A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 30, 1857.

You must expect, when you see brother Heber stand before you to speak, that you will hear what is called the rough etchel to this generation. I am pretty well satisfied, brethren, that there are only four or five persons in this congregation that dislike to hear me talk; and when you take out those four or five, I know that this people would rather hear me speak than any other man who speaks from this stand, except brother Brigham. It is not that those four or five have anything particular against me, but it is because I do at many times give vent to my feelings, and, by so doing, I hit them a crack where they deserve it. Well, this is all right.

I wonder if there is a man or woman here that really wants to be a Saint—I mean those that want to live their religion—but what desire in their hearts and seek in their prayers to the Father that they may be corrected when they are wrong—that they may be admonished? Is there a person in this congregation but what has that desire and that feeling? If there is, I am greatly mistaken; for I hear them when I go into meetings and when I go into family circles; they will say, if I have a wrong thing about me, I want to be corrected. Have you not heard it so this morning? Every man that speaks before this community has those feelings. Have not I those feelings? Brethren, if I have a fault, or have anything about me which is not right, I want to get rid of that; and so do you, if you are Saints.

Well, there is not a mother in this congregation but feels in that way; else, when they see one of their children in fault, why do they correct these children? Why do you correct them, when you are not willing to be corrected yourselves? Neither a father nor a mother, from this time forth, should correct a child, except they are willing to be corrected in their faults.

Do you see it? You will see mothers who will correct their children when they get angry, and that is almost the only time they will correct a child. Am I angry today? Just look at me, and see if you think I am angry. I tell you I am just as good-natured as I can be, according to the nature of the case that I am now dwelling upon. Well, this is for you to reflect upon.

Is this a good people? You may take the Elders of Israel throughout these valleys, and those at the stations, between here and the United States, and those that we have sent to the nations of the earth, and then thousands, who never were here, and there never was a more amenable set of men upon the earth, with the experience that we have got; and there never was that day that this people were one as they are one today; no, never.

Well, I feel to praise the Elders of Israel for their faithfulness. Is there a chance for improvement, brethren, ye Elders of Israel? If you think there is a chance for improvement, notwithstanding all of my praising you, just raise your right hands. [A forest of hands was raised.] Those that think there cannot be any improvement, but that you are stereotyped, raise your hands. I cannot see any hands raised upon that side.

When I went to chop, I was always taught to pull off my coat, and spit on my hands. I pull off my coat because I am too warm. If I don’t talk here more than twenty minutes, I want my coat off.

May I tell you some of my feelings, and not have any of you angry with me? [Voices: “Yes.“] I hate to have the ladies angry with me, above all things; and I will tell you one thing, and that is, all you that are ladies will not find fault; but the woman that finds fault with me, I can analyze her, and show you she is not a lady. I am a physician. Well, you can hardly mention a thing that is good but what I am.

I want to tell some of my feelings here today, in a few words, relative to brother Brigham. I call him brother, because he says if I call him President, he shall call me President; and just as sure as he does, I am as flat as a pancake. I shall only call him President before the Saints, in his calling—I was going to say before our enemies; but, damn them, they shall never come here. Excuse me, I never use rough words, only when I come in contact with rough things; and I use smooth words when I talk upon smooth subjects, and so on, according to the nature of the case that comes before me.

You all acknowledge brother Brigham as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; then you acknowledge him as our Leader, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; and then you acknowledge him in every capacity that pertains to his calling, both in Church and State, do you not? [Voices: “Yes.“] Well, he is our Governor. What is Governor? One who presides or governs. Well, now, we have declared, in a legislative capacity, that we will not have poor, rotten-hearted curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed to send. We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice—as many as from five to eight men for each office—men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens. We just told them right up and down, that if they sent any more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send them home; and that is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason before, did you?

Well, we did that in a legislative capacity; we did it as members of the Legislature—as your representatives; and now you have got to back us up. You sent us, just as we sent brother Bernhisel to seek for our rights and to stand in our defense at Washington.

Well, here is brother Brigham: he is the man of our own choice; he is our Governor, in the capacity of a Territory, and also as Saints of the Most High.

Well, it is reported that they have another Governor on the way now, three Judges, a District Attorney, a Marshal, a Postmaster, and Secretary, and that they are coming here with twenty-five hundred men. The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point of the bayonet.

Is not that a funny thing? You may think that I am cross, but I am laughing at their calamity, and I will “mock when their fear cometh.”

Now, gentlemen and ladies, you look at these things, and then right in this book, the Bible. It says, our nobles shall be of ourselves; that is, our Lords, our Judges, our Governors, our Marshals, and our everything shall be of ourselves. Won’t you read the 30th chapter of Jeremiah?

18. Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

20. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all them that oppress them.

21. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.

22. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

23. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a con– tinuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

24. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

Well, the day has come when our Governor has come out of our midst, and he is in the tops of the mountains, just where the Prophets said these things should come to pass; and now the United States are reported to be trying to force a Governor upon us, when the Lord has raised one up right out of our midst.

Now, I am going to talk about these things, and I feel as though I had a perfect right to do so, because I am one of the people.

If this people should consent to dispossess brother Brigham Young as our Governor, they are just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I know it; for God would forsake them and leave them to themselves, and they would be in worse bondage than the children of Israel ever were.

Supposing this thing all blows over, and they don’t come up here, but they begin to flatter us and be friendly, what will be the result? They may flatter as long as the earth stands, but I never will be subject to one of their damned pusillanimous curses. They may court and flatter as much as they please, but I never will be subject to them again—no, never. Do you hear it? [Voices: “Yes.“] Do you think we will submit to them? No, never. They have cut the thread themselves.

You are the people who have the privilege to acknowledge brother Brigham as our Governor and continue him in his office; and you also have the privilege, through your agency, to reject him, if you please; but it will be to your condemnation if you do, because he has got the keys of the kingdom; and the very moment you reject him, you cut yourselves off from the right of the Priesthood.

I will now bring up a comparison. I live in the City of Great Salt Lake. I am a father, a husband, a benefactor to between sixty and seventy subjects: I feed them; I clothe them; and they do not have a pin, a drink of tea, nor anything but what I provide: I provide them houses to live in and beds to sleep on. But suppose that, by-and-by, some stranger comes along, and my family say to him, “We will have you to preside over us,” and they reject me, when at the same time they say, “Brother Heber is a good man,” but the other man comes with a smiling face, and my family take him and reject me—what have they done? If they reject me, they reject their head; and, by so doing, they destroy their heirship to the head or limb to which they are lawfully connected. Is not that so?

Suppose you acknowledge the man reported to be coming, what do you do? You reject your head, and if so, where is the body, and what will become of it? I will compare it to my body. Supposing the head is cast away, the body will die, won’t it? Yes; and you will die just as quick as that, if you reject brother Brigham, your head.

We are the people of Deseret. She shall be Deseret; she shall be no more Utah: we will have our own name. Do you hear it?

