to free themselves. But as a Territory we have never been in debt, and although we have had many temptations to drift in that direction, not a bond belonging to the Territory has ever been issued; not a dollar is owing that cannot be paid. Our cities are out of debt; our counties are out of debt, and I hope they will continue so. Our legislators, county courts and city officers will doubtless take special pains to keep down expenses and let us be burdened as little as possible with taxation, so that we may be a happy and a free people. Let taxes accumulate, and there is a constant temptation for officers to steal your taxes; there must be men elected to take care of your taxes, and there will be hundreds of leaks by which your means will go without benefit to the community, therefore, let us be a lightly taxed people. We are that today, and that is one evidence of the good government there is in this Territory. We have peace here, and we should have little or no litigation if it were not forced upon us, and our courts, so far as litigation is concerned, would have very little to do from the Latter-day Saints; we would settle our difficulties by arbitration, and prevent litigation and money being spent therein. All the tendencies of this people are towards peace, and their aim is to preserve peaceful relations with each other and with the outside world, and we have shown this all the day long.

What is the case elsewhere? Why corruption stalks through the land, and taxation and debt are increasing. It is considered a light thing for a man to get his hand into the government treasury; that is all right, and if so he steal the funds of a city, county or State, they do not call it stealing, however: O no, that is a vulgar name; it will do for the man who robs his neighbor’s hen roost, but they have more fashionable language for the acts to which I refer.

Men in public life, under the present reign of extravagance, cannot meet their expenses, therefore they are exposed to temptation and are led to take advantage of their position. This is not always the case, there are many exceptions; but this is the case too frequently, and good men mourn over and regret it, and they would like to stem the tide and arrest this downward tendency.

This is a lesson that we have to profit by; our officials must be careful, and we must maintain a standard of honesty that does not exist anywhere else. It will not do for the idea to prevail that because a man has an office he has the right to enrich himself from that office. This has not been the case in this Territory thus far; and we may reasonably expect it will not be.

Now, my brethren and sisters, let us live for the destiny that is in store for us. Let us remember that God has a great future for this people, and that how soon it will be granted unto us depends upon ourselves. If we were prepared for it I know that that time would soon come, and we should have opportunities given us of doing good that we do not have today. But I am told that one of the effects of this ordeal through which we are passing, is that there are some young men, and possibly young women, who yield to certain temptations. Young men, who formerly would have been ashamed to be seen smoking on the streets or entering a billiard, a gambling, or a drinking saloon, are now seen in such places, and they do not scruple to use the name of God in vain, or to swear and be profane, and there are some who seem to imagine that it is an evidence of independence and smartness to indulge in these things; and it may be that they go a little further and are guilty of other acts of greater turpitude than these.

No man loses credit by being true to his principles. If he is a Latter-day Saint, let him act out his principles wherever he goes. If he does not believe in drinking intoxicating drinks, let him refrain from doing so everywhere; if he does not smoke, refrain from smoking; if he does not swear—which no man ought to do—let him refrain from it, no matter where he is, and let him be true to the principles of his religion always and under all circumstances, and he will gain influence that he would not have otherwise. Let us as a people take a course of this kind. But there is this tendency—“O, we must be like somebody else.” You can see that tendency at the present time in many things besides men’s conduct. There are men here who would change our city and make it like places they know. They would cut down our streets until they would not be fifty feet wide, and cut down our city blocks until they were like other city blocks, and would narrow our sidewalks, cut down our shade trees, and completely change the character of everything there is about us. They would rob the city of every distinctive feature, and fill the city with nest holes of vice. You can see this tendency here to imitate and do as somebody else does, instead of ourselves being the standard; instead of recollecting that God has chosen us and placed his name upon us, that he has called us to be his Saints, and that it is our duty to maintain our principles, and carry them out in our lives, doing that which is right, regardless of whether it may suit other people or not. It is our duty to have some mind of our own, and if we have a good thing not to be willing to part with it because other people make sport of it. I like our city, our sidewalks and the width of our streets; others may not, but that is the pattern and plan upon which the city was laid out. I would like to see everything connected with our city—and I speak of this because it is a case in point, and I merely speak of it to illustrate everything else—I would like to see us carry out that which is right ourselves. If we have ideas of our own, cling to them, and not abandon them, because they do not happen to be popular. And so with our practices. A man who does not smoke is not any worse for it; he is no less a gentleman when he goes into company because of that. He is no less a gentleman because he does not drink or because he does not swear, because he does not go into a gambling house or a house of ill fame; and how can a man who calls himself a Latter-day Saint, think that he is any more of a gentleman or any better a man because he can do these things when he, in and of himself, knows they are wrong. God has taught us that it is not good for us to do these things; he has given us counsel, he has given us a word of wisdom, and the man who thus disregards the word of God and his counsel does not show very great respect to him, and I do not imagine that God is going to show very great respect to him.

Let us be true to our principles; men admire sincerity, truth and uprightness, and they admire a Latter-day Saint who abides by his principles much more than they admire one who is not true to that which he professes; and you will never lose anything by telling who you are and what you are in a respectful manner, and maintaining that which is right. Of course we need not be bigoted or offensive, or run to any extremes.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with the Holy Spirit, and with desires to teach your children the ways of righteousness, and enable you to bring up a gener– ation that is healthy, pure, virtuous and full of integrity in this land which God has given unto us. That he may thus bless and preserve us is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday Afternoon, April 8, 1875.

There have been a number of items of interest touched upon by the brethren who have spoken during this Conference, and as it is a time when we meet together for the purpose of receiving general instructions, it seems to me very desirable that the time should be occupied in dwelling upon principles which immediately pertain to our condition and present circumstances. In the remarks which I shall make this afternoon, I trust I shall be led to speak upon those things which immediately concern us, and which pertain to our daily lives.

I rejoice exceedingly in this opportunity, that is, the opportunity of being present at Conference. I believe that I can appreciate it better than I could possibly have done had I been here all the time during the winter. I have, however, during my absence, enjoyed myself better than I could have expected. I have felt that the Lord has been with us as a people, that his power has been manifested in our behalf, and that, so far as the prospects of Zion in the future are concerned, we have abundant reason to be thankful and rejoice. I know that the hope is indulged in in many quarters that the Latter-day Saints are fast losing that faith for which they have been noted, and by the operation of which they have been enabled to accomplish the labors that have devolved upon them in the past in this country as pioneers, and as pioneers in the religious world. I am quite willing, myself, if it is any satisfaction to any individual to entertain this idea, that he should do so; but for myself, and I believe I speak the sentiments of the people, I never, in my life, saw greater cause for rejoicing in the cause of God than I do today. I am not in the least discouraged, but, on the contrary, I feel exceedingly encouraged. I know, it seems to me, better than I ever knew, that God is with this people, that he hearkens to their prayers, and that he watches over them. It is true that there are influences operating upon us at the present time that we have only recently had to contend with, they are comparatively new influences and, to a certain extent, the Latter-day Saints are unaccustomed to them, especially the rising generation. But it has been taught us from the beginning that Zion is to become a great power in the earth, and that she will triumph; but I cannot conceive how Zion can become that which we have expected, or that it will achieve the destiny predicted concerning it, unless it be by passing through ordeals such as those we already have to encounter, and others, still greater, that are yet in the future, by which Zion will show its superiority over every institution and power that exists on the face of the earth.

I have expected for years that the seclusion which we sought in coming to these mountains would be terminated. Everything in the predictions of the holy Prophets concerning the work of God in the last days conveyed this idea to my mind. I looked upon our retreat here as a temporary one, for I well knew from the character of the people and their achievements that, in a short time, we should have the world trooping to us; we should be like a city set on a hill, we could not be hid, and that the eyes of men would be attracted Zionward, therefore I have not been disappointed in witnessing that which we see around us today. It has come probably in some form that I had not looked for, because I could only take a general view, the details I did not understand, but that we should pass through ordeals that should test us, test our faith, test our institutions, test the character of our doctrines, test the practical value of everything connected with us, I never had a doubt; and so far as the future is concerned I look forward to an increase rather than a decrease of these things, to an increase of tests, a multiplication of ordeals that will be calculated in their very nature to test and try us and the system with which we are identified to the perfect satisfaction of everyone connected with it. How else could we expect that Zion should become a power in the earth? How else could we expect that that respect should be accorded to Zion which we are led to believe will be the case? How else will the wisdom and power that God will bestow upon his people be made clear in the eyes of this nation and of the nations of the earth only by these practical tests, by these trials, by surmounting these difficulties, and by showing a capacity to meet, grapple with and overcome every emergency and contingency that may arise? Can we achieve that distinction which is inevitably in store for us as a people if the predictions of the Prophets be fulfilled short of such an experience as this? I think not. The enemies of this work may indulge in whatever anticipations of our discomfiture or downfall they please, but as for us, let us take a practical, sensible view of the work with which we are identified, and prepare ourselves accordingly, so that when the hour of trial shall come, be it severe or not, we may be prepared therefore, having strength and faith sufficient to endure it, and to bear witness unto all men that we have not cherished this faith in vain.

There is this peculiarity about this work, that no power that has yet arrayed itself against it has succeeded in its attempts to gain advantage over it. It is true there have been seemingly temporary successes; there have been times when mobs and violent men have achieved a temporary success and when they have flattered themselves with the idea that their designs against this work have been successful. But one peculiarity has ever marked the career of this people, that is, that events in our history which have seemed to be deadly blows against us and the work in which we are engaged, have turned out to be magnificent successes for us as a community. Trace our history from the beginning, peruse it care– fully, draw the lessons from it which I believe are intended to be conveyed by it, and what do you see? The Church and Zion of God emerging from the difficulties, trouble and seeming disaster sought to be brought upon it by its enemies, brighter, stronger, more firmly planted, more united than it was when the difficulty commenced, or the trouble was first visited upon us. The loss of houses and lands, expulsion from homes that were dearly bought, had no such effect upon this people, produced no such thrill and such deathlike sorrow in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints as did the martyrdom of our beloved Prophet and Patriarch; had we lost our dearest friends; had we lost everything that we valued on earth, it seems to me it would not have compared with the poignant sorrow, the deep, heartfelt anguish that prostrated this people in the depths of humility when the news of the cruel murder of their beloved leaders reached them; yet deadly as that blow was, to all human appearance prostrating the entire people, who felt that they had lost those who stood nearest to God and nearest to them, God in his mercy, out of that great affliction brought forth a great triumph and raised up a man to take the place of the Prophet, who has been in some respects like Elisha following Elijah, possessing, as Elisha desired it might be the case with him, a double portion of the spirit that rested down on his master, Elijah. And God has led us, God has prospered us, and God gave us success that seemed to be commensurate with the depth of our anguish and sorrow, and lifted us up from the depths of humility into which we had sunk, and placed us upon the heights of gladness and joy, and caused us to rejoice as we could not have done probably under other circumstances. And so, when we were driven out of civilization so-called; when we wended our weary way through the wilderness, not knowing where we were going, it seemed as though the last blow had been struck and we had been left a prey to internal dissensions or to the violence of the savages. But God in his mercy, out of that seemingly great affliction, has brought forth great blessing and glory to us, and has honored us, has enriched us, has raised us up and endowed us with blessings that we could not have had where we lived; so that that great blow aimed at us by our enemies has been overruled to be the means of great and wonderful blessings to us, and as an entire people we rejoice today in the possession of a land that God has given unto us, to which he led us and which he designated by the finger of inspiration as the land which we should occupy, and which we this day possess despite all the machinations of the wicked and their efforts to strip us of all power herein. Until this day he has given unto us the supremacy in this land, from north to south, from east to west, and he has made it productive and fertile for our sakes. When we reflect upon our history since we came here; when we think of the many plots and schemes, of the many men who have lent themselves to these plots, who have done all in their power against and to entrap this people; when we reflect upon it all, so far as I am concerned, I am filled with amazement, and with thanksgiving to God our Eternal Father for his goodness and mercy unto us as a people. I know, as well as I know that I live, that no human power could have saved us time and time again as we have been rescued; that there is no wisdom of man that was equal to the emergencies in which we have been placed; but God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom, in his kindness and watchcare over us as a people, has, at the very moment when salvation was needed, stretched forth his Almighty arm. He has rescued us from the grasp of the destroyer when it seemed as though destruction was inevitable and we could not escape. The last five years have been as fruitful, probably, as any period in our history in events of this character. Time and time again has it seemed as though destruction was sure to come upon us, as though there were no way possible for us to escape; but God has heard our supplications and has opened the way of deliverance in a most wonderful manner, and has rescued us from the grasp of those who would destroy us. Others may not see the hand of God in these things; they may say that these things come about from and are the results of natural causes, but those who have prayed to God, whose hearts have been drawn out in supplication to him and who have waited tremblingly for the salvation which he has promised, have seen and they cannot but acknowledge the hand of God in these deliverances, because, as I have said, they have watched, waited and prayed anxiously and earnestly in the name of Jesus for deliverance, and when it has come their faith has been strengthened and their joy increased in the Holy One of Israel; because he has heard and answered their prayers: and today the Latter-day Saints are the people of all people upon the face of the earth who know that God lives, because he hears and answers their prayers. And he, it seems, is determined to have a people upon the earth who will be compelled to put their trust in him and not in man, because man’s power would utterly fail to save them, and no power but his can do it. When I look at all these things it is a matter of surprise to me that men cannot see the hand of God in this work. Yet there are many whose hearts have been touched by the evidences of God’s favor unto us, and they have been surprised and have expressed their wonder that we have been so signally delivered as we have been.