Brethren and sisters, these ideas are comforting to all of you: they are most gloriously comforting to me. I tell you, the feelings within me are glorious.

We are the people of Deseret, and it is for us to say whether we will have brother Brigham for our Governor, or those poor, miserable devils they are reported to be trying to bring here. You must know they are miserable devils to have to come here under arms; but they shall not rule over us nor come into this Territory. What do you say about it? Are you willing, as a people, that they should come in here? You that say they shall not, raise your right hands. [All hands raised.]

Mr. Gentile, won’t you tell of this to your co-workers for the Devil’s kingdom?

The reason that I talk as I do is because I don’t hold any office in the United States; but this people, some time ago, appointed me Chief-Justice of the State of Deseret, and brother John Taylor and Bishop N. K. Whitney as my associates. You also appointed me Lieutenant-Governor; I always told you I was going to be Lieutenant-Governor. This is a stump speech!

We are going to have our own Governor from henceforth. Brigham Young was then our Governor, Heber C. Kimball was Chief-Justice and Lieutenant-Governor. I was a big man then; I felt as big as brother Morley does in the Legislature. The fact is, he does not understand their gabble: if he does, he understands more than I do.

It is for us to say, according to our rights under the Constitution, whether we will have those cursed Gentiles to rule over us, or not.

I want you to publish this, Mr. Editor.

I am giving you a little of my feelings; for I want you to know that you are under no more obligation to receive those men than brother Brigham’s family is to receive another man and to reject him as their husband, their father, their friend, and benefactor.

I know that what I have said has informed many of your minds, and I choose to present my ideas by comparison. I have a right to say the Gentiles shall never rule over me, although this people might admit of their coming here. I have a right to say, also, that we shall never be ruled over by them from this day forth, while grass grows or water runs; never, no, never.

[Voices: “Amen.“]

Well, we have got to sustain these amens, and we have got to sustain these vows. You ladies, too, will certainly have to do your part, or back out. I told you last Sunday to arm yourselves; and if you cannot do it any other way, sell some of your fine bonnets, fine dresses, and buy yourselves a good dirk, a pistol, or some other instrument of war. Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the weapons of war; for we may be brought to the test, to see if we will stand up to the line. I never knew it to fail, when men made covenants, but they were brought to the test, to see if they would live up to them.

This people have made covenants, they have made vows, and they have been instructed by brother Brigham; and he has told them that those covenants and penalties are true and faithful; and I say they are as true as the Lord God liveth; and the day will come that you will have to fulfil those vows and covenants that you have made; and not one word shall fail.

I have told you of it, and I have backed it up when others have said it. Now, mark it; for God will drive us to it. These instructions, given to us from time to time, will have to be carried out and fulfilled; for I just know that you have got to reap that which is sown. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life everlasting; but if you sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption; and the bed that we make, we have got to lie in. Now, I will tell you another thing that bears heavily on my mind, as much so as any other thing, and that is, for this people to live their religion, and do as they are told.

I will ask you this question, gentle– men and ladies—Can you live your religion, except you do as you are told? I have said, again and again, that if we live our religion, and do as we are told, those men will never come over those mountains; for we shall slay the poor devils before they get there.

I do not know of any religion, except doing as I am told; and if you do, you have learned something that I have never learned. You have a Governor here to dictate you and to tell you what to do; and if we will live our religion, we are always safe, are we not?

There are a great many that will not live their religion, for they think they belong to the aristocracy; but understand, gentlemen and ladies, that I withdraw from that society. I told you last Sunday, that of all the corrupt beings upon the face of the earth, the present aristocracy are the worst.

I am a pretty rugged fellow, and valiant for the truth; and may the Lord make everybody like me, that we may stand against our enemies; for the corruptest devils on the earth are the present aristocracy.

Let us go to work and lay up our grain, lay up wheat, and everything that will and can be preserved; and in so doing, we will save ourselves from sorrow, pain, and anguish; and the Lord will give us a law and a word for us to abide, and he will cut off our enemies; and if every man and woman will go to work, lay up their grain, and do as they are told, the Lord will hold off our enemies from us, until we can lay up sufficient store for ourselves. This is a part of our religion—to lay up stores and provide for ourselves and for the surrounding country; for the day is near when they will come by thousands and by millions, with their fineries, to get a little bread. That time is right by our door.

Brother Stewart says he has dis– covered that this work is five years ahead of what he had supposed. Let me tell you that this people are more than ten years ahead of what they supposed. They were all asleep; but the Lord has waked them up, to prepare them for a time of trial and famine. If you do not see it, and feel it, and taste it, and smell it, it will be because God will have mercy upon you; and he will, if you will do as you are told from this time forth.

Do I feel comfortable? Gentlemen and ladies, I never saw the day that I felt any better. I become weary with toil, but I feel well in regard to this work. But there is a spirit of calmness, of peace, that I am jealous of.

I never have seen the day for twenty-five years, but before there was a storm there was always a calm. In Kirtland, before the trouble commenced, there was this calm. Joseph and Hyrum were men that would stand the test, but finally they had to flee from Kirtland to Missouri. Well, previous to that, we had received our endowments, and a more calm, heavenly, and prosperous time I never saw.

Was it so in Missouri? Yes, it was: after they became settled, they became composed; and the year of the trouble we never had such crops in the world as we had then.

Was it not so in Nauvoo? Yes; and the spirit of composure rested upon the people; and it is more or less so now; and such crops as we have this year never were produced.

What does this mean? And the spirit of composure seems to be upon the people more than ever. And what does this mean? I am rather inclined to be jealous of it. Say I, wake up, ye Saints of Zion, while it is called today, lest trouble and sorrow come upon you, as a thief in the night.

Suppose it is not coming, will it hurt you to lay up the products of the earth for seven years? Will it hurt you, if you have your guns, swords, and spears in good condition, according to the law of the United States? Some of the States give a man his clearance at forty years of age; others, at forty-five: they call men to train when they are eighteen years of age; but we call upon all from six to six hundred years old: we do not except any; and I want the world to know that we are ready for anything that comes along. If it is good, we are ready for that; and if it is evil, we are ready to stand against it.

We are calculating to sow our wheat early this fall, in case of emergency. I throw out these things for you to think upon; and if they are not right, they will not hurt anybody.

But wake up, ye Saints of the Most High, and prepare for any emergency that the Lord our God may have pleasure in bringing forth. We never shall leave these valleys—till we get ready; no, never; no, never. We will live here till we go back to Jackson County, Missouri. I prophesy that, in the name of Israel’s God.

[The congregation shouted “Amen,” and President B. Young said, “It is true.“]

If our enemies force us to destroy our orchards and our property, to destroy and lay waste our houses, fields, and everything else, we shall never build and plant again, till we do it in Jackson County. But our enemies are not here yet, and we have not yet thrown down our houses. Let me tell you, if God designs that Israel should now become free, they will come and strike the blow; and if he does not, they will not come. That is as true as that book (pointing to the Bible).