Now there is a great future in store for us as a people. God has said so, and his words cannot fail in being fulfilled. There is a destiny in store for this people that few can comprehend. We have to teach the world lesson after lesson that they have entirely forgotten, or that they never knew. We have to teach them and show them by our example that there is such a thing as living faith, that there is such a thing as trusting in God, being saved by him, that there is such a power as faith in the land, and that prayer, when offered in faith, is effectual in reaching him. We have to show the nations of the earth that God with a small people can accomplish wonderful results. When I think of our numbers, how few we are—we are a great people in some respects, but in numbers we are few and feeble—yet with this few people what is God doing in the earth! What a name he is gaining for his people, his servants! You may travel throughout the earth, in every land, among every people, and let it be known that you are a Latter-day Saint, and you will find that the fame of the people has preceded you, and you will find yourselves distinguished from everybody else. It is exceedingly wonderful that a people so small, numerically so insignificant, a people not wealthy, but it may be said poor, are so noted in the earth. Yet this is the fact, that God intends to make us still more so, he intends to give us a name and a place among the nations of the earth that shall be distinguished above all other people. We are accused, you know, of being disloyal. This has been a story told of us, a charge repeated against us from the very beginning, because men have thought it would be most effective in destroying our influence. The idea prevails in many quarters that we are scarcely as true to the government as we should be. I have heard it stated that were it not for these troops at Camp Douglas, Utah Territory would rebel. By such nonsense as this do men who oppose us seek to deceive the world at large respecting us and our motives and feelings. I have had occasion frequently to talk upon this subject. I have told men that, from my early boyhood, I have been taught to believe that the constitution of the United States was revealed of God, and that the destiny in store for the Latter-day Saints was to uphold constitutional government upon this land; and, that being the case, how could it be reconcilable with the idea that we were disloyal to the Government? But there is a class of men who consider everybody disloyal who does not dance to their tunes, and who does not re-echo the sentiments which they express and seem to entertain. We have a class of men among us here who talk about the one-man power and the tyranny that exist in the Utah Territory, but at the same time if an official were to come here and associate with citizens of this Territory, “Mormon” citizens I mean, they would put him under a ban and brand him as disloyal and unfit to hold an official position under the Government. And why? For years here it has been considered by certain officials as one of the best recommendations to the favor of those in power to hate and abuse the “Mor– mon” people of Utah Territory; and if a man were to dare to associate with “Mormons,” were to speak kindly of or to associate with them, and to treat them as he would other people he would be ostracized and banished, so far as association with them is concerned a non-intercourse act would be passed immediately. And these very individuals talk about the intolerance of the Mormons.

We have these things to contend with, we have these lies to live down, and as far as we are concerned, let them always be lies; let no man have it in his power to say that the Latter-day Saints are an intolerant, proscriptive or an unjust people. Never let this be said of us with truth; but if it be said, let our enemies continue to lie about us until they are tired of it, or until the world become sickened with the falsehoods that are told concerning us. And for us, let us pursue the path that God has marked out, being liberal, truthful, upright, dealing fairly, honestly and tolerantly with every man, so that every class of men who come into our midst may learn that we have received a religion that admits of toleration in the broadest sense of the word.

It has been a matter of considerable satisfaction to me to state that in Utah Territory our pulpits, stands, tabernacles and meetinghouses have always been open to every sect and denomination to come and preach their peculiar views, creeds and doctrines, and that our people have turned out in large congregations to listen to speakers or preachers of other denominations advancing their doctrines; and that not only have congregations of adults been furnished, but the children of the Sunday schools have frequently been assembled in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, that they might pur– posely hear and become familiar with the ideas and views entertained by other religious denominations. This stands out in marked contrast with the practice of almost every other sect, and it gives the falsehood to the stories which have been so frequently told about us.

Now respecting all these things that we are passing through, I recognize the hand of God in them all. I think that we have learned lessons of late that have been profitable to us. For instance, we now know and, while the recollection of the past few years is vivid in our minds we shall continue to know, how to value a just man who sits as a judge, and it may be that it will be so impressed upon us, that when power shall come into our midst, and come it will, as inevitably as the sun rises in the morning over the eastern hills so sure will power come unto us; but when it does come I trust that the recollection of the past will be vivid in our minds and that we will always seek to deal justly and fairly with all who may seek justice at our hands. It has been said that when we acquire power we shall be intolerant, as other sects have been. The Puritans, who fled from England because of religious persecution became, in turn, themselves the persecutors when they had the power. Roger Williams fled from them and took refuge in what is now Rhode Island. They persecuted the Quakers and others who came within their borders with an intolerance that was quite equal to, if it did not exceed, the intolerance to which they themselves had been the victims. And it has been said concerning us, that if we had the power, we would probably tread in the same path, that persecution would only harden us and make us deal with others with a severity which we would not know anything about had we ourselves not been victims beforehand. But I think that God in his mercy will strip us if there be any vestige of this about us; I hope he will, at any rate. If we achieve the destiny that is in store for us, certainly to maintain that character and to retain that power, it will be necessary that we should be just, upright, forbearing and tolerant, and that we should be willing that every man in this broad land should worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, whether his god be the workmanship of his own hands, whether it be the sun, the moon, some animal, or the God of heaven, with Jesus his Son, that we shall be willing that every man should worship God according to his own feelings upon the subject, so long as he does not interfere with us, or with others. I think we have learned this lesson in part. I think the lessons that have been impressed upon us have had an effect in this direction, at least they have had the effect to broaden us; and every lesson of this kind will have such a result as this with us as a people, and on this account I am thankful for them.

I am thankful today that we are not a State. There have been times when I have wished exceedingly that we might be released from territorial vassalage and be incorporated in the Union as a sovereign state. I have desired, and labored for it; but this last winter I have been exceedingly thankful that Utah was a territory and not a state. We are told to acknowledge the hand of God in all things, and I do not see why we should not acknowledge it in being kept in this condition of tutelage and vassalage as well as in anything else. But it may be asked—“Why do you think our condition better as a territory than as a state?” When I heard of events in Louisiana, the federal troops maintaining a government there, against which I was informed, and as I believed, the mass of the people revolted, I thought to myself—Better be an insignificant territory than a state if we cannot have the right of choosing our own rulers and have them act in the offices to which they are elected. Thanks to our insignificance federal troops have not interfered with us here; but if we had been a State, with two votes in the Senate, a vote or two in the House, and electoral votes in the Presidential Election there might have been a temptation to have done with Utah as with other states. But we had no vote; our delegate in Congress had no vote; we had no senatorial representation; we had no vote at the Presidential Election, and this denial to us of our rights, by keeping us in a Territorial condition, has thus far helped to save us. With such a feeling as there has been in this city and territory, for contesting elections, when they have been overwhelmingly on one side—twenty thousand and upward against two or three thousand; when men will contest elections under such circumstances, and endeavor by unjust means to wrest the power out of the hands of the people and defeat the will of the majority; when they will do this, as has been done in this Territory, it would not need a very strong pretext to have them to go farther, to have them appeal for Federal interference, and to try and induce the government to say—“Those whom you call the minority are the majority, they have been unjustly dealt with; affidavits have come here showing that the polls have not been managed properly, the ballots have not been deposited as they should be, and we must decide against you “Mormons” and the men whom you have elected, and put your opponents into power.” I do not say that this is the case in Louisiana, I do not pretend to decide upon that question, it admits of a good deal of argument; but I have been told by members of Congress who visited there—the Committee sent by Congress to investigate matters, that if the federal troops had been withdrawn from Louisiana this winter twenty-four hours would not have elapsed until the McEnery government would have been put in power, and the whole difficulty would have been solved. But the presence of federal troops maintained a government that could not be maintained in and of itself. What is the use, then, of being a State government if the Federal government is to interfere in this manner in State affairs? And with the causes that exist in Utah Territory to make interference popular and a thing to be approved of by thousands, a State government would not be so desirable. I have, therefore, so far as my own feelings have been concerned, been very much pleased at being a territory. I have seen the hand of God and his wisdom in this thing, when if my wish or my will could have been gratified we should have been a State long ago.

The Lord, in his mercy, will preserve us from these evils; in his overruling wisdom and providence he will deliver us until the time shall come for us to be a state if that be his will, and I doubt not that we shall be surprised at it ourselves. I have come to the conclusion, as one individual, that I shall not be anxious on this subject in the future, and shall leave it to the overruling providence of God to bring about when it shall seem good unto him.

As to some of the States in the South they are in such a condition that we, if we were in the same, should think our lot dreadful. I have heard stories of usurpation and tyranny by officials in those states that have caused me to think that, notwithstanding all that we have had to endure in Utah Territory, our lot has been a fortunate one compared with that of others. They have drunk the cup of humiliation to its very dregs. You know there was a time here when it seemed as though every effort was made to bring us under military rule in this Territory, and when the provocations endured by the people here come to be read in history surprise will arise in the mind of the reader, and admiration for the people who so patiently endured the wrongs that were imposed upon them, especially when it is remembered what power we hold here. Why, think of it, a few years ago a Governor came to this Territory immediately after a long and bloody Indian war, in which our citizens were massacred, their property stolen, their settlements robbed and their stock driven off; and immediately after that war a Governor came here who prohibited the militia, every able-bodied man in the Territory, from bearing arms—a most unheard of tyrannical exercise of power; and then a Secretary, while acting governor, afterwards repeated the same proclamation. And this people have borne it patiently and never lifted their hands against these contemptible tyrants. It was doubtless hoped that we would commit some overt act to provoke trouble, so that the federal troops could be brought in and be placed under the control of these officials, who for once in their lives happened to hold position. Not only this, but on one occasion when certain citizens met together as a company, to celebrate the fact of their band having got a new set of instruments a federal judge committed them to a military prison for violating this proclamation, as though a proclamation of the Governor was law! With as great propriety might an Executive claim that he has the power to restore the curfew, and say—“You must have your fires extinguished by eight o’clock at night, or we will put you in a military prison; and you must rise in the morning at the tap of the bell, or we will treat you as criminals.” If a Governor’s proclamation is law, and is to be respected as such, where will it end? Will it end with the imprisonment of men who act as militia men? No; if such acts of usurpation continue, no citizen will be safe, and they will end in the overthrow of liberty and constitutional right wherever permitted.

We have borne these things, and we have borne others, the recollection of which, were I to recite them to you, would make our blood boil. It is not necessary that I should do so; but in talking thus do we talk disloyally? American citizens have the right to talk about officials who trample upon their rights in this manner; we all have the right to question the acts of men in power; it is a right given to us, and the man is not worthy of the name of freeman who will not thus criticize acts of oppression and, in a proper manner, resent them and show his abhorrence of them. It is because they are violative of the fundamental principles of our government that I thus talk about them: and in any other Territory than this they would have provoked a storm of indignation that would have overwhelmed their authors. One of the lessons we have to learn is to have patience, but not to stop remonstrating, not stop talking, not stop appealing, not hold our tongues and let our children grow up with the belief that these things are right. No, proclaim against them, let it be known that they are wrong, that they are contrary to the law of the land, to the Constitution and to the principles of our government; let this be known, and let our children understand what is right, and all men recognize the fact that we understand our rights, whether they are denied to us or not.

I expect to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be the people to maintain constitutional government on this land. Men everywhere should know that we believe in constitutional principles, and that we expect that it will be our destiny to maintain them. That the prediction will be fulfilled that was made forty-four years ago the seventh of last March, wherein God said to Joseph Smith—“Ye hear of wars in foreign lands; but behold I say unto you, they are nigh, even at your doors, and not many years hence ye shall hear of wars in your own lands;” but the revelation goes on to say that the day will come among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto Zion for safety. A portion of that revelation has been fulfilled, the remainder will be. The causes are in operation to bring it about. We are not alone in the thought that the republic is drifting steadily in that direction; that we are leaving the old constitutional landmarks, and that the time is not far distant when there will be trouble in consequence of it, when there will be civil broils and strife; and, to escape them, we believe, men will be compelled to flee to the “Mormons,” despised as they are now. Does this seem incredible? Why, look you, today, throughout our Union, the Latter-day Saints are the most lightly taxed of any people upon the face of this continent. I do not know a community as free from debt as we are. There are one or two States I believe free from debt, but they have had to tax heavily to free themselves. But as a Territory we have never been in debt, and although we have had many temptations to drift in that direction, not a bond belonging to the Territory has ever been issued; not a dollar is owing that cannot be paid. Our cities are out of debt; our counties are out of debt, and I hope they will continue so. Our legislators, county courts and city officers will doubtless take special pains to keep down expenses and let us be burdened as little as possible with taxation, so that we may be a happy and a free people. Let taxes accumulate, and there is a constant temptation for officers to steal your taxes; there must be men elected to take care of your taxes, and there will be hundreds of leaks by which your means will go without benefit to the community, therefore, let us be a lightly taxed people. We are that today, and that is one evidence of the good government there is in this Territory. We have peace here, and we should have little or no litigation if it were not forced upon us, and our courts, so far as litigation is concerned, would have very little to do from the Latter-day Saints; we would settle our difficulties by arbitration, and prevent litigation and money being spent therein. All the tendencies of this people are towards peace, and their aim is to preserve peaceful relations with each other and with the outside world, and we have shown this all the day long.