Go to work, and lay up your grain, and do not lay it out for fine clothes, nor any other kind of fine thing, but make homespun trousers and petticoats. What would please me more than for my family, instead of wanting me to go to the store for petticoats and short gowns, to see them go to work and make some good homespun? What would be prettier than some of the English striped linsey, and a bonnet made of our own straw? Those are the women I would choose for wives. If you want virtue, go into the farming country, for there it is homespun. Farming districts contain the essence and the virtue of old England.

I do not know that you know what homespun is; but it is that which is spun at home; and it is for your welfare, both men, women, and children, to make your own clothing. It is also for your salvation to equip yourselves according to law.

Now, I will tell you, I have about a hundred shots on hand all the time—three or four fifteen-shooters, and three or four revolvers, right in the room where I sleep; and the Devil does not like to sleep there, for he is afraid they will go off half-cocked.

If you will lay a bowie knife or a loaded revolver under your pillow every night, you will not have many unpleasant dreams, nor be troubled with the nightmare; for there is nothing that the Devil is so much afraid of as a weapon of death.

You may take this as some of Heber’s wild visions, if you please. I have acknowledged myself as one of the people; and now I say, we will take our own name, and we will not be false-named any more. We are the Kingdom of God; we are the STATE OF DESERET; and we will have you, brother Brigham, as our Governor just so long as you live. We will not have any other Governor.

I mean just what I say, and this people say they will not have any other Governor, and especially anyone that has to come here under arms; for we consider that any man is a poor, damned curse that has to come here under arms to rule over us. These are my feelings; and if anybody votes against it, they are not of us: but there are but four or five but what vote for us; and they are apostates, and will go overboard. There is not a child but what goes with us in these things.

When we reject brother Brigham Young, we reject the head; but we will not do it, for the body shall dwell together, and we are members of that body, and he shall be our Governor just as long as God Almighty will have him to be. Those who are in favor of it, raise your hands.

[The vote was unanimous.]

You may try it just as long as you like, and it will be just so every time, except those four or five, and they never will vote. Can I point them out? Yes, I can. I have had my eye on them ever since they came into the congregation.

Let us do our duty, be humble, prayerful, honest, virtuous, and punctual in all our engagements. Let us have no lying, no deception; but let us be honest, and let the laboring men that labor on the public works be honest, and let them be punctual to their work.

Why do I speak to the public hands? Because they are on the most important work there is in the world. And how would a man feel to go into that house (pointing to the endowment house), that had stolen the nails out of the carpenter’s shop or out of the machine shop, or the boards out of the lumber yard?

Let us be faithful, and the Lord will be on our side, and I doubt whether we shall be under the necessity of shedding much blood ourselves; but let us be ready, guns cocked; none of your half-cocked.

This is my exhortation to Israel; and may the Lord God bless the righteous, the humble, those that tell the truth, and those that are honest and punctual.

Can I bless any that are not hum– ble and amenable to their superiors? Can I bless those that are always finding fault? I wish to God I could; but blessings would not stick to them; but if you will do as you are told, you shall be blessed in everything that you put your hands to, from this time forth and forever. You shall have health and strength, and you shall multiply and increase in everything you undertake to do: and that is not all: you will have faith, that, when a man or woman that is sick sends for you to bless them, you will say, “Be thou made whole;” and that will be the case from this time henceforth and forever.

There is one man whom we saw up north when we went to eat watermelons, who had thought of having an artesian well bored. He said, “If I knew that we were going to stop here three years, I would have one very soon.” Says I to that gentleman—You put out peach trees, apple trees, apricots, and currants; and if we have to go into the mountains, we shall cut off the trees, and the roots will be there still; but we shall not go into the mountains.

We were told that we were going into the woods before we came here; and then, when we got here, there were no woods. But you need not be afraid; you go and graft and inoculate your trees, and build houses, that you may know how to build when you get to Jackson County.

All that we built in Kirtland, in Far West, in Missouri, in Nauvoo, and in Winter Quarters—for every one of those places, gentlemen, we are to have our pay. Who are to pay us? Those that took our property away from us, we will make servants of them: the day will come that we will have them for our vinedressers, and we will set them to digging holes to put the rest of the damned scoundrels in who have rebelled against God and His servants. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 30, 1857.

I did not expect to be called upon to address you this afternoon; but I always feel ready to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, whenever I am called upon.

Brother Kimball said he would like to hear me say something about the RIGHTS of “Mormonism.” The rights of “Mormonism” are so varied and extensive, that it would be very difficult to speak of them all in one discourse. We have the right to live. That is “Mormonism.” We have the right to eat and drink, and to pursue that course that we may think proper, so long as we do not interfere with other persons’ rights. We have a right to live free and unmolested; and there is no law, human or divine, that rightfully has a right, if you please, to interfere with us. We have a right to think, and we have a right, after we have thought, to express our thoughts, and to write them, and to publish them. We possess as many rights and as much liberty in relation to this as any other persons; and there is no law, human or divine, that can rightfully rob us of those liberties or trample upon our rights. We have a right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; and no man, legally, in this land, has a right to interfere with us for so doing. We have a right to believe in and practice as we please in relation to matrimony. We have a right to choose whether we will have one wife or twenty; and there is no law of the land that can legally interfere with us; neither is there a man that I have met with, that professed to be a man at all, that can say that we are acting illegally. We have a right to secure the favor of God, and we have rights as the citizens of the kingdom of God. We have rights upon earth, and we have rights in heaven; we have rights that affect us and our posterity and progenitors, worlds without end; and they are rights that no man can interfere with. We have a right to our own Governor, as brother Kimball says; we have a right to our own Judges; we have a right to make our own laws and to regulate our own affairs.

These are some of the rights that belong to us; but when you come to talk about rights, they are so various, complicated, and extensive, that it is difficult, without reflection, to enumerate them. They exist with us here and all around us, and they are rights that affect us, our progenitors, and posterity, worlds without end. But in regard to some of the things with which we are more intimately connected, we have our individual, our social, and political rights, so far as existing here as a people is concerned. I do not know but that you will think that I am for sticking to my text pretty well: however, I will try, as well as I can, to do justice to it.

If we look at the very foundation of government, we may enquire, How were governments formed? Who organized them? And whence did they obtain their power? It is a subject for deep thought and reflection, and one that very few have understood; nor is it very easy to define, definitely, the rights of man politically, socially, and nationally.

Now, I will suppose there was no government in the world, but that we were thrown right back into the primitive state, and that we had to form a government to regulate ourselves; what would be the position? Why, the strong man would intrude upon the weak, even as a strong animal intrudes upon a weaker, taking from it its rights; for that is a natural animal propensity that exists in all the creatures, as well as in man.

How was society organized? Upon natural principles. I am not now speaking about God and his government, but upon the rights of man. If there were a few bullies in the land, and we had to organize the government anew, the people would combine to protect themselves against them to protect themselves against those who had injured them, that would rob them of their labor, of their cattle, of their grain, or of anything they might have.