What is the case elsewhere? Why corruption stalks through the land, and taxation and debt are increasing. It is considered a light thing for a man to get his hand into the government treasury; that is all right, and if so he steal the funds of a city, county or State, they do not call it stealing, however: O no, that is a vulgar name; it will do for the man who robs his neighbor’s hen roost, but they have more fashionable language for the acts to which I refer.

Men in public life, under the present reign of extravagance, cannot meet their expenses, therefore they are exposed to temptation and are led to take advantage of their position. This is not always the case, there are many exceptions; but this is the case too frequently, and good men mourn over and regret it, and they would like to stem the tide and arrest this downward tendency.

This is a lesson that we have to profit by; our officials must be careful, and we must maintain a standard of honesty that does not exist anywhere else. It will not do for the idea to prevail that because a man has an office he has the right to enrich himself from that office. This has not been the case in this Territory thus far; and we may reasonably expect it will not be.

Now, my brethren and sisters, let us live for the destiny that is in store for us. Let us remember that God has a great future for this people, and that how soon it will be granted unto us depends upon ourselves. If we were prepared for it I know that that time would soon come, and we should have opportunities given us of doing good that we do not have today. But I am told that one of the effects of this ordeal through which we are passing, is that there are some young men, and possibly young women, who yield to certain temptations. Young men, who formerly would have been ashamed to be seen smoking on the streets or entering a billiard, a gambling, or a drinking saloon, are now seen in such places, and they do not scruple to use the name of God in vain, or to swear and be profane, and there are some who seem to imagine that it is an evidence of independence and smartness to indulge in these things; and it may be that they go a little further and are guilty of other acts of greater turpitude than these.

No man loses credit by being true to his principles. If he is a Latter-day Saint, let him act out his principles wherever he goes. If he does not believe in drinking intoxicating drinks, let him refrain from doing so everywhere; if he does not smoke, refrain from smoking; if he does not swear—which no man ought to do—let him refrain from it, no matter where he is, and let him be true to the principles of his religion always and under all circumstances, and he will gain influence that he would not have otherwise. Let us as a people take a course of this kind. But there is this tendency—“O, we must be like somebody else.” You can see that tendency at the present time in many things besides men’s conduct. There are men here who would change our city and make it like places they know. They would cut down our streets until they would not be fifty feet wide, and cut down our city blocks until they were like other city blocks, and would narrow our sidewalks, cut down our shade trees, and completely change the character of everything there is about us. They would rob the city of every distinctive feature, and fill the city with nest holes of vice. You can see this tendency here to imitate and do as somebody else does, instead of ourselves being the standard; instead of recollecting that God has chosen us and placed his name upon us, that he has called us to be his Saints, and that it is our duty to maintain our principles, and carry them out in our lives, doing that which is right, regardless of whether it may suit other people or not. It is our duty to have some mind of our own, and if we have a good thing not to be willing to part with it because other people make sport of it. I like our city, our sidewalks and the width of our streets; others may not, but that is the pattern and plan upon which the city was laid out. I would like to see everything connected with our city—and I speak of this because it is a case in point, and I merely speak of it to illustrate everything else—I would like to see us carry out that which is right ourselves. If we have ideas of our own, cling to them, and not abandon them, because they do not happen to be popular. And so with our practices. A man who does not smoke is not any worse for it; he is no less a gentleman when he goes into company because of that. He is no less a gentleman because he does not drink or because he does not swear, because he does not go into a gambling house or a house of ill fame; and how can a man who calls himself a Latter-day Saint, think that he is any more of a gentleman or any better a man because he can do these things when he, in and of himself, knows they are wrong. God has taught us that it is not good for us to do these things; he has given us counsel, he has given us a word of wisdom, and the man who thus disregards the word of God and his counsel does not show very great respect to him, and I do not imagine that God is going to show very great respect to him.

Let us be true to our principles; men admire sincerity, truth and uprightness, and they admire a Latter-day Saint who abides by his principles much more than they admire one who is not true to that which he professes; and you will never lose anything by telling who you are and what you are in a respectful manner, and maintaining that which is right. Of course we need not be bigoted or offensive, or run to any extremes.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with the Holy Spirit, and with desires to teach your children the ways of righteousness, and enable you to bring up a gener– ation that is healthy, pure, virtuous and full of integrity in this land which God has given unto us. That he may thus bless and preserve us is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Hon. George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 28, 1875.

If I were to consult my natural feelings this afternoon, I should sit and listen to someone else speak rather than give utterance to any of my own feelings. But I do not suppose that this would be satisfactory to anybody else, at least to most of the Saints, and especially to Bishop Taylor. I therefore rise to say such things as shall be suggested to me by the Spirit of the Lord on this occasion.

To one who has been absent for a long time from home, the privilege of mingling with one’s brethren and sisters, those of the same faith, who have the same views, and who are laboring for the same objects, the privilege of returning and associating with them is very delightful, at least it is so to me, and it takes away from me whatever disposition I might have under other circumstances to speak. My feelings, upon returning after a lengthy absence from home, have seemed to me entirely too big for utterance; I could not command language to give proper expression to them. Where one is at home all the time, this, probably, will not be appreciated.

During my absence I have enjoyed excellent health and I have had a good deal of peace; in fact I may say, as it will probably be satisfactory to many to know, that I have enjoyed myself far better than I could have expected. There has been a very different feeling in Washington during this last session of Congress from that which prevailed during the first session, that is so far as we are concerned. There has been a greater feeling of liberality, a disposition to look upon the people of Utah more as fellow citizens than, I think, was manifested during the first session of this Congress. There were times during the first session when it seemed to me that it required all the faith and energy that I could muster to resist that oppressive feeling which probably, many who are here, have experienced when they have been brought in contact with a strong feeling of opposition. It is more of a spiritual feeling, a feeling that appeals to the spiritual senses, than anything that I could describe of a physical character. There were times during the first session when that feeling was very strong, especially during the pendency of the McKee, Poland and other bills framed for the express purpose of giving our enemies power over us. But I had comparatively little or none of that feeling during the last session; although, as you are doubtless aware, so far as I myself was concerned, my seat seemed to be in greater peril during last session than it was the first session. A portion of the Committee on Elections reached a conclusion upon my case, a technical majority of the members of the committee present having adopted a resolution to exclude me from my seat. They varied the language usually adopted on such occasions to make it, I suppose, not hurt so badly, by calling it exclusion instead of expulsion. But notwithstanding this was the case, and it might be said that I stood in greater peril personally, I enjoyed myself much better, and there was greater liberality and a greater disposition manifested to deal justly and fairly with us who live in this Territory. Whether this feeling was the result of last Fall’s elections or not I will not say. You who are politicians can judge for yourselves. I suppose that everyone who has democratic inclinations or proclivities will be very apt to attribute this change of feeling to the fact that the democrats obtained some victories last Fall. But whatever the cause was, the fact is as I have stated; and as it is a matter, doubtless, of some interest to all of you, and it is not contrary to our views to talk, on a Sunday, about matters that pertain to our temporal salvation, because our temporal and spiritual salvation are so intimately blended that they may be said to be inseparable, of course I do not think it improper to allude to it.

My feelings respecting us as a people, at the present time, outside of what I see at home, are of a more cheerful and hopeful character than I have had cause to indulge in for years. There are some things at home which if I were to look at them very closely, would discourage me in some respects, because I think that we are far from being what we ought to be; and you know our views on these subjects are that we cannot expect much prosperity, for ourselves or for the cause with which we are identified, so long as we ourselves are not in a position to warrant the bestowal of that prosperity upon us. Believing, as we do, that God our Eternal Father is at the foundation of this work, and that his providence is over it and controlling all things for its good, we, of course, cannot imagine that he is going to give any very great prosperity to this cause, or to us as a community unless we are in a position to be benefited thereby; he is not going to bestow blessings upon us that will injure us, and which, instead of proving advantageous, would prove destructive to us. On this account I have entertained some doubts concerning our future since I returned home, as the result, probably, of very partial observation, however, for I have had very limited opportunities of seeing or of judging correctly about this. But to have a great degree of prosperity, there should be more faith manifested by us, more union, more love, and more of those graces which ought to adorn the character of the Latter-day Saints.

But I think there is a bright and very encouraging future for us as a people. In Congress, as I have said, there has been a greater disposition than has been manifested for years, to accord to Utah her rights. There has been a feeling, which some have taken pains to foster, that the best means that a Federal official could take to obtain office, and then to retain it after he had obtained it, was to declare war among the people in whose midst he was sent to act. This has actually been the policy that has been adopted by some in this Territory for years, and, judging from their actions, the idea has been that no better passport to favor with the Administration could be urged than the fact that an official was inimical to the people and was laboring strenuously to destroy them and their religion; and every man holding office, who has not adopted this policy has been placed under a ban, and has been made to feel that he stood in jeopardy. The result has been antagonism and hostility between classes when there should have been union; in fact, where there was already too great a disposition for it to exist naturally, it has received encouragement from those who have had this feeling; and a great many in high places, legislators and others, have seemed to think that in passing laws it was only necessary to know that they were designed to operate in Utah, to receive their sanction, without caring any thing about the nature of the laws themselves. Hence the favor with which were received such bills as Cullom’s, McKee’s, Frelinghuysen’s and others which have been introduced into Congress, intended to operate exclusively in Utah.

During this last session I heard the enquiry made, when a bill was introduced—“Is it intended for Utah alone?” and many members were ready to jump to their feet and oppose it because it was so intended. This was a marked change, and I could not but notice it. The patience which the Latter-day Saints have manifested now for four or five years in the midst of the judicial difficulties which have environed them, has been productive, of good effects abroad, it has, in my opinion, produced a reaction in the public mind. Many persons have become familiar with the actual condition of affairs here, and their sympathies have been awakened by what they have heard, and they have felt disposed to do what they could in a quiet way to relieve us from these difficulties; and if we continue to exercise patience and long-suffering in the future as we have in the past, there is no doubt in my mind about the results. It is our duty to do this. It is a duty made incumbent upon us by our religion to be patient, forbearing, and long-suffering, and if we encourage these feelings in ourselves and in our children, putting our trust in God, relying upon him continually, there is no doubt in my mind as to what the result will be. Men may point the finger of scorn at us and ridicule us because of our religion; but if we are true to its principles, if we abide in the faith which God has revealed unto us, we can afford to submit to all of this obloquy, and everything of that character. It will pass away and be forgotten, but the virtues which we possess will endure and have their effect.

It has afforded me the greatest pleasure to speak about the condition and management of affairs in this Territory. I could point with a great deal of pride to the fact that we were a lightly taxed people, probably as lightly taxed as any community within the confines of the Union; that we were out of debt; that Salt Lake City had, at the last report, a goodly sum in its treasury, besides, nearly an equal amount in assets; that every other municipality in the Territory was in the same condition; that our county organizations were free from debt; that the Territory itself did not owe a dollar in any form, but had a large amount to its credit. This speaks volumes to a great many people, especially to men acquainted with government, and who, themselves, live in the midst of tax-oppressed communities, groaning under public debts created by unwise and dishonest officials. They could appreciate facts of this kind, and they bore volumes of testimony respecting the good order and wisdom that have characterized the operations of those who have had charge of public affairs in this Territory.

Another thing to which my attention was called a great many times, was the grasshopper scourge with which Utah had been visited so frequently. A great many had inquiries to make on the subject. Kansas, Nebraska, and part of Iowa were afflicted with grasshoppers this last season, and the people were exceedingly desirous to obtain legislation in their behalf—they wanted Congress to relieve them by sending seeds and by giving them pecuniary assistance! Tales of distress came by every mail to members of Congress, in which the writers plead piteously with them to have Congress extend aid to the sufferers, as you have doubtless seen in the papers, particularly in the New York Tribune, which had a column daily containing the names of Sunday School children, servant girls, widows, and other persons who had contributed their mites to help the sufferers in the districts ravaged by the grasshoppers in the States I have named. Knowing that Utah had been afflicted by grasshoppers, a good many came to me to enquire how we had got along, and it was a great source of satisfaction to me to be able to say that notwithstanding some of our settlements had suffered from the devastations of grasshoppers five years in succession, there had been no clamor, and that no begging appeal had gone up or out from Utah to other portions of the United States, although many of our settlements had their entire crops destroyed years in succession. I distinctly remember that Wellsville, in Cache Valley had its crops destroyed five years, while scarcely a settlement in the Territory escaped a visitation of this kind three years in succession.

All these things, when mentioned, called forth admiration. Men would say—“There must be something very peculiar about your organization to enable you to manage these things so well. Were not your people overwhelmed with debt, their farms all mortgaged?” “No.” “How did you sustain yourselves?” “Well, we believed in assisting each other; and if our people lived in a State like Kansas or Nebraska they would be too proud to call for help from the rest of the nation because their crops had been destroyed one year. We believe in helping ourselves; we believe in laboring and in asking the blessing of God upon our labors, and in putting our trust in him, believing that he will sustain us, and thus far he has done so.”