What would be the result of this course? It would be that a combination would exist that would organize to protect themselves, that the weak might be protected in his rights, that the feeble might not be trampled under foot. This would be the natural construction and organization of society.

Very well; when society became large and extensive, and could not convene in a general assembly to represent themselves, they would send their representatives, who would combine to represent their interests by delegation, or proxy.

Who would those individuals represent? They would represent the parties of that neighborhood, of that state, of that country or district of country that sent them, would they not? And what would you think of those men that were sent, if they attempted to rule over those who sent them? Why, you would say, “Come back here, you rascals, and we will send others; we sent you to represent us, and now you are combining to put your feet upon our necks.”

This has been the case ever since governments were organized; and hence have arisen governors, kings, and emperors. They have generally contrived to get the reins of power into their own hands; and, through the cunning of priestcraft and kingcraft, they have generally managed to bring the people under their feet and to trample upon their rights. Such has been the case in the nations of Europe and Asia. It is, in fact, the history of the world.

By what right have any kings obtained their dominions? Has it been from God? No. Has it been from the people? No. How did they get in possession of their kingdoms? How was France organized? How England? How Germany? And how were other states and nations organized? They have been organized because men usurped power, brought into subjection other men, trampled under foot their rights, and made slaves of them, and made them carry out their laws, and do their pleasure without any peculiar interest in the things that were done. And those men, instead of governing the people according to the principles of righteousness and truth, have generally made yokes and put them on their necks, and trampled them in the dust—so much so, that in many of the countries of Europe you cannot travel but you must have a passport; and every little upstart has a right to examine it and to stop you, if he likes.

You have to ask a right to stop in cities, and they will prevent you when they please, and not only strangers, but their own citizens; and there are many European cities now, where, if a father was to receive his own son into his house, if he had been absent without the permission of the police, he would be subject to a heavy fine.

It is the governors of the people that bring them into subjection in this manner, until the people think that kings and priests have rights—and they have no rights—until they think that presidents, governors, and kings are the persons who possess certain inalienable rights, and that no one has a right to interfere with them.

Kings, presidents, and priests combined govern men, body and soul. The first fetter them in their bodies and liberties, and the latter in their minds and consciences; and the human family, instead of being free, are literally and almost universally in a state of vassalage.

At the time of the Reformation, men began to break off their political fetters and to claim their rights, both politically and religiously. Many people talk of that event as a church concern alone: it was as much a political matter as anything else. The causes that prompted them to take the steps they did were both religious and political, the benefits accruing only very limited and partial; still it was a resistance to tyranny and oppression. The kings that sustained the Reformers did so merely upon political grounds, and not that they cared for their religion.

What made people come from the old countries to this land? It was because they were oppressed in England, in Germany, and in other states, and they fled from that power which sought to bind chains upon their necks. And why were they determined to flee from that government into this country? Because the mother country tried to make them subject to institutions and laws that they were unwilling to submit to, and because she wanted to put yokes upon their necks. Then the mother country sent armed men over here, and sought to enforce their armed minions upon the people; but they would not submit to it; for it was on that very account that they had fled from their mother country.

Such were the feelings of your fathers, and these were the things they talked about, a few years ago; and on account of the encroachments of the parent government, they took up the sword, and declared that they would live or die free men.

What was that freedom for which they contended? Just what I said a few minutes ago; it was the right to think, the right to speak, the right to act, the right to legislate, and the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and the right to do their own business without being interfered with.

We have come here to this land as citizens of the United States; and why have we come? Because there were men who sought to rob of us our rights, and because there was not sufficient purity and justice in the Government to protect us in our rights—because magistrates, constables, judges, governors, presidents, and officers of state, either directly or indirectly drove us, or suffered us to be driven—suffered us to be dispossessed of that which legally belonged to us.

Who are we? We are men made in the image of God, possessing the rights of other men. We have turned this desert into a flourishing field, and the desert has blossomed as the rose, and God has blessed our labors. And whom have we interfered with? Have we gone over to the States and interfered with them? Have we gone over to California and interfered with them? Have we gone to Oregon? Have we gone to New Mexico? Have we gone to any State and interfered with their rights, their laws, their immunities, or their privileges? I say we have not.

Well, then, what right has anybody to interfere with us? Oh, because they have got the power! That is, there is no right to it; there is no legal authority to it; there is no more right to it than there is in a bully and a blackguard insulting a little, weak man, because he has the power to do so. They have just the same authority that a large ox has to goad a small one, because he has the power.

They dare not interfere with some nations as they are doing with us: they dare not interfere with England or France, for fear of the consequences; and it is nothing but a principle of nasty little meanness that would try to interfere with us, and try to make you believe that they are the lords of creation. Great God! Who are they? Poor, pusillanimous curses, that have not manhood nor gentility enough about them to be gentlemen. They have just the same right that the highwayman has to put his hands into your pockets and take out your money.

Who led us here? Not the Christians of the United States, nor their governors, legislators, nor president. Who provided for us? Did the Government of the United States? Verily, no. Who built the houses in this city? Who made the improvements around it and through this Territory? Did the inhabitants of the United States? No. But they have done all that lay in their power to discourage us in every possible way. Who have fed you and clothed you? Your own right hands—your own energy and industry, by the blessing of the Almighty.

Then by what right, and by what authority, in the name of God, and in the name of every principle of right, honor, and integrity, have they a right to interfere with us?

“Oh,” say they, “the land belongs to us.” Ah! indeed; and I wonder where you got it from? “Oh, we got it by right of treaty with Mexico.” And whence did the Mexicans obtain it? Who treated with those Indians? Did they pay them for it? “No: but they are good Christians, and the Indians are poor savages; and what right have savages to land?” Where are their deeds and their right of possession? Will anybody tell me? “Oh, we took it because we had the power, and the United States took it from Mexico, because they had power.”

It is just like a lot of boys playing together, and one of them steals the other’s marbles because he has the power; and then another steals them, and calls them his, because he is a little more powerful than the other: or, when one man meets another and robs him of what he has, then two more go and take from him what he has stolen from the first one.

The simple fact in the case is, they say, “You are left upon our land, and therefore you must be in subjection to us, and we must rule over you.” But even on this principle they are at fault; for we, if there is any glory in the conquest, sent five hundred men, and possess equal rights with them as American citizens.

In speaking upon this subject once before, I showed you that, by the Constitution and the very genius of our Government, they had no right to interfere with us.

Again, on the common principle of justice, where did they get their rights to interfere with us? They did not bring us here, nor cultivate our farms; they did not send us either schoolmasters or priests to teach us; and we are not indebted to them for anything else. I would like to know what right they had to interfere with us? They have not a right upon religious grounds; for they kicked us out because of our religion; and, consequently, they have nothing to do with that. It is not because we have learned any morals of them; for we got our morals from a superior source. We have not learned either our religion or morality from them. We have not had them to cultivate our farms nor to build our houses. They have not done anything for us.

In relation to the land, I will suppose they did steal it, which they did. They obtained it because they had the power, and Mexico obtained it upon the same principle: the United States made a quarrel with the latter nation, because they knew they could bring them into subjection, and they intended to capitulate for California before they began the quarrel, and they took it upon those grounds. But that is righteousness—that is purity, truth and holiness, in the eyes of a corrupt and mighty nation.

We have got a little place that nobody else would live upon; and I will warrant that if any other people had been here, half of them would have died, the last two years, of starvation. But they cannot let us alone. This is their greatness—this their magnanimity, and this is the compassion manifested by the fathers of our great country. Of course we must feel patriotic; we cannot but feel strongly attached to such a kind, such a benevolent, such a merciful Government as we have got! How can we feel otherwise? They would take from us the right to live, and then it would be in their hearts to sweep us from the face of the earth; but they cannot do it.

There is no right associated with this matter; there is no justice about it. There are old rights and privileges the people used to have, and we have our rights. In the first place, we have a God that lives, and He will help us to take care of them, to maintain and preserve them. Then look at this in whichever light you please, you cannot change it: we are citizens of the United States, and have a right to the soil, if they did steal it.

I am ashamed of being associated with such things, but we cannot help ourselves; we are a part of the people, and we had to partake of their evil deeds.

When we came here, we came as American citizens; and we had just as much right to be here as any other American citizens in the United States.

They have made a religious pretext to rob us of the right of preemption—that is because we have more wives than one. This is the course they have pursued towards us.

Have they a right to force upon us judges and send officers under a military escort? The very act says they are afraid of something. Have they a right to send those men to rule over us, without our having a voice in the matter? I say they have not, according to the laws which exist among men; they have not according to the principles of justice and truth; they have not according to the principles upon which this Government is established: but they want to rule over us contrary to the principles of the Government; and, as you have expressed it, you have a right to withstand it.

God be thanked, there are not as many sneaks here as there are in the old country: men here dare think and speak.

Well, these are our feelings and some of our rights; but I will speak to you of other rights; for we have greater rights, that I have not yet touched upon.

[Blessed the sacramental cup.]

I speak of those other things because they are inalienable rights that belong to men—to us as American citizens—to us as citizens of the world; but there are other rights, other grounds upon which we claim these rights.

The Lord God has spoken in these last days; he has revealed the fulness of the everlasting Gospel; he has restored that Gospel in all its fulness, blessings, richness, power, and glory; he has put us in possession of the principles of eternal life; and he has established his kingdom upon the earth, and we are the legitimate heirs and inheritors of this kingdom. He has established his Priesthood, revealed his authority, his government, and his laws; and the grand reason why there is union and power here, and nowhere else, is because it emanated from God.

When we talk over those other things, we are under a lesser law, that we can any of us keep and that we have kept. We are not rebelling against the United States, neither are we resisting the Constitution of the United States; but it is wicked and corrupt usurpers that are oppressing us and that would take our rights from us.

To speak of our rights as citizens of the kingdom of God, we then speak of another law, we then move in a more exalted sphere; and it is of these things we have a right to speak.

God has established his kingdom; he has rolled back that cloud that has overspread the moral horizon of the world; he has opened the heavens, revealed the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, organized his kingdom according to the pattern that exists in the heavens; and he has placed certain keys, powers, and oracles in our midst; and we are the people of God; we are his government. The Priesthood upon the earth is the legitimate government of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth.

Some people ask, “What is Priesthood?” I answer, “It is the legitimate rule of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth;” and it is the only legitimate power that has a right to rule upon the earth; and when the will of God is done on earth as it is in the heavens, no other power will bear rule.

Then, if we look at it in this point of view, we are standing in a peculiar position; we are standing here as the representatives of God, and the only true representatives he has upon the earth; for there is not another power or government upon the earth that acknowledges God for their ruler, or head, but this: there is not another.

Why did we come here? We came here because the people drove us, and because the Lord would have us come here; for it was necessary we should come into our secret places, and hide ourselves till the indignation of the Lord be overpast—until the Lord has shaken our enemies by the nape of the neck, as it were, until nations and empires are overthrown. We came to serve our God, to a place where we could more fully keep his commandments—where we could fulfil his behests upon the earth. This is the reason why we came here.

Well, then, if we are the only people that God acknowledges as a nation, have not we a right to the privileges which we enjoy? Who owns the gold, the silver, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? God. Who, then, has a right to appoint rulers? None but him, or the man that he appoints.

Who has ruled the earth? Who has borne sway? Man, who, by the power of the sword, has got possession of thrones, powers, and dominions, and has waded through seas of blood.

You read history, and what is it? A history of the depopulation of the nations, brought on by the overthrow of empires, and through the tyranny and ambition of wicked men, who have waded through seas of blood in order to possess themselves of that power which they now enjoy.

If we go to the United States and enquire into their rights, we may ask, have they a right to drive back the Indians, from time to time, and dispossess them of their rights? So long as they purchased of them it was well enough; but when they forced them into a swap, just as the Indians did with some of the traders back here, and made them trade on their own terms, that is something which they have no right to do; and, to use the language of one of the Indian Chiefs, “They have not left room for us to spread our blanket.” Have they purchased this Territory of them? No—nor made any arrangements to do so; but they have taken possession of it.

What authority has the President of the United States, or the Representatives of the several States? They have no authority but what the people give them, according to the institutions of the United States.

What authority had England over this land before they came here and took possession? None.

By what right, then, do nations and governments rule generally? Do they rule by the grace of God? I will tell you. They rule by the power of the sword.

Read the history of England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and other nations, and you will find they obtain their authority by their swords; and then, when they have obtained, they go to work and sanctify it; they appoint and anoint kings by the grace of God and through the agency of their priests. That is the way they get their authority, and that is all the authority they have.

When the Pope was going to put the crown upon the head of Napoleon, he said, “Here, let me put that on; I won it myself.” But they generally want the priests to put it on.

You may go into any court in the world and say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and they will kick you out. Try it and see.

[Voices: “You have tried it.”]

No man can go and say, “Thus saith the Lord” amongst them; for they would put a straightjacket on him, if he was a respectable man; if he was not, they would kick him out. Such is the feeling of the people and the condition of the world, and yet they profess to worship God that rules on high.

Where does God rule on earth? Is he listened to in any nation? Is there any that will acknowledge him and his authority? I will tell you the nearest that I ever saw of it. It was Nicholas of Russia: he was an autocrat, you know. Some years ago, when they had the cholera very bad there, a feeling prevailed among the inhabitants that the wells had been poisoned: a mob arose, and they were going to kill many; but Nicholas went in amongst them and said, “My children, this is not so; this is the hand of God. Let us fall on our knees, and acknowledge our sins, and ask him to forgive us.”