I allude to these things because they are of public interest. So far as our admittance into the Union is concerned, it is generally acknowledged, I believe, among the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, that Utah was fully entitled to statehood, and that it ought to have a state government. And, gentlemen would say—“If it were not for your peculiar institution, you would be admitted readily.“ “No,” I remarked, “you mistake, sir; it is not that, there is something more than that. I know that the general opinion is that it is our system of marriage which prevents Utah from being admitted as a State, but it is a mistake, if we did not believe in that there would be something else.” This they would be loath to admit, but many admitted so far as the elements of a State were concerned, in having a substantial footing in the land and being wedded to the soil, in having developed the resources of the country, agricultural and mineral, and in establishing manufactures, that Utah, with her railroads and other improvements is ahead of every other Territory. But, as I have said, the idea was that we were scarcely fit to be admitted because of our “peculiar institution.” I occasionally remarked when talking on this subject to members of Congress—“You are determined to make what you call ‘the peculiar institution’ of Utah of national importance; you commit, according to my views, a great blunder by so doing. Suppose there is one out of every ten among the people of Utah connected with polygamy—some think that is a high estimate—and that there are one hundred and fifty thousand people in Utah, and some think that is a high estimate also, that would make fifteen thousand people in Utah Territory who are either polygamists or connected with polygamy. Now think of it, here you are the representatives of forty millions of people, and by your action in a national capacity you uplift the practices of fifteen thousand people from obscurity and give them a national importance in the eyes, not only of our own country, but in the eyes of Europe. Does it seem statesmanlike that the practices of fifteen thousand people should be made so prominent?” You talk to men in that strain, and many would say—“Certainly, it is folly, we ought to leave it to the arbitrament of time;” but there were others who thought it was comparable to slavery. But slavery was the practice of eleven millions of people at the time of the rebellion, hence there is no comparison between them. But it seems as though, in the providence of God, men are determined to give this an importance to which it is not entitled, if the number of those who practice it be taken into account. It seems that men are determined to make it public, to advertise it, and have it known.

But notwithstanding all these things we are gaining influence. There is no people today on this continent of our numbers who attract so much attention, and concerning whom there is so much interest felt as the people of Utah. So also with the delegate from Utah Territory; he has always been one of the members to whom strangers have been most desirous to be introduced. This has been the case from the time of the first delegate, and I do not think the interest has lessened of late. So that, not only are the people objects of interest, but everything connected with them and their history, and notwithstanding all that is said about us we are growing in influence in the nation, and it has surprised me to see how widely our influence is spreading, and how many channels it occupies and how wide its ramifications extend throughout the nation. How difficult it is to strike us a blow without hitting somebody else! How difficult it is to do anything inimical to us without others feeling that they will be injured by that action! This has surprised me wonderfully this past winter, and in fact this past two years. I have seen the growth of the influence of this people and its increase in many directions. Many acknowledge while they deprecate it. Of course this has caused me to rejoice more than I can tell. I have felt that God’s hand has been with us as a people. I felt so during the first session. The passage of the Poland bill, in its present form, was to me one of the most wonderful manifestations of Providence I ever beheld; that which has occurred this last session has been equally so, because I have believed that I could see the hand of God in it all; I believed that his providence was over us; I believed that the prayers of this people, offered continually unto the Lord, were heard and answered by him. A very prominent gentleman remarked to me one day—“Mr. Cannon, it is wonderful how you retain your seat, it surprises me, one would think you would have been ousted long ago, considering the efforts which have been made.” I made some remark in reply, and, the conversation continuing I remarked, calling him by name—“There are over a hundred thousand people in Utah Territory praying for you members, and for me, and they are a sincere people, and their prayers are heard.” Said he—“I do believe that is the case.” It may seem a trifling thing, in these days of unbelief, to think that God hears and answers prayer; but it has been a great satisfaction to me all the time to tell my fellow members that we were a praying people, and that God was being supplicated by you to avert every blow.

It is something refreshing at this time in the midst of the unbelief of men to meet with a man who believes that God lives, and that he hears and answers prayer. You would be surprised to find how few such men there are in this world, especially in public life. The belief in God, that he exists, that he takes any cognizance of human affairs, and that he hears and answers prayer is almost extinct; it is a rare thing to find a man who entertains it. Yet men do not ignore God entirely, but they deny his interposition in human affairs. On this point we stand out in marked contrast with every other people. We believe that God’s providences are over all, that not a hair of our head falls without his notice, that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without his being aware of it, and that he hears and answers prayer when we supplicate him in faith in the name of Jesus for those things that we need; and we have this lesson to teach. I believe that the day is not far distant when there will be a reaction in this respect. There is at the present time a determination, apparently, to swing to the extreme of infidelity; but I look for a reaction. I believe that the example, teaching and influence of the Latter-day Saints will be attended with good effects. I think it is the duty of everyone, not offensively, not in a manner to disgust, but in a proper, wise manner, to endeavor, as far as possible, to inculcate by example and by precept faith in God and in the efficacy of prayer to him.

Of course there were times when inquiries would be made respecting our belief, and many persons scarcely think that we believe in Jesus Christ and in the Bible. Some have the idea that we are a sort of heathen; or, in other words, that we have discarded everything connected with Christianity. Others have no definite ideas in regard to our belief, their minds being fully occupied with the marriage system of the “Mormons,” they having heard of that and not much else, and they suppose that we do not believe in anything but mar– rying and living in polygamy. When you converse with men of intelligence, who have any comprehension of truth, and relate to them our views, they acknowledge that we are a different people to what they imagined. I have remarked when in conversation upon our principles that if the gratification of licentiousness were our object, we could do that in a much more popular and in a much cheaper manner than the way we have adopted. I told them that it was only necessary to follow the example of some public men and we should get along without any difficulty, and there would be no fault found with us at all. Many would acknowledge that this was true if the object we had in view was the gratification of sensuality. But wherever I have had the opportunity, I have endeavored to impress those with whom I have conversed with the idea that we regarded men and women guilty of immoral practices as being guilty of the worst possible crime next to shedding blood. I have said that we regard murder as the greatest crime in the sight of God, and that next to that we look upon unchastity and unvirtuous actions. This has created some surprise, but it is a lesson that we have yet to teach mankind on this point, and I trust that we shall be true to our principles.

I have heard, since I returned, and in fact I heard it before, that there is a disposition on the part of some to yield to the temptations that surround us, young men and young women falling away and being guilty of unchastity, young men going to billiard saloons, gambling saloons, drinking saloons, indulging in the habits of smoking and swearing; and not only young persons but men of mature years. I am surprised at it. I am surprised that Latter-day Saints should have so little strength of character, and so easily yield to these wicked influences. Do you think that anybody respects a man who takes a course of this kind? Certainly not, yet there are some who think they gain respect by so doing. Let me say to you that a wicked man, a man who is unchaste and unvirtuous, has no respect for a man who is like himself. A man who is profane will admire a man who will not indulge in profanity. You never saw a man who was a drunkard and who indulged in the use of intoxicating drinks who did not admire the man who refrained from their use. He may banter and ridicule him, but in his secret soul he admires him; and so it is with all evil habits, and I would not give a fig for a Latter-day Saint who could not in the midst of all these temptations, be sincere and true to his convictions and live the religion that God has revealed to him; such men are not worthy of the name, and sooner or later they will lose the name and their standing and place in the Church. I knew, so far as my experience has gone, that men respect sincerity. Men despise Latter-day Saints who do not act consistently with the principles they profess, while, whatever a man’s religion may be, he will command respect in proportion as he clings to and honors the principles which he professes, under all circumstances under which he may be placed.

The Lord is working with us as well as with the nation, and I feel sure he will cleanse from our midst everything that is impure and ungodly. I expect that we shall have ordeals that will cleanse everything of this character from our midst, and that everything that can be shaken will be. In former days we had mobs to contend with, and other diffi– culties that were trying to the faith of the people, and those who were not grounded on the rock fell by the way. If they could be frightened, or if threats or difficult circumstances could affect them or their faith, why, of course, they dissolved their connection with the Church. But I rather think the day of mobs has gone by. We certainly have been led to expect that the time will come when we shall be delivered from the power of mobocracy. What then will be the means of trying the people? Probably prosperity, good circumstances, the increase of wealth, the effects of which are far more trying on a people than poverty. The influences which attend wealth and comfortable circumstances will probably have the same effect on the people in cleansing from our midst that which is unsound, as mobocracy and the difficult circumstances connected with it had in former days. But I never expect to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be free from influences which will test their fidelity to God, and be a means of removing from their midst that which is unworthy to be associated with his Church. That is my feeling, and has been for a long time, and I believe that God is causing us to pass through these circumstances expressly to test, prove and try us, and see whether we will be true to him or not.

He has revealed to us the everlasting Gospel; the everlasting Gospel! the truth as it is contained in this book (Bible); he has taught us what to do in order to gain favor in his sight. How many of you who are here today have seen the time in your early life when, if you could have known that God would bestow upon you the gifts of his Holy Spirit as they were enjoyed in ancient days by his servants, you would not have felt as though you could travel the earth over to obtain such precious blessings? I suppose there are scores in this congregation today who have had such feelings, they have felt as though it would be the greatest boon that could be bestowed upon them to have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the various gifts thereof that were bestowed upon and enjoyed by the ancient Saints. God has bestowed these blessings upon us; he has revealed unto us the truth; he has shown unto us how we can obtain a remission of our sins, and in accordance with his word delivered eighteen hundred years ago by his Son Jesus and by his Apostles, that if we believe in Jesus, if we repent of our sins and are baptized for their remission, we shall receive the Holy Ghost.

These blessings have been promised to and bestowed upon us; the Church has been organized in its ancient purity and simplicity, with Prophets, Apostles, Teachers, Pastors, Evangelists and all the officers which existed in ancient days. Is not this a blessing which people should appreciate? This has been given unto us, and we have been guided by the spirit of revelation and prophecy. There has not been one moment since I have known this Church that we have not had revelation to guide us, and it has been all of a character that we could understand. It has not been some man who was operating over the people, speaking in muttered tones as an oracle to the people, so that they could scarcely comprehend what he meant; but it has been in plainness and simplicity, so that every man and every woman in this Church has been appealed to go and ask God for themselves, and they have had an opportunity of knowing for themselves concerning the truth of the doctrines taught and of the counsel that has been given. This constitutes the great strength of this work, and how we ought to appreciate the blessings which God has bestowed upon us in this respect.

Now if we were left without any testimony of our own, and had to receive the ipse dixit of some man in authority, and to act blindly upon that, it would be very different, it would require a much greater degree of faith than we have to exercise at the present time. But how was it in the days of Joseph? Was there a doctrine taught which was not accompanied by the testimony of the Spirit to the minds of the people? Certainly not. How has it been in the days of the Prophet Brigham? It has been the same. When the servants of God proclaimed that God had established his Church, that he had restored the everlasting Priesthood and its ordinances, they were told to go and ask God for themselves, and they had an opportunity of testing the truth of that which was taught unto them, and there was no chance for imposture.

Many think that the people called Latter-day Saints are a deluded, ignorant set, led by cunning priestly leaders, who exercise power over them because of their shrewdness and ability, and that the people are a blind herd led at the will of these shrewd deceivers. We know that this is not the case. We know that the most frequent appeals that have been made to the Latter-day Saints have been to investigate for themselves and to know for themselves. When we started out from Illinois and traveled over these plains, were we following President Young because he said, “Come on?” Were we striking out blindly into the wilderness, hoping that he would find some place, and trusting to his sagacity and shrewdness? Certainly not, that was not the feeling; but every Latter-day Saint who crossed the Mississippi River, who was indeed a Latter-day Saint, had a testimony that he or she was going in a direction that God was leading, and when night came each was as confident that he was in the path that God required him to walk in as ever the children of Israel were when led out of Egypt. When I look back at those days, and consider the circumstances that surrounded the people, I wonder and am astonished at the faith, calmness and confidence they manifested. When the crickets came down from the mountains in 1848, and devoured nearly the entire crops, I cannot recall now any murmuring, or expressions of distrust, fear or apprehension, but there was a calmness and serenity of feeling among the people which, when I reflect upon now, surprises me. Then I was but a youth and had no responsibilities, but I have had responsibilities since then, and I have wondered how men having wives and children and the care of a great people resting upon them, as our brethren had who were here then, could maintain their equanimity in the midst of those circumstances. Yet throughout this valley there was not a murmur or expression of distrust, and if there were fears indulged in they were not publicly expressed. So it has been all the time. God has been bearing testimony to the Latter-day Saints by his Holy Spirit, giving unto them evidence which has been of a most satisfactory character; and every man and woman, boy and girl, ought to live so that they will have this testimony within them, that they may know concerning the doctrine and the counsel that is given; that when President Young speaks, we may know for ourselves whether it is from God or not, and when any other teacher among us speaks, we may know whether the doctrine he advances is from God or not; and so that, if necessary, we could go to the stake, and have no doubts on the subject. Or, like Daniel of old, be cast into the den of lions and have no fears; or, like the three Hebrew children, be cast into a fiery furnace. We pray that God will restore to us the faith once delivered to the Saints, and this is the kind of faith they had, and it sustained them in the midst of all their trials and afflictions. And men and women have had this faith who have not had the fulness of the Gospel as we have; thousands of them, in what are called the dark ages, suffered the most painful deaths for the sake of their religion; and they were sustained by the consciousness that they were doing that which God required at their hands, that they were living up to the light of truth as far as they had it. And now, living with the facilities and opportunities that we have, we ought to have still greater faith and power, and be able to endure far more for the sake of this great truth, for I tell you, my brethren and sisters, it is one of the most inestimable of blessings, it is beyond all price, the knowledge which God has given to us, that he hears and answers prayer. To think that in the midst of affliction, when you are harassed and oppressed, when, your family probably is sick, and you are surrounded by circumstances which human aid cannot relieve, there is a Being, all powerful in heaven, who is near at hand, to whom you can offer your supplications and make your appeals, with a certainty that he will hear and answer them. What is there to compare with it in value on the face of the earth? Who would not give all they have to have that knowledge? Who would not be stripped of everything they hold valuable, so far as earthly possessions are concerned, for the sake of such knowledge as this?