That is the nearest to acknowledging God that I have heard of among the nations; but as to their authority, it is not there. Their emperors and rulers have been the most beastly in their conduct and oppressive in their acts of any other nations that rule under heaven.

Now, where can you find a nation that acknowledges God? They are very religious. Why, the Queen of England is said to be “Defender of the Faith.” Then it is not the faith of the Church of America—it is not the faith of the Church of France, nor of Germany, nor anywhere else, except the Church of England. Where did she get her right from? She is the descendant of a line of kings.

Henry the Eighth, some time since, wrote a book against the Protestants, and the Pope gave him the title of “Defender of the Faith,” which faith he afterwards sought to destroy, rebelled against the Pope, and started the Reformation, because the Pope would not allow him to divorce his wife. Hence the Protestant kings and queens of England have stolen the Roman Catholic title, to rule or defend the faith of the Protestants by kings and queens, whom they now anoint.

How do they anoint them? They anoint them by their Bishops, who declare them to be kings and queens by the grace of God. Go back, however, to their origin, and you will find that their kingdoms were first obtained by the sword; they stole their kingdoms and power, and then got priests to sanctify the theft.

Go back in England to the time of William the Conqueror, and you will find that he was a usurper; he was a Norman and a wholesale robber; and then, when he had subdued the Anglo-Saxons, the priests turned round and anointed him king by the grace of God. That is a fair example of the other European nations, and is all the authority that any of them had.

What is the Government of the United States? It does not profess any religion. There is no religion nor priesthood connected with it nationally, only they allow, or profess to allow, everybody to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; but nationally they are a nation of infidels. They have no national creed, no national religious institutions; and hence the absurdity of interfering with us, when forsooth they have none themselves, and they do not want that we should have any.

Do they seek to acknowledge God in their acts? Or, is there any other nation that profess to acknowledge God? There are the Mahomedans, they had a Prophet, and professed to be governed by him. There is some talk about his being a false one: he might have been, or he might have been a true one, for aught I know; I leave them in the hands of God.

The Mahomedans have a certain faith or profession, which is spoken of in the Koran, or Alkoran. They, however, like the rest, obtained their nationality by the sword. We cannot find a nation upon the earth that has obtained its dominion or power to rule from God. If there is any people, except this people, I know them not.

The Lord has said, “If ye observe my law, ye have no need to break the law of the land.” We have not broken the law of the land, and we do not mean to, although he has revealed to us his will and given us certain privileges and immunities that he never gave to any other people. Still, we have not broken the law, and there is not another people who maintain the laws of the United States as faithfully as this people do.

Why, they are in storm and trouble every way in the United States, and here is the most perfect peace and the best morality that can be found in the world by a thousandfold: yes, it is a thousandfold better than I have seen in any part of the earth where I have been. There is not a place that can compare with it; and nothing but the very Devil himself could inspire the hearts of the children of men to make war against such a people as this.

What are we engaged in? We are engaged in building up the kingdom of God, and many of you have been ordained by the revelations of the Almighty to hold the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood. Besides this, you have been ordained kings and queens, and priests and priestesses to your Lord; you have been put in possession of principles that all the kings, potentates, and powers upon the earth are entirely ignorant of: they do not understand it; but you have received this from the hands of God.

The kingdom is put upon the shoulders of President Young and this people to carry it out, and by whom? By the Lord God—by him who holds dominion throughout the universe; by him who created all by the word of his power; by him who said, “Let there be light, and there was light;” by him who spake, and the worlds rolled into existence. By him you received rights that are not of this world—rights that flow from the great Eloheim.

What are we going to do, then? We are going to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth. This is our privilege—our right, if you please. But I consider it a high privilege—the greatest boon that can be bestowed upon mortals on the earth, to be the representatives of God. Let me say another thing. The people of the earth, their legislators, their princes, their kings, and their emperors, if they ever get salvation, have got to have it through us: if they obtain a celestial kingdom, they have got to go through the door that God has appointed, and there is no other way for it.

What are we doing here? We are here to stand up in defense of our individual rights—to stand up for our farms, our families, and our property, if it be necessary. Property! Why great conscience! It is just like the chaff and straw; and I was glad to see when the vote was taken, that if it was necessary to burn every house and all our property, every hand went right up for it. I was glad to see you appreciate these things.

Would we fight for these things? Just so far as I am concerned, they might take what I have got, and go to Gibraltar with it, or to Halifax; and I would say, You poor, miserable, corrupt creatures, take it.

But this is not all. The Lord has put us into a place where we cannot dodge, if we wish. We have asked for the blessing of his kingdom, and he has poured out blessings upon us, and there is no backing out. God has rolled his kingdom upon our should– ers; and now I ask, as a poet did some years ago,

“Shall we, for fear of feeble man, The Spirit’s course in us restrain?”

Shall we, for fear of those miserable curses, barter away eternal lives? Shall we set at naught those principles that God has imparted to us? Shall we exchange the pearl of great price, the riches of eternity, for the dirt and filth that the Gentiles wallow in? I know we do not feel like it.

Brother Kimball says we have to stand up to what we say, and the Lord will bring us to it; and I will tell you what I heard Joseph say years ago. He said, if God had known any other way that he could have tried Abraham better than he did, he would have put it upon him. And he will try us to see whether we will be faithful to the great and high calling that he has put upon us.

What are we doing? God has seen proper to establish his kingdom upon the earth, and here is that kingdom—that stone which has been cut out of the mountain without hands, and it is rolling forth to fill the whole earth.

A great charge is committed to us as a people: it is for us to walk up to the rack, resist the powers of darkness, and bear off the kingdom of God, that the powers of darkness may be rolled back with all their forces.

We are placed in this position to see if we will let the kingdom of God be trampled under foot of men. It is not a little thing, but it is one that is associated with our progenitors and posterity, as eternal beings, having to do with the past, the present, and the future.

The little stone was to smite the image on the toes; and I would not be surprised if there was to be a monstrous kicking—particularly, as brother Kimball says, if there should be any corns on the toes.

It is not whether we can stop here, and eat and drink, and say, poor pussy, and put off the evil day. It is not an evil day; it is a day of rejoicing—a day of bursting off the fetters from us; it is a day when every son and daughter of God ought to sing, Hosannah to the God of Israel! We know we used to sing sometimes,

“We’ll burst off all our fetters, and break the Gentile yoke,

For long it has beset us, but now it shall be broke:

No more shall Jacob bow his neck; henceforth he shall be free, In Upper California:

O! that’s the land for me,” &c.

We used to sing that years ago, and we can sing it now; but we have got to do it. Yes, it is “Yankee doodle do it.”

Well, what are we doing? We are laying the foundation for salvation for ourselves, for our progenitors, for our children, and our posterity after us, from generation to generation. The foundation of liberty, whereby the bond that has been on the neck of the nations, shall be burst asunder; for it is here that liberty shall spring from.

Here is a nucleus—a band of brethren inspired from on high, having the oracles of God in their midst—the only people that are taught by the revelations of God. Here is the place where the standard is to be erected to all nations.

We were talking, sometime ago, about our rights: these are our duties; we have got through with our rights. There is an old motto that they have got very conspicuously in England; it is this—“England expects every man to do his duty.”

What is a man’s duty here? It is obedience to the oracles of God that are in our midst; and so long as we keep the commandments of God, we need not fear any evil; for the Lord will be with us in time and in eternity.

“But,” says one, “I have got a son, who has gone out upon the Plains, and perhaps the soldiers will kill him.” Let them kill him. [President Kimball, “There can be more made.”] I suppose there can.

Did you ever know your sons were in possession of eternal life, and that this is only a probation or a space between time and eternity? We existed before, in eternity that was, and we shall exist in eternity that is to come; and the question only is, whether it is better to die with the harness on, or to be found a poor, miserable coward.

All that I said to my son Joseph, after blessing him, before he went out, was, “Joseph, do not be found with a hole in your back.” I do not want any cowardice—any tremblings or feelings of that kind.

What of our friends that have gone behind the veil—are they dead? No; they live, and they move, in a more exalted sphere. Did they fight for the kingdom of God when here? Yes, they did. Are they battling for it now? Yes; and the time is approaching when the wicked nations have to be destroyed; and the time is near when every creature is to be heard saying, “Honor, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

We have got to bring this about, whether we do it in this world or that which is to come. I have seen the time I could have died as easily as to have turned my hand over; but I did not feel like it.

[President H. C. Kimball: “You did not have time.”]

Supposing I live, I have got a work to do; and if I die, I shall still be engaged in the cause of Zion. Why, great conscience! What difference does it make? They can only kill the body. And do not we know that we have an interest beyond the grave? That we have drunk of that fountain which springs up into eternal lives? Then what difference does it make?

These are my feelings. If it is for life, let it be for life; and if it is for death, let it be for death, that the spirit may move in a more exalted sphere; and then all is well with us. If we live, we live to God; and if we die, we die to God; and we are God’s, anyway.

We have friends gone behind the veil. There are Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, Jedediah, and many of our friends that are there, and they have been moving and acting there for years; and if any of us are called to go, it is all right: there is a Priesthood there to regulate things, as well as here; and if we have to go there, we might as well go by a ball as by a fever, or any other distressing disease. I want to go with the harness on; and if others go a little before us, does it make any difference? Do not you know the old Apostle said, “They without us cannot be made perfect?” Could they attend to these ordinances that are being attended to here on earth while they are there? No, they cannot. Can you do what they are doing? No, you cannot; but when you get there you can.

When in the old country you were striving to get here, many of you had friends here; and when you came, they would say, “I am glad to see you, brother William, and sister Jane, or Mary, or Elizabeth.” Now, when a person dies, you say, “I am glad to see you go, but still I am sorry that you are going.”

I remember saying so to uncle John Smith. When I went to see him, I felt that his time was come, and I said, “I am glad you are going, but still I am sorry to part with you;” and said, “I hope you will carry my respects to our friends behind the veil.” He said, “I will.”

We have angels that are ministers of salvation; we have Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, Jedediah, and lots of others that are engaged in rolling on the work of the Lord in the upper worlds. What if they want any of us? Why, let us go, old men or young men. What if we are called by a ball, or die by a fever, what difference does it make?

What! Are we all going to die together? God has designed and said he would establish his kingdom upon the earth, and that the Devil shall not reign forever; but he whose right it is shall come and take the kingdom, and possess it forever and ever.

Now, brother Brigham has said all is right, and he is the representative of the Almighty upon the earth, and it is for us to stand by him and obey him; and he says, “Rejoice, and live your religion, and all shall be well.” Is not that the voice of God? It is. Shall we not listen to it? Yes; and we will maintain our rights as citizens of the United States.

I pray that God may bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 23, 1857.

In listening to the remarks made by President Kimball this morning, I felt myself very much edified, very much instructed, and very much blessed. In fact, where the Spirit of the Lord is, and the oracles of God dwell, there must of necessity be truth, intelligence, and certainty. Many of those things, as he justly remarked, that seem light and trivial, and of little importance to many, are pregnant with meaning, are full of interest, and are of the utmost importance to the Saints that dwell in these valleys, and to the world of mankind, if they would only pay attention to and be governed by them.

Mankind are, more or less, fond of paraphernalia, show, pomp, and parade; but the kingdom of God does not always come with “observation,” as the Scripture says. The great and precious principles of eternal truth, like pearls and precious gems, are often hid from the view of the human family.

What is the reason that the world of mankind do not appreciate the principles that are so plain and so manifest to us? How is it that all of our friends, relatives, and associations, and the neighborhoods where we have resided have not fallen in with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Why is it that all these things have not been received and appreciated by the millions of the human family who have had precisely the same opportunities that we have had? It is because they do not appreciate them—because they cannot see and understand. The light shone in darkness and it comprehended it not; but to those who received it, it was life and salvation.

Why is it that a swine cannot discern the value of pearls, and tramples them under its feet? Because it does not understand—it has not the intelligence, and does not comprehend the difference between the filth that surrounds it and precious gems. You might cast a precious jewel at a hog, and it would turn and rend you; but throw that to a man of understanding and intelligence, and he would ask for more. That is the difference. God has so ordained that, “strait shall be the gate, and narrow the way that leads to life; and but few there are that find it.”

If the men of the world, if the princes and potentates of the earth, if the statesmen and great men among the nations could comprehend things as we comprehend them, could understand the Gospel as it has been revealed to us—if they could know anything of our high calling’s glorious hope, and of the principles that animate our bosoms, they would, many of them, lay down their honors and their thrones, and come down and ask for admission into this kingdom. But they have got to receive the kingdom of God like a little child, just the same as you and I, or they cannot enter it; they have got to enter by the door into the sheepfold; and hence there is a test for every man to try him by; and hence the difference between us and them, and therefore a difference in regard to our views and position, which necessarily produce a difference in our feelings. They think differently, they speak differently, they look upon things in a different point of view to what we do. They look upon us as being enthusiastic, foolish, wild, and visionary, and among the rest as being polluted; and they would, forsooth, sympathize with us, some of them, and think we are in the most dreadful position of any people under the face of the heavens—that we are degraded and fallen. But they know not the spirit that animates our bosoms; they know not the hope that God has inspired in our hearts; they know not the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; they are as ignorant of them and of their own destiny as the brute beast which is “made to be taken and destroyed.”

It was a very correct figure that the Apostle made use of formerly, when he spoke of men being as ignorant as brute beasts, which were made to be taken and destroyed. Man, holding a relationship with things that have been, with things that are, and with things that are to come, being an eternal being, having existed before, existing now, and destined to exist while endless ages shall endure—when he understands his relationship to God, how he is associated with his progenitors, the position in which he stands to the Church and kingdom of God on the earth, the blessing he is able to seal on his posterity, worlds without end, and the great things he is destined to enjoy, if faithful—there is as much difference between his views and the world of mankind in general as there is between midnight darkness and the light of the sun in its meridian glory.