This is the knowledge that you have. If you have obeyed the Gospel in sincerity, everyone of you should have in your heart, no matter what your circumstances may be, or what difficulties and trials you may be called upon to pass through, the knowledge that you have an abiding Friend who will hear and answer your prayers, and will never desert you. I delight to bear testimony that God does hear and answer prayer, that he will bless and deliver those who put their trust in him. And I wish that all of us would cultivate more of this spirit, and teach it to our children. We hear about infidelity increasing. Why does it increase? Because men and women do not live so as to know that God lives. That is the reason. If they were to live in close communion with him, there would be no chance for infidelity to increase; but the fact that they do not thus live causes that increase. We should teach our children to pray to and to have faith in God. If we do this we shall see good effects flow therefrom: faith will increase in the land and will spread abroad, and we shall be the means in the hands of God of raising up a people who believe in him, and who, if necessary, would go to the stake to show their faith in the truth of their doctrines.

That God may bless you, my brothers and sisters, and help you to overcome everything that is evil, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Adjourned Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 11, 1874.

The teachings which we have heard at this conference have been of a character most important to us as a people, and should be treasured up by all who have heard them; and those of us who reside in other places who have attended Conference should carry the instructions they have received to the places where they reside, that the spirit of this work and the spirit of this conference may be disseminated among all the Saints.

We are living in one of the most important periods of the earth’s history. Events are of such a character connected with us as to excite the greatest interest, and no one connected with the people, who feels as he or she should, can help being interested in the way in which this work is progressing and attracting attention throughout the earth. There is no people, today, on the face of the earth who are situated in this respect as are the Latter-day Saints. God is dealing with us in a most remarkable manner, and is fulfilling, through his people, the predictions of the holy prophets, and we behold on every hand, when we open our eyes to see and our hearts to understand, the great events which God said should transpire in some day and age in the future.

There is one thing with which I am greatly impressed, and that is, within a few years how determined the enemies of the kingdom of God have been to destroy that work which he has founded. How they have envied, maligned, and maliciously persecuted this people, and how they have concocted plots for their overthrow! In this last Congress no less than eight bills were introduced, having for their object the subjugation of the people of Utah to the ring of men who have sought their destruction, and yet the population of this entire Territory does not number as much as a second class city in the United States. I remarked to members of Congress, of the House and of the Senate, that Congress was paying us a great compliment, a people so insignificant numerically, so devoid of wealth, in the estimation of many so illiterate, so deluded, so bound and fettered and so barbarous in our habits. I think it a great compliment that the representatives of forty millions of people should bestow such attention upon one hundred and fifty thousand. Yet it is not these representatives who wish so much to do us harm, but it is a body of men here who are anxious to gain power and influence at the expense of a people whose prosperity and influence they envy. I have been impressed with the wonderful manner in which we have been advertised now for some years back. I cannot fail to recognize the hand of God in this. I look around me and I see a people who, if they were not Latter-day Saints, if they did not believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, would not be noticed in any particular manner, but who, because they are Latter-day Saints, are known more widely and whose movements attract more attention and excite greater interest, whose public men are more advertised and their lives and characters published more widely throughout the earth than those of many rulers of great nations. Men say it is because this is such a great imposture, because Brigham Young is a false prophet, and because the Latter-day Saints are deluded. These are singular statements to make, as though a few deluded and ignorant people, led by a false prophet, could occupy the attention of the nations of the earth. It is something un– heard of in history except, as we testify, in the case of those who have preceded us in the same work. Jesus said to his ancient disciples, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” The eyes of the world were upon them. And in our day we behold the same effect. The Latter-day Saints and their work have been like a city set on a hill. They have attracted the gaze of the nations, and that, too, without any especial effort on their part to make themselves conspicuous. The clamor of our enemies has greatly contributed to this. What do their attacks accomplish for us? They advertise us and give us an importance to which we could not otherwise attain. Every effort that is made to destroy this work or to embarrass its onward progress, or to deprive its leaders of their lives or of their liberties only enhances its importance in the midst of the earth, gives it publicity, preaches the gospel, attracts attention, causes men and women to think, to reason and to investigate what it is about this people that creates so much excitement.

I have said, and I do not think I exaggerate in the least degree, that the efforts of the past three or four years, in this Territory, to destroy this work and to deprive the leaders of this people of their liberty have had more effect in preaching what is called Mormonism than the efforts of a thousand missionaries would have been able to accomplish. “Well, but,” says one, “they say such terrible things about you, and it is no advantage to be spoken of in this manner, to be maligned and accused of wrong.” It is an advantage, because, as I have said, it causes men and women to reason and reflect, and it promotes investigation. There have been hundreds who have come here and been brought in contact with this people, who have been astonished at what they have seen, because what they have seen has been so different in every respect from the stories that they have heard, and the effect and revulsion of feeling have been much greater than they would have been had they never heard anything about us at all. And it is our business to live down the lies that are put in circulation about us. I, myself, rejoice in these things, because I see the hand of God in it all, I see the fulfillment of the predictions of the holy prophets, I see a people being gathered together who are united, not so much as they should be, but still more united than they were before they heard this gospel, and I rejoice that this is the case.

I hope that we shall continue to cultivate within us the principle of union. Remember the story of the Scythian king. When on his deathbed he told his boys to bring him a bundle of arrows. “Now,” said he, “let me see you break this.” They tried one after another, but they could not break the bundle. “Cut the string that ties them,” said the king, “and try to break them singly.” They cut the string and tried the arrows singly and broke the entire bundle with ease. There is power in concentration of effort, and it is this which gives us our character in the earth today. Cause the Latter-day Saints to be disunited, divide us asunder, split us into factions and what would we amount to? Why, nothing at all, we would not count anything in the history of the race or of the earth; but the very notice that we receive, the attention that we attract is a tribute to our union and to that amount of the cementing influence which prevails among us as a people. Union among us is all-important, because we have a power opposed to us that will destroy us if it can, there is no disguising this fact, it is publicly announced everywhere. It was hoped when the railroad was completed that that would do it; it was hoped that when the mines were discovered and emigration floated in here that the accompanying influences would accomplish it, that fashion, luxury, vice with all their corroding influences at work at this system would destroy it, or produce the disintegration of the entire people. Every effort of this kind has for its object the destruction of the union of this people. Why, if we were disunited, if we were split into factions we might have houses of ill fame on every corner in juxtaposition with churches; we might have drinking saloons and gambling saloons; we might practice harlotry to the fullest extent, and who would indict us for it or say one word against our practices? No one; we would be following the fashion of the world. Why, it would furnish themes for preachers and they would have excellent texts, for where these things abound they flourish. But because we are united, because we have set our faces against these things, because we discourage vice we are unpopular, and we shall continue to be so until a better judgment prevail.

I have said there is no disguising the fact, nobody attempts to disguise it, that the object sought for at the present time is the destruction of this people as a people. Not that many would avow their wish to have our lives taken, but to destroy our union, to destroy the influence of our leading men. Now, I ask you, Latter-day Saints, are you so blind and so foolish as not to see that this is the object of every attack which is made upon us? You who do not feel in favor of more union and of concentrating our efforts, ask your– selves this question and reflect upon the objects sought to be obtained by those who are arrayed against us. We do not seek the destruction of any, we have never been aggressive, we have never sought to force our opinions upon anyone; we have invited all to come to this land and proclaim their principles here, without let or hindrance. They have not been gagged in their faith, or restrained or restricted in any manner. They have had the privilege of preaching to the fullest extent in our tabernacles and meetinghouses, and we have not had the least objection thereto, but on the contrary we have been pleased to see them. This is the course we have taken. But when we are threatened with destruction, as a pure matter of self-defense it is our duty to organize ourselves to resist these attacks, and the people who would not do it are unworthy of an existence upon the earth. I, therefore, have ever been, am now, and will always be, while I feel as I do at the present time, in favor of greater union among this people, in favor of the United Order, in favor of everything that will give us strength and cement us closer and closer together and make our lines more impregnable than they are. And as I said the other day so say I again, with the help of God, my life shall be devoted to that object with all the strength, influence and ability which God shall give me among this people. Is there any harm in this? Not in the least, so long as our objects are what they are. We want to save, we want to preserve, we want to disseminate good principles, and any man or woman who will practice this can live forever in the midst of the Latter-day Saints and never have any difficulty. Every fair-minded man who comes to this land and deports himself as a gentleman, and any fair-minded lady who comes and deports herself in like manner, might live here until they were as old as Methuselah was, if we continued as we have been, without ever having the least cause of feeling against us. We ask no more from others than we are willing to extend to them with the greatest liberality and freedom; but we expect to have liberty and freedom for ourselves, and we shall contend for them in every constitutional and legal manner as long as we live.

My brethren and sisters, if you have not got this spirit of union let me advise you to seek for it. Humble yourselves before God and seek for it until the desire to be more closely united will burn within you, until you regard it as one of the greatest objects that can be attained. In a family capacity, in a ward capacity, or as a people, from north to south, we should not have these clashing and conflicting interests—Latter-day Saints against Latter-day Saints, and yet all of us professing to have the building up of God’s kingdom at heart. I do not know of anything else that we have to do. God has sent us here for this object, and I do not know any better thing that we can engage in than to build up the Zion of God. It is as good and as great a labor as we can be engaged in, in fact it is the labor which God has assigned unto us as a people and as individuals, and if any of us are engaged in anything else we are not in the line of our duty, and we should turn aside from that and pursue the path which God has marked out.

May God bless you and fill you with his Holy Spirit, that you may carry it with you to your various homes in the remote parts of the Territory, and that it may live and burn within you, fill you with good and holy desires to do the will of God, keep his commandments and live in close communion with him, and then you need never be afraid of being deceived, for you cannot be if you have the Holy Ghost within you, and that this may be the case, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Thursday Afternoon, October 8, 1874.

Six weeks ago yesterday, I left this city to visit the settlements throughout the southern portion of our Territory. My trip has been one of the most interesting and pleasant I ever undertook, and I have rejoiced exceedingly in the opportunity which I have had of meeting with the people in that section of country. There is a great anxiety in many places and with many people to know what the condition of affairs is in that region. I can say that I never saw our people feeling better as a general thing, and more willing to do that which is required of them than at the present time. There was great anxiety among them to be instructed, and the meetings in every instance were crowded, the people turning out with great alacrity, and expressing regret that we could not stay longer. Brother Erastus Snow and brother Musser and myself at– tended most of the meetings. Part of the time in visiting the western settlements I was alone. The anxiety of the people seems to be to know what to do and to be instructed in the best manner of doing that which God requires at their hands; and this is the spirit which, as Latter-day Saints, we should entertain and cherish. God has called us to be a peculiar people; he has raised up Prophets, has organized his Church, has placed within it those callings and offices and gifts and qualifications and blessings which characterized the Church in ancient days, and he has condescended in his mercy and goodness to reveal himself unto the children of men, to teach them, counsel them and inspire them so that they may be instruments in his hands in building up his kingdom, and laying the foundation of that work of which the Prophets have spoken, and which we are told shall stand forever. We as a people, with the views which we entertain, should not make up our minds to live in accordance with the methods of life, the modes of doing business, and the habits and the traditions of our forefathers, who have lived in ignorance of these principles and of this spirit of revelation—for we are required, in obeying this Gospel, to hold ourselves in a position to receive the word of God, to be counseled, to be directed, to be guided by that word in all our transactions, in the doctrines which we believe, in the habits of life which we adopt and in all our practices and labors. This is one of the first lessons which is impressed upon us in starting out in obedience to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The very first teachings we received impressed upon our minds the necessity of forsaking these errors and false traditions which we have received from our fathers—errors in doctrine, false traditions concerning God, concerning his kingdom, and concerning the plan of salvation which he has revealed; and if we have profited by that first lesson we have been continually progressing, learning new truths, new to us, acquiring knowledge concerning ourselves, concerning the work with which we are connected, concerning the earth and the inhabitants thereof, and we have been unlearning and forsaking the errors and the faults of our forefathers and of the world from which we have been gathered.

The prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to ask the Father that his kingdom might come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, will be fulfilled by means of this work with which we are identified. The foundation of that kingdom has already been laid. And the aim of every true Latter-day Saint, from the day that he or she joined this Church until today, has been to approximate to that life which we are told is led by those who are exalted through keeping the commandments of God—to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven; for as the Apostle John says—“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope within him purifieth himself even as he is pure.” So with the Latter-day Saints, they have a hope of salvation within them, they desire to keep the commandments of God, and they have been seeking, from the beginning until today, to purify themselves, to live a heavenly life, and to reduce to practice in their daily walk and conversation, those precepts and laws, obedience to which would prepare them to dwell eternally with God in the heavens.

There is a characteristic about the faith of the Latter-day Saints, in which they perhaps differ from most of the professed followers of Jesus Christ—they do not believe that God expects or desires them to put off acquiring these perfections, powers, gifts and graces which belong to the heavenly world until they reach that world; but they believe that God has placed them here in a state of probation, and that he has hid himself only to a certain extent from them; that he has drawn a veil of darkness between himself and his children on the earth for the purpose of trying their faith, of developing their knowledge and testing their integrity, so that those who will feel after him in faith, persevering in the midst of ignorance, darkness, doubt, confusion and the temptations of Satan, and all the evils with which we come in contact in this state of being may receive his blessings and the gifts, graces and favors which he bestows upon his most favored children. Hence, the Latter-day Saints believe in doing everything here that will help to prepare them for life eternal in his presence. They look upon this world as a place where they should attend to these things. By baptism? Yes. By having hands laid upon them? Yes. Have the gifts of the Holy Ghost? Certainly, have them here as well as hereafter; have them here to a partial extent to prepare them for the life that is to come. Have the voice of God here? Yes, why should we not know God’s will here? Why should we be closed out entirely from all knowledge of God here, and yet believe that as soon as we die we are ushered into the fulness of his glory. Receive these blessings here? Yes, every blessing that is necessary. Be perfect here? Yes, it is man’s privilege, the Latter-day Saints believe, to be as perfect in his sphere as God our eternal Father is in his sphere, or as Jesus in his sphere, or as the angels in their spheres. Said Jesus to his disciples—“Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Perfection, then, is to a certain extent possible on earth for those who will live lives that are agreeable to the mind and will of God.

Now as fast as the Latter-day Saints can comprehend the life that God, his angels and those who are made perfect in his presence lead, they should be willing, and I believe that the most of them are willing, to copy after that life in this state as quickly as possible. “Well but,” says one, “how useless it is for frail, fallible, mortal beings to attempt to live lives of perfection like the angels and those who are just and perfect in the presence of God!” I know that if we are to judge of men naturally, as we see them in the midst of their sins, breaking the commandments of God, trampling upon his holy ordinances, disregarding his requirements, we should say it is useless; and it is not only useless but it is impossible for men ever to reach that perfection of which we speak. But I am encouraged in my hopes that perfection, to a certain extent at least, is possible even in this mortal life, by witnessing the results in the midst of a people who are striving after it. I know that the efforts of this people in this direction, though not always crowned with the success that we have desired, yet there has been abundant cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving in the progress which we have made. We have attained unto a degree of union and love that approximates to some extent to that union and love which we believe exist in the eternal worlds. We have not yet reached, probably, that point when we can love our neighbor as we do ourselves; but still, if we strive for and keep that object in view, and endeavor to reach that perfection, undoubtedly we shall overcome our selfishness, and all those feelings which seem to be a part of fallen human nature, sufficiently to carry out that command of God.

If we could get a glimpse of heaven, that heaven to which we are hastening, or to which we hope we are hastening, have you any idea that there would be any conflict of interests among the inhabitants of that blissful abode? Do you imagine that we should see one arrayed against another, that there would be clashing and struggling, each one scrambling to get the advantage of his neighbor, and to acquire influence and power, and the blessings that belong to that abode more and greater than his neighbor? That is not the idea that we have formed of heaven; we have not entertained such views, but we imagine when we get there that God will be the possessor—he is the possessor—of all things that are comprehended within that sphere of existence, that the thrones, the principalities, powers and crowns, and even the very garments that the exalted wear belong to God, and that he will give them to us, that we shall possess them, subject, of course, to his law and to those regulations which he will enact, or which he has already enacted. I do not suppose there was a Christian that ever lived, I do not suppose there was a heathen that ever lived who expected that, when he got to the next world, to the place of bliss which he anticipated in his faith while here, he would live in anything like the condition he occupied here. Converse with the Christians about the next world, and they will all say that they do not expect to have anything; that they are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, and that all the glory and honor of their salvation they ascribed unto God and the Lamb; that they will be content with anything he chooses to give them when they reach there, they would be content to be doorkeepers or to occupy the lowest position if they could only be permitted to dwell in the presence of God. And the heathen who believe in a future state of existence, and this belief is universal among them (I believe it was Bancroft who said that atheism is the sin or crime of civilization, and not of heathendom or of natural men), the heathen universally believe in a future state of existence, and they picture to themselves a condition such as I have described, of course varying according to their faith and their views of this life, thinking that they will have circumstances similar in that life which is to come, with this difference only, that they will be more perfect and will be delivered from the evils to which they are subjected here as mortal beings.

If then, my brethren and sisters, we are striving to live in accordance with that life to which we are hastening, we, by a little reflection, can see how much there is for us to do in order to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the first teachings or revelations that was given to this church after its organization, was to the effect that we should dwell together as one family: that there should be an identity of interests among us; that we should approximate to some extent at least, and as far as practicable to that identity of interest which we understood, by the revelations of Jesus Christ, to exist in the eternal worlds. This revelation is one of the earliest given to this people, and its practice was entered upon in early days. We have been told by those who are old enough to know, and who had experience at that time, that to the disobedience or failure of the people in carrying out this revelation was due the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Jackson County in the State of Missouri; and that, afterward, the same causes operated to produce the results which the people experienced at that time, God suffering the enemies of his kingdom and people to have power over them because of their disobedience to respond to the call which he made upon, and to the commandments which he gave unto, them.

This is one of the traditions that has come down to us of a younger generation, from the fathers of this Church. It has been taught to us and impressed upon us for years, probably upon many of us since we knew anything of this work, until the belief is fastened upon the hearts, consciences and feelings of the great bulk of the Latter-day Saints, and that at some time or other, in the future of this Church that doctrine would be again taught, and the requirements embodied in that revelation would be again made upon us as a people; in fact the teachings I have received have been that until we did obey that the privilege of going back and building up the Center Stake of Zion and redeeming that land which God first gave unto his people as an inheritance, in the State of Missouri, would not be granted unto us, and that until we did obey it we should be pilgrims and wanderers, and should not have the privilege of going back and laying the foundation of the Center Stake of Zion and of that great Temple which God has said shall be reared in this generation. So that for years, speaking of my own feelings, I have awaited, I will not say with anxiety, but, with great desire, the time when this people would have sufficient faith, and when the circumstances should be so favorable that God should command us to enter upon the practice of that principle, or to enter into that order which he commanded us in the beginning to obey.

Every time I have traveled among the nations of the earth, I have thanked God that he had provided a panacea for the evils which I saw everywhere around me. When I saw the rich reveling in luxury, crowding upon the poor, crushing out their lives, the poor living in squalor and misery, their lives a burden to them, not having, in many instances, enough food to eat, or raiment to wear, or a shelter, and when winter approached dreading it with feelings indescribable. In society in the world there is a large class of people having more means than they can spend for their comfort and convenience. They have the finest houses, abundance of food, every convenience, troops of servants to wait upon them to do their bidding, and have all the wealth they can desire, every luxury they can conceive of. At the same time, there are living in the same community thousands of poor creatures destitute of the necessaries of life. My heart has been pained within me in visiting the large cities of Europe, at seeing women degraded like beasts of the field, and their lives continual burdens to them, their existence almost joyless. It has been a wonder to me how people could keep from committing suicide in the midst of the want that was everywhere apparent. I have thought, how can God bear with this people, and the cries of the poor ascending to him continually; and, as I have said, I have thanked God in my heart that he had provided a means of deliverance from such evils for his people.

There is an expression used in the prophets, which I have often thought of, about the rich grinding the faces of the poor. It is a most forcible and significant metaphor. The tyranny and oppression that are practiced upon the poor are terrible. In many places their faces are literally ground by those who rule over them. Yet there are philanthropic men and women, rich people who do not take comfort in their riches because of the existence of this misery on every hand of which I have spoken, and they form benevolent societies of every name and nature in order to relieve the wants of the suffering poor, and yet with all their efforts the suffering is not lessened to any measurable extent. The people live and toil and die in the most squalid misery by thousands in all the large cities of thickly populated countries. I have also, in conversation at vari– ous times and under various circumstances, been told by those with whom I have conversed and who have taken some interest in the work with which we are identified, that so long as we were a primitive people and were simple in our habits, so long as we did not have a great deal of wealth in our midst we should probably continue to prosper and increase and bring forth and manifest in our lives the virtues which I described as having an existence among us. Men have told me—“O yes, Mr. Cannon, the picture you draw of the manner of life of your people is very delightful; it is delightful to find a people exhibiting such qualities as you describe as existing among, or possessed by, your people; but you are a new people, a new sect or denomination; but wait awhile, wait until you have grown in wealth, importance, numbers and power, and then we shall see whether your system possesses elements superior to the systems with which we are acquainted and which have preceded yours.” Men who have reflected, who have read and made themselves acquainted with the histories of other peoples, know full well that when once wealth increases in the midst of a people, when class distinctions make their appearance, when education is promoted and aspired after by certain classes which other classes cannot reach; when refinement, the refinement of education and culture, has its effects, creating distinctions among a people who originally were primitive, and luxurious habits come in to foster these differences, then the strength of former communities has disappeared, and nations which have been noted as possessing the strength and the union of iron, have fallen into decay and have lost their power and have been broken into fragments and have eventually disappeared. Judging us by the light of this kind of experience many have made predictions which you have probably seen in the papers thousands of times, that there were causes operating in the midst of the Mormon community that would work out its disintegration and eventually bring about its utter overthrow and downfall, or at least bring about an assimilation between it and the systems by which it was surrounded.

There is one thing, however, that is not taken into account in measuring us, and that is that God has laid the foundation of this work. Men do not recognize that, but they recognize other causes and other influences that are apparent to them and with which they are familiar. We have consoled ourselves, in listening to these predictions, with the reflection that we are the people of God, that God has made promises unto this people, that he has said that this work shall stand forever, and shall not be given into the hands of another people. These predictions, therefore, have not had any discouraging effect upon us. But, with all our confidence, we must not lose sight of the fact that God works by means. If we are to withstand the encroachments of the evil one we must, on our part, do that which will fortify us against his encroachments, we must take steps to render us impregnable to his assaults. We are not the first people to engage in such a work as this. Others have made repeated attempts to establish the kingdom of God on the earth. One by one the prophets fell, one by one they became victims to the power of the evil one and to the assaults of the wicked. The Son of God himself fell a martyr to this fell spirit; his apostles one by one, although they endeavored in their day and generation to establish this order of Enoch to which I have referred, also fell martyrs to the same spirit of persecution, until the inhabitants of the earth had either slain or driven off every apostle, and not a man was left to stand up in the midst of the people to say—“Thus saith the Lord,” having the authority and power of the apostleship and of the holy priesthood from God to administer in the things of God and to communicate the mind and will of God unto the people.

What followed? A reign of night, darkness and confusion covered the face of the whole earth. There was no heavenly voice to disturb the solemn stillness that ensued. Every man of God who aspired to revelation had been killed or swept from among men, and then, and not till then was the vengeance of the adversary satiated; but as long as there was a holy man, who aspired to the distinction, or to the honor or blessing of knowing God’s will so long there were those arrayed against him who scrupled not to shed his blood, and were not satisfied until that blood was spilled.

You trace the various dispensations down from the days of Adam until the days of these apostles of which I have spoken, and see how short-lived were the attempts to establish a reign of righteousness. If we turn to the Book of Mormon, which gives an account of God’s dealings on this land, we shall find that while the circumstances which surrounded the Jaredites and the Nephites were more favorable than those which surrounded the people of Asia, yet the same causes operated on this land, and after Jesus came and the wicked had been swept off by the judgments of God, and none were left but those who were righteous or partly so at least, that then they sought to establish this holy order among them and were successful, it continuing in their midst until the year two hundred and one after the birth of Jesus. And we are told that during that time all the generations that lived passed away in righteousness before the Lord. The circumstances were undoubtedly favorable for the establishment of an holy order among that people, because, as I have said, the judgments of God had visited the land, and the wicked had been swept off; but no sooner did they begin again to divide, each one seeking after his own affairs to the exclusion of the general affairs of the people than they began again to fall into sin and transgression, and the result was that they were punished of God, and the Nephites were eventually blotted out; but we are informed that one hundred and sixty-seven years, terminating in the year 201 of the Christian era, were passed in perfect peace and righteousness. It was almost millennial righteousness. Satan was bound almost as much during that one hundred and sixty-seven years in his operations among the Nephites, if we may judge by the short record which has come to us, as if he did not have an existence, or as he will be during the thousand years’ reign of peace, that is so far as leading away the hearts of the people to commit sin is concerned.

I have alluded to these various attempts on the part of holy men to establish truth and righteousness on the earth. We have seen that they have only been partially successful; they did not succeed in overcoming sufficiently to entirely bind Satan and to banish from the earth the evils of which he is the cause; but we are told that in the last days God will establish his kingdom Brother Penrose described, this morning, in the close of his remarks, some of the results which should follow. He said that the lamb and the wolf should lie down together, and the bear and the cow should feed together, and there should be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the mountain of the Lord, but that peace and union and love should prevail throughout the earth for one thousand years. The Prophets have spoken of this time, those to whom I have referred, who fell victims to the rage of their persecutors; they looked forward to the time when this kingdom should be established and should be successful, and they dwelt upon it with great delight and anticipation. The Apostles John, the Revelator, speaks about a thousand years of peace and righteousness, when Satan should be bound and should not have power over the hearts of the children of men to tempt them, or to lead them astray, and that this should last for one thousand years, and then at the close of that period he should be loosed again for a little season.

The revelations which we have received through the Prophet Joseph Smith speak of the same period, that is, anticipate such a time as this that the Apostle John speaks of; and we have been taught from the beginning until the present time that this work, this system, this gospel, called Mormonism, should be the beginning of this work, and that it should spread and increase until it should fill the whole earth, and bring to pass the fulfillment of these predictions. Now what I wish to impress upon your minds, in bringing them to this point is this, that if we are engaged in a work that is to be more successful than any other work that has been established by God, our Heavenly Father, from the beginning until now there must be greater faith and union, there must be more power, there must be a willingness to sacrifice more than has ever been manifested by any people who have preceded us in works of this character, or in any dispensation which God has given unto men. I know that many think that God will do a great deal. I believe that I am a believer in God’s power to the fullest extent, but I have noticed in my experience that God works by means, and that he does not himself come down in person, neither does he send his angels down, except on visits occasionally; but he commands his people, his children on the earth to do that which he requires at their hands, and then helps them in doing this, and my conclusion is that if we lay the foundation of a work that shall stand forever, that shall never be overthrown or given into the hands of another people, we must have more faith, practice a higher righteousness, be more valiant for the truth and possess more of God’s power than any people who have ever preceded us. Are we prepared for this? Did the Latter-day Saints take this into their calculation when they joined this church? If they did, it is well, if they did not, they had better begin to investigate the matter and satisfy themselves as to what their duties are. It may be said, as I have already stated, that God will assist us. Undoubtedly he will; he assisted his servants in ancient days. But we have a foe to contend with who is sleepless. The adversary of our souls has not lost his cunning. He knows that his time is short and that the last struggle is approaching, and he will not relax in the least degree his vigilance or his diligence in seeking to destroy this work and to martyr or destroy the men and the women connected with it. The supremacy of the earth depends upon the issue of the contest. He has held the sway, he has been dominant, he has been successful in destroying the holiest and the best that ever trod the earth’s surface. The Son of God himself and the pure and holy in all ages he has succeeded in destroying, and in spreading his pall of darkness over the earth, and in destroying faith from the midst of the children of men, and now that the attempt is made to revive the work of God and to establish his kingdom on the earth we may make calculations with all certainty that he will not cease his endeavors until either he, or God and his kingdom are triumphant. He wants to vanquish and he will vanquish if possible, and he will spare no means to destroy this work, for if it is established the foundation of his kingdom is sapped.

There are principles taught unto us now which will fortify us more effectually than anything that has ever been taught to us before, so far as resisting this pressure that is brought to bear upon us to destroy us. I refer to this Order to which I have alluded before—the Order of God, the order that is called after Enoch because, as we are told in the revelations, he established it among his people, and brought about that perfection which enabled him and his city to be translated. I know there are many feelings among the people in relation to this. I have heard more since I returned to Salt Lake City, in the few days I have been here concerning the feelings of men who call themselves Latter-day Saints, than I imagined existed among us. In the south the people have organized, and they have gone along very well during this last season. Bishop Callister remarked to me, when I was at Fillmore passing south, that he doubted whether Enoch himself and his people made more or better progress than they had made in the same time. I doubted it also, and subsequent observation confirmed the truth of this remark. So far as other settlements are concerned I found the people in some instances discouraged a little, but on the whole they were greatly encouraged by the results of the season’s labor, and they felt to organize themselves more perfectly according to the new articles of association, and to carry out the requirements which had been made upon them. I was delighted in visiting a little town on the banks of the Rio Virgin, called Price. There the superintendent of the farming, Brother Baker, remarked, “I wish you had come about an hour earlier, you would have seen us all here together at our meal.” Said I—“What do you mean?” He said they had just got through dinner. Said I—“Do you eat together?” “O yes,” said he, “we have been living as one family all this season.” I was surprised for I had not heard of it, and I was so much interested in it that I commenced to make enquiries as to their condition. I found that there were from forty to forty-four men, women and children who had joined together in accordance with the counsel given by President Young while in the South. They had proceeded to farm together, and to live together as one family. I thought that the best persons that I could refer to, to obtain information as to the real workings of the affair would be the sisters, so I proceeded to interrogate them. The leading sister told me that sometimes it was rather hard work. I did not wonder at it when I saw the kitchen. They had three small cooking stoves, and they were quite inconveniently situated. But she added—“We have felt excellently and feel greatly encouraged.” Said I—“Are the people satisfied? Don’t you sometimes have faultfinding with your cooking, or your meals, or something of this kind?” No, she said, there had been no faults found. “How do the sisters feel, are they tired of it?” No, she said, they were not, they felt greatly encouraged, and they divided the labor so that it was not very heavy upon any of them, not too heavy. “How do you arrange about your washing?” They told me, that in the beginning they put their washing all together, but they had no machinery, and they found that it was no advantage, as it was too heavy even for the strong women, and they concluded that it was better to divide their washing, and for each family to do its own. I spoke to the Superintendent—“How do you manage with your men? Are the brethren willing, when you require them to do anything, do they go with alacrity, or do you have difficulty in controlling them?” “Not in the least,” said he, “I have never made a requirement or asked a man to do a thing that he has refused to do, and in our farming they have worked well and patiently together, and they are satisfied with the arrangement.” I spoke to others who worked there and made inquiries of them, and I found, in every instance, that there was a good deal of satisfaction in the arrangement, and they hoped, if they could get up a suitable building and have suitable convenience for their cooking, that a great deal of this labor would be lightened and they would get along much better even than they had done.

Brother Samuel Miles is one of the company, a man whom many of this congregation know, and who has been a long time in the Church. I talked with him, being an old acquaintance, and he told me that, from his observation during the entire season, he deemed that what was originally an experiment was an entire success, and he felt very much gratified with the result. After rising in the morning they meet in one room together and have prayers; then they sit down to breakfast, and while at breakfast the Superintendent converses with the men as to the arrangement of labor for the day. After breakfast they go to their work, one to one department, another to another. At noon they again assemble for dinner, eat their dinner after having asked a blessing upon it, and then spend a little leisure—until one o’clock or the hour expires—and then resume their labors. They come together again in the evening, when they have supper and attend to prayers, and spend the remainder of the evening in social conversation or in conversation on business or in arranging their affairs, as the case may be.

I afterwards visited a little settlement of the name of Hebron, where there are about thirty families. The Bishop, George H. Crosby, said they had brick and lumber on hand to build several residences, but they hesitated about building as they had some thought of carrying out the suggestions which President Young made to the people, or to some of them, to enter into a family arrangement, and they thought that probably it would be well to use their material and build a suitable building. It was afterwards suggested that they build a dining-room and a commodious kitchen, etc., and that they live in their own residences during this coming summer and try the effect of eating together. This they may do. They had found that it would be far more convenient for them, in their labor, to be together during the summer season at least and, the weather being fine, they could walk from their houses to the dining room and eat their meals, and then the men go to their labor and the women and children separate again. In that settlement they have labored during this past season in the United Order, and they told me they had raised double the amount of crops they ever raised before; and all their labors are proportionately advanced, and this is the testimony of a good many settlements. There are some complaints as a matter of course. I heard some about tools being misused, about wagons not being greased, about animals not being fed, harnesses not being cared for; but these results are due to a great extent to want of system.

Another objection that we found and that has resulted badly in some instances, is that men have put in a portion of their property only and kept out a portion; of course, the portion that is kept out absorbs nearly all their attention, while that which is put into the Order does not receive that share of attention which it should have, and when they were called upon to labor they had other interests which called them off, and they excused themselves or sent their boys to attend to it. In some wards and settlements they have been crippled in consequence of this. But recent instructions which have been given by the First Presidency, that no one should be admitted into the Order, unless he enters with all he has (except in case of debt, then the board of directors to exercise their discretion about that), will have a good effect throughout the entire South. It will concentrate the labors of the people in one direction, and where a man’s treasure is there will his heart be also; and if all a man’s property is in the United Order if he be a Latter-day Saint, he will labor with fidelity for the furtherance of the objects which the Order has in view.

There is one thing which has been demonstrated by this season’s labor, namely, that better results can be produced by a combination of labor, as proposed in the United Order, than by individual effort to the same extent. I was much gratified at finding that this was the universal testimony of all with whom I conversed on the subject.

While at St. George, after holding two days’ meeting, brother Snow and myself held meetings with the Bishops, superintendents, foremen and leading men in the various settlements throughout that Stake. We requested them to give us a full and free expression of their feelings concerning the season’s labors, to tell us all the causes of discouragement if there were any, and also the causes of encouragement, and those that I have already alluded to were the principal ones given. There have been in some instances indolence, carelessness and indisposition to work, and an inclination manifested to throw the labor upon those who are industrious and energetic. It might be expected that such would be the result, it could scarcely be otherwise. I was reminded very much, in hearing the statement of the brethren, of what the Prophet Joseph said when alive about the indolence, carelessness and indifference to work manifested by some men. He said there were three kinds of poor—the Lord’s poor, the devil’s poor, and the poor devils. I thought that this Order was bringing to the surface the poor devils, and I should not be surprised if it would have this effect; in fact, if a man who is not inspired with right feelings should get connected with the Order, there is no doubt that he would shirk work and be careless and indifferent whenever he could be. We know that there are many eye-servants among us—men who work only when they are watched; and so far as the use of tools is concerned, any man who has employed other men, and has not been in a position to look after them and watch what they are doing, knows how men work, even as we are situated at the present time. He knows how his tools are misused and mislaid, and his harness and his wagons and his teams are used or abused, and that it requires much care on his part, or on the part of somebody equally trusty to preserve his property. He has to frequently buy new tools—new spades, hoes, forks, ploughs, and if he has a mower and entrusts it to other hands than his own, in many instances he gets it broken. This is not always the case; but it is too much the case, and we have these things to contend with now, and in my opinion judging by my observation, as far as it has extended, they are no worse in the United Order; and there is this about this Gospel—it brings every imperfection to the light that a man has within him. When this Gospel has been preached for the first time in neighborhoods, I have heard hundreds say to me, at different times—“Oh, I am so glad that I have got this truth, there is Mr. So and so,” or “there is my aunt” or “my uncle” or “such and such a friend,” “my wife” or “such a relative,” “there is my minister, if I go to him and tell him what I have received he will embrace it gladly and be a Latter-day Saint,” and they go and tell what they have received. Probably hundreds of you who are here today, have gone filled with zeal—“Why, I have got the truth, I want you to hear the truth,” and what has been the result? The devil has manifested himself immediately and they have found that their relatives had a spirit which they never dreamed of, and they have proved their ministers to be anything but willing to receive the truth. This Gospel has that effect, it brings men and women’s imperfections to light, it shows the imperfections of their characters; it tests people and tears the covering from hypocrisy and false pretensions as nothing else can. The United Order being one of its principles will, I expect, have this effect; but would it not be better for our faults and imperfections to be brought to light in this life than to wait until the next and have them brought to the surface then?

The people feel very well so far as I have had opportunity to observe. We have explained the articles of association to them; they have been gratified at the explanations which have been made. Many have reasoned upon it like this—“if I put all I have got into the United Order, and I begin to draw day’s wages only out of the Order, I have got a large family, how can I sustain them upon my day’s wages? It takes the product of my property managed with care and economy, in addition to my own labor, to enable me to live, and if I put all my property into the Order, how am I to live?” This has been the inquiry more frequently made than another. It is not the intention, in establishing the United Order, to destroy the productiveness of property; it is not the intention to take property from men who have it and give it to those who have none. There are two extremes to be avoided, one is the disposition of the rich to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the poor. That is what we are trying, in this United Order, to put a stop to, so that we may prevent the growth of class distinctions, the increase of wealth in a certain class, and that class have interests diverse from and frequently adverse to the rest of the community. That is one extreme. The other is this idea, to which I have referred, the anxiety of poor people to get possession of the accumulations of the rich, and to have them divided among them, and a general leveling take place. There is no such idea connected with this order, such a thing could not stand very long; and let me say to you who find fault with this United Order, ask yourselves when you ever saw anything connected with this Church or its doctrines that was unnatural, that was not consistent with good common sense? Do you think that we can teach and practice anything that will repress people, that will destroy individual effort, that will take away from enterprise its incentive? No, there is nothing connected with this system of this character, and it is upon this point that men and women are so much deluded by the false and slanderous reports which are circulated. There never was a day since our organization as a people, according to my ideas and my reading of our early history and my subsequent experience, when there were so many falsehoods in circulation about any principle as there have been about this United Order. There is far too much ignorance among us, and men take advantage of this to deceive the people by their falsehoods. It is the intention to preserve that which we have. If a man is a man of business let him have a chance to show his business capacity, not stop him, not take his property from him and give it to somebody who never had anything. The intention is to use the skill of the businessman in elevating those who are not businessmen, to bring up the poor from their level to the broad upper level, not to pull down the upper level to the plane of the lower. That is not the design, but it is that we shall work for each other’s good; and where men have property let them take means to preserve it, not to destroy it. It is not the intention for boards of directors to use arbitrary power over men and property.

There are many cases where if a man were to put all that he has into the Order, it would be found that he already manages that property better than the board of directors could. Under such circumstances it would be better to say: “Here, you have managed this property economically, you have done well with it, we could not do so well with it if we took it. There is no object to be gained by our taking it from you; you continue to use and manage it as a stewardship, and keep up its productiveness.” This will have to be done doubtless in many instances.

But as to our farming interests, we can farm together far better than separately. Instead of having so many mowers and reapers, and so many tools, teams and wagons as we have now, we can concentrate our labors and have better results from the use of a given quantity of capital and labor than under our present system; and I do hope that the Bishops in this city will take hold of this matter as they should do. Will they do it? Or will they stand in the way of the people? I firmly believe that many of our leading men are standing today in the way of the people in relation to the organization of this United Order; but if they were to do as they should do, as God requires of them, they would take hold of this principle in the spirit of it.

“Well, but,” says one, “suppose I lose my property?” Suppose you do, it is not intended that you should lose it, but suppose that you do? If my property goes, what odds is it? God gave it to me, and if I lose it in obeying his commandments, who cares? I do not. When I got old enough to understand this Gospel I saw that it might take everything men had, and even their lives, to maintain it in the earth, and if a man is not willing to lay down his life for this Gospel, he is not worthy of it; if he should not be willing to risk his property in carrying out a great principle, of what value are his professions of faith? And when God calls upon us, we who have been saying all the day that our property was upon the altar, and proposes a plan to save and exalt us and give us strength, we begin to mourn about our property, and to tell what failures there have been in the management of property, about cooperation being a failure, and thus justify ourselves for refusing to do what God requires! And yet call ourselves Latter-day Saints! Out upon men and women calling themselves Saints of God and making the professions which they do, and striving for the exaltation which they profess to be aiming for, who would make such expressions. Suppose that in doing that which God requires, all of our property should be taken, which we may rest assured will not be the case? If God were to permit a mob to come upon us, they could sweep away the whole of our property. If a mob were to come upon us and drive us, how much would any of us be worth? And cannot God let our enemies have power to scourge us? I think he can; and unless there is a different spirit manifested by leading men, by Bishops and by men who ought to have the Spirit and power of God resting upon them, and by the people themselves in many instances anger may be aroused against us. I believe that today President Young is prostrated under a load that, if we were obedient he would be relieved from. I believe he would have been sound and well able, today, to teach us from this stand if we had done as we should have done. He is wearied by his labors in teaching and laboring in our midst, calling upon us early and late, entreating us to listen to the counsel of God.

I have said, and I repeat it, that if we do not know that this United Order is true of ourselves by the revelations of God, we should be willing to obey it just because President Young teaches it, a man who has taught us and led us for so many years, so faithfully and so successfully, God having blessed him as he has done in so signal a manner all the time. If this people would take hold of the principle in that spirit they would soon know that it was of God; the testimony of Jesus would rest upon them, and they would know it for themselves; and then, when they get that spirit, they would not care about property, if it took it all, they would say, “all right.”

When you made up your minds to obey this Gospel, did you hesitate because your friends told you that if you became Mormons you would spoil your prospects and lose your friends? No; you sacrificed every worldly consideration, you risked all for the truth, for the salvation which God promised you. And so in this United Order if you have a testimony that it is of God, you will feel—“No matter what it costs, all right.” Failures, yes there may be failures. I expect there will be failures and mistakes as long as we are so full of frailty, but who cares for that? But this will not be the fault of the principle. If God commands us to do anything, let us do it with all our heart, and he will prepare the way and preserve us from the bad effects of failures; he always has controlled results for our good, and he will do it again. Why there are men who would say that the mission of Jesus was a failure (was he not killed by the Jews?), and the plan of salvation is a failure, and that creation is a failure, and they may just as well say these things as to say that cooperation is a failure, and that many other things are failures. Some say that God failed in putting Adam and Eve in the garden and allowing the serpent to tempt them and cause them to fall, and the whole scheme was a failure. Why not as well say that as to say that other things are failures? There are some people who can only judge of merit by success. If successful, no matter what it may be, it is meritorious. It may have its origin in hell, and success is, in their estimation, a test of merit. The best of schemes and plans have failed frequently in this sense, and yet have been true and perfect.

I know that God requires this union at our hands, and by the help of God I am determined, with all the influence and power that he has given me or that he may give me, to use my endeavors with the people to organize in a manner to resist every encroachment made against them. All hell is arrayed against us, and the powers thereof are bound to destroy this work if they can, and it is our duty, as Latter-day Saints, to band ourselves together in the power of God. We shall be able to do it if we do right, and the wicked will not gain a single advantage over us. That is just as true as that God lives, and I know it. I know that this United Order is of God, for God has revealed it to me; the revelations of Jesus Christ have imparted this knowledge to me, and I know it for myself. I know by the gift of the Holy Ghost that it is our duty as a people, and as individuals, to enter into this United Order and carry it out in the spirit that God has revealed it in. Listen to this testimony, and the men and women who have the love of the truth within them have, or will have the testimony of Jesus that these words are true and faithful.

And I desire to say further—there has got to be a spirit of repentance sought for by many of those who are now called Latter-day Saints, or they will lose the spirit of God and their standing among this people. Will God prosper us in this United Order? Yes, and we cannot be a rich people, we cannot be the people which God designs us to be, until we live after that pattern. There are hundreds of men who are praying constantly to God to deliver them from apostasy and there are others who pray that God will deliver them from being rich, because they perceive that, frequently, when men get rich, they are not easily handled, they become intractable, they lose, in some instances, the Spirit of God; and therefore, they pray that God will deliver them from being rich, that they may not be lifted up in pride. Yet we know that the revelations and prophecies say that God will make us a rich people.

Speaking about the Zion of the last days, Isaiah says that the Lord will bring for brass gold, for iron silver, for wood brass, and for stones iron to build up the Zion of God. When will that be done? When we are united, so that we shall not consume the wealth that God will give us upon our lusts, upon creating class distinctions, raising one class above another, one class living in luxury and another class groveling in poverty; but when we are so organized that there will be no rich and no poor, but all partaking alike of the bounties that God shall give unto us, then, and in my opinion, not till then, can he bestow upon us the wealth that he has promised. It would ruin us today if we had it, and God, as I view his providence, withholds these blessings from us because of the effects they would have upon us as a people. He does not wish to destroy us. But when we are organized aright, then what? Why, then will be fulfilled after a while another saying of Isaiah’s—“And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers; but ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord; men shall call you the ministers of our God.”

All these problems of capital and labor can be solved by this principle and in no other way, and there will be an incessant and never-ending conflict between capital and labor until they are solved in this manner.

That God may pour out his holy Spirit upon you, my brethren and sisters, and fill you therewith, to enable you to do his will perfectly, is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered at the Funeral Services of Elder Thomas Williams, in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Rooms, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, July 19, 1874.

While Elder Taylor was speaking of the future condition of the departed, the words of a writer in the Book of Mormon came to my mind, and I think that, probably, reading it will be as appropriate on the present occasion, to refresh the minds of the Saints in relation to their faith, and if there should be strangers present, it will give them an idea of the faith of the Latter-day Saints in relation to the resurrection. I think, I say, it would be as appropriate as anything I could say. They are the words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, and are recorded in the second book of Nephi and sixth chapter. Speaking to a people who were there, Jacob says—

“Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children. For I know that ye have searched much, many of you, to know of things to come; wherefore I know that ye know that our flesh must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our bodies we shall see God. Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man, must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

“O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more, our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder, and all manner of secret works of darkness.

“O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the way of the deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its death; which death is the grave. And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

“O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness.

“And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch an they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God. And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end.

“O the greatness and the justness of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled. But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

“O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.

“O how great the holiness of our God! For be knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day. And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God. And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it. Wherefore he has given a law; and where there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him. For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.”

There is much more in this chapter of a similar character, very instructive to those who read and have faith to believe the testimony of this man.

In speaking to you, my brethren and sisters, who are familiar with the life of him whose remains are in our midst this morning, I need not say to you scarcely what our views and hopes are concerning him. We know when a man dies, inasmuch as he dies faithful to the truth, hav– ing kept the commandments of God and obeyed the ordinances of the house of God as far as they have been revealed and as he has had an opportunity, that he is secure, that his future is assured. He goes, as we are taught, to the Paradise of God, there to await the morning of the first resurrection. We know that his body will be called forth from the dust and from the tomb, and that his spirit will reanimate it, and he enter upon that glorious condition of existence concerning which so many promises have been made. In this respect the faith of the Latter-day Saints is not a chimera, it is something tangible.

While I sat here and listened to the words of our brother the reflection came across my mind—how often we are called upon to participate in sad scenes like the present, and yet throughout all this Territory, among all the Latter-day Saints, there is this peculiarity, which was not witnessed in the case of our brother because of the suddenness of his taking off; but I have never yet found, in any instance where people have been summoned hence by death, that there were death and sorrow, and feelings of pain and anguish, and dread concerning the future as I have witnessed elsewhere. In the early days of this Church God promised unto the Latter-day Saints that their deaths should be peaceful, and that the dread of death should be taken away from them, and after forty-four years’ experience we, today, and in all the years that are passed, have realized the truth of this promise.

There is something tangible about the faith which God has revealed. If I go forth believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and am baptized for the remission of my sins, and receive the Holy Ghost, I know that I have done that which God requires at my hands, and if I should die at such a time what have I to fear? If the Holy Ghost has descended upon me it is a witness and evidence to me that I have received a remission of my sins, and that the promise of God has been fulfilled to me, and that the man who administered that holy ordinance to me was an authorized servant of Jesus Christ.

That was the case with brother Williams. His testimonies were of the most remarkable character. I have heard him speak about the evidences of its truthfulness he had when he joined this Church, and I have been almost overpowered with joy that I lived in a day and age of the world when God revealed his mind and will unto man as he did in ancient days. A more powerful testimony, probably, could not be heard than has been borne so repeatedly by our deceased brother. And then what? Why the Spirit of God rested upon him and impelled him to leave his friends and his former home and associations and gather with the Saints. Did he do this because some “Mormon” Elder told him it was right to do it? No, he did this because the Spirit and power of God rested upon him and impelled him to do it. He was filled with joy and peace in obeying this commandment of God, and it was so after he came here in all the works that devolved upon him. Only the day before he died we had a long conversation about these things together, and I trust I shall never forget the spirit that rested upon him and myself while talking. Speaking about the unfaithfulness of men, he did not say in these exact words, but he conveyed the idea to me that he would rather die, rather lay down his life than prove recreant to the principles of the Gospel which he had espoused, he valued them so highly, more than life and everything else on the face of the earth. He has done all that he could do. That power which God promised, or which Jesus rather gave unto Peter, when he said that he should have the power to bind on earth and it should be bound in heaven, and the power to loose on earth and it should be loosed in heaven, has been exercised in behalf of our deceased brother. He took a wife and she was sealed to him by the power of the holy Priesthood, and he entered into this holy ordinance and obeyed celestial marriage as it was revealed to him in the fullness of his faith, although it was a trial to him. But he was impelled to do so by the power which rested down upon him, and he knew he did that which was right. He went forward in obedience to the commandments, putting his trust in God, and I know, as he knew and still knows, though gone behind the veil, that he has secured to himself, so far as his own works could secure, through the grace and atonement of Jesus Christ, his eternal exaltation in the presence of God our heavenly Father.

It is not a strong assurance or hope that the Latter-day Saints have, that they will receive these blessings in the eternal worlds; but when the promise is sealed upon their heads that they shall come forth in the morning of the first resurrection and be crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives, there is a testimony from God, our eternal Father in the heavens above, which rests down upon them and confirms the truth of these words upon the soul of a faithful man or woman, and they know, when words are pronounced upon them by a man who has the authority, sealing upon them blessings, keys, thrones, principalities, powers and exaltations in the eternal kingdoms of God our Father, I say they know, by the testimony of the Spirit of God which rests down upon them at such times, that these words are not the words of men, but that they are the words of the Spirit of God inspiring that man, and that God takes a record of that ordinance in the heavens, and that it is sealed upon them and upon their children, and that they will actually come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, according to the promise, hence, there is no fear of death in the minds of the Latter-day Saints. If the stake was standing before us, prepared for our execution—if we had that faith that we should have, and which animated the Saints of God in ancient days, we would walk as calmly to that stake and be bound to it as we would walk to eat a meal of victuals, knowing that God, our heavenly Father, will bestow all the blessings that have been sealed upon us.

This was the faith which animated the ancients and sustained them in the midst of persecutions, and this is the faith that we should cherish and cultivate as a people and as individuals. Woe to the man who has lost that faith! Dreadful is his condition if he has not that faith living within him. Woe to that man, for his condition is far worse than his first condition, that is before he had these blessings sealed upon him.

My associations with our brother who has gone have been of the most tender character. I have known him as I have known a brother. Our associations have been very intimate from the day I first made his acquaintance, on the Missouri River, in 1860, until the present time. I have watched his course, and have been pleased with his faithfulness. A more amiable, more kind-spirited or more loving man I scarcely ever met. I do not know that I ever met one more so. He has been beloved by all who have known him. A modest, unobtrusive man, never setting himself forward, but faithful and diligent, performing the labors assigned to him without any parade but with the greatest devotion and zeal.

That God may bless his wives and his children, and pour out upon them the spirit of consolation, that he may preserve his little ones, that they may grow up in the truth, and tread the straight and narrow path which he has trodden to the end, and like him be crowned with glory, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.