Men that are in darkness do not understand why it is that we think as we do, that we act as we do, that we endure as we do, that men can be united as we are, that people will leave their homes and traverse seas, oceans, deserts, mountains, plains, and sterile wastes, in order to meet with a people so much despised by a great majority of mankind. They do not know why it is, because they do not understand the counsels of God. How is it in relation to them? They have no revelation, no knowledge of God; and hence they are like the brute beasts, and know nothing but what they know naturally, as beasts obtain their knowledge, &c. They know nothing of their own position, or of their relationship to God; they know nothing about their progenitors, of their own destiny in the future, of what is within their reach while here on the earth, or how to secure blessings on their posterity; in fact, they are ignorant of all the great and vital principles which have a tendency to animate, enliven, and give vitality and power to all the acts of the sons of God; and hence they are like the brute beasts.

You can take an ox, or a hog, and put it into a stable, and feed it, and it will get fat there. What for? For the knife. If you could only give it a little revelation—if you could only make that ox or hog understand that it was being prepared to be killed and eaten, I wonder how fat you could make it? It is just so with the world; they are ignorant of their position, and they glory in their own shame, just as much as a hog does in wallowing in the mire; and they are just as ignorant of their destiny. This is the position of the world, and that is the reason why you see things as they are—why there is so much darkness; and I only wonder there is so much light among them as there is.

You wonder why men act so much like fools. I wonder they have as much intelligence as they have: and the only reason why they have so much is, that the Spirit of God is not entirely withdrawn from them.

In regard to principles of science, mechanism, &c., they possess a great deal of information; but they do not know that “every good and perfect gift” proceeds from God, and they won’t acknowledge it or him; and hence the little light they enjoy relative to religious matters, in relation to eternity, to their present real position and destiny, and to the things which God has communicated to us.

Is it to be wondered at, then, that men acting in that way should feel strange and act strangely? You cannot expect the conduct of a gentleman to proceed from a brute beast; you cannot expect anything but a grunt from a hog: it is their nature; and it is the nature of the wicked to act as they have done and as they are doing; and if you see animosity, hatred, evil, strife, vicious feelings, bad practices, lasciviousness, corruption of every grade, and every kind of abomination prevailing, it is because of their nature. One of those little hymns composed by Watts for children describes it right—

“Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God hath made them so: Let bears and lions growl and fight; it is their nature too.”

Not desirous to retain God in their knowledge, they have given themselves up to every kind of evil, and are led captive by the Devil; and the Scriptures say, “His servants ye are to whom ye list to obey.”

Now, what is it that enlightens our minds? We were like them precisely. Is there any man here who knew anything about God until it was revealed to him? Is there a man or woman here who understood even the first principles of the Gospel of Christ until they were revealed to them?

I have traveled a great deal, and been in different nations, and I have never yet met with a man that did. To what are we indebted for that knowledge? To the administration of an angel, which made manifest the order of God to Joseph Smith, and he revealed it unto others, to that we are indebted for the first principles of the Gospel.

Can you find anybody, anywhere, in any part of the earth, who professes to teach religion, that will tell the people to repent of their sins, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of them, and receive the imposition of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost? And who dare promise them that they shall receive it in its power, as the Apostles did formerly? I cannot. I have not met with such a people, nor have you.

I was well versed in the Scriptures myself when this Gospel came along, but I was as ignorant as a brute about these things, and so is everybody else. I have not come in contact with a man who understood correct principles in relation to the principles of the Gospel, or who knew the way to enter into the kingdom of God. Who could know it without God revealing it? And it is to that revelation that we are indebted for the intelligence we have received concerning these matters, and to the spirit of prophecy and revelation that has been communicated with it.

Brother Kimball said he did not profess to be a Prophet of God. I bear testimony that he is a Prophet of God; and why do I do that? Because I have known many things that I could relate here, that I heard him prophesy years ago, that have been fulfilled to the very letter. And I bear testimony of it on another ground: any man that has the testimony of Jesus has the spirit of prophecy; for “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” so says the old Bible; and consequently, such a man is a prophet.

Concerning the first principles of the Gospel, at first they came by revelation; they were communicated to a young man who did not possess what is termed worldly wisdom, education, or intelligence; but he came and told it out just as God told it to him.

Was there anybody that could controvert it? No. It was not because it was in the Bible that he taught it, but because God had communicated it to him; and he went and told the things which he had received. Did you ever meet with a man anywhere that could controvert the principles Joseph Smith taught? Did you ever find a theologian, or priest, of any description, that could contradict these things successfully? Did I? I never did. I have never met with a man under the heavens that could successfully contradict one principle of it—never; NO NEVER; and I do not expect ever to be able to.

Why is it that people cannot contradict it? Because it is the eternal truth of heaven, and emanated from the great Eloheim, and is one of those eternal principles of truth which God has communicated to the human family; and truth, like God, is unchangeable, and cannot be controverted. Darkness flees before it, and error hides its head wherever it appears.

It was so in regard to the first principles of the Gospel, and it has been so in regard to principles that have been revealed and communicated from time to time, both by Joseph Smith, by President Young, by brother Kimball, and by all the authorities of this Church who have been inspired by the Holy Ghost.

In relation to the position we now occupy, the things that were spoken this morning are as correct, as true, and as incontrovertible as anything that could be adduced by any man—I do not care where he comes from, nor what may be his intelligence—I do not care whether he is king, president, potentate, or statesman, of any description, or what his intellectual qualifications: it matters not.

The principles that were spoken here are, in and of themselves, correct; and I want to speak a little in relation to some of these things, in order that men who have not examined them may understand them more minutely. You believe the principles because you heard them, of course; and so do I; so do we all; and every truth recommends itself to the minds of the human family; yet, at the same time, we are not all of us at all times prepared to judge of the correctness of all these matters.

The things we have heard this morning might sound to some croakers and ignoramuses, who have never examined the subject, and do not understand principle, like treason, as though we were in open rebellion against the United States and opposed to the Government we are associated with—as though we were going to trample down all law, rule, and order. No such thing. We are the only people in these United States, at the present time, who are sustaining them. I can prove this, and that it is others who are trampling them under foot, and not us. Whilst they are committing acts, themselves, that are treasonable in their nature, and pursuing a course opposed to the Constitution and the very genius of the institutions of the United States, they want to lay the sin at our doors that they themselves are guilty of.

Would I, as a citizen of the United States, come out in rebellion against the United States, and act contrary to my conscience? Verily no. Would brother Young? Verily no. Would brother Kimball, or brother Wells? Verily no.

Are they not true patriots—true Americans? Do they not feel the fire of ’76 burning in their bosoms? Assuredly they do. Would they do a thing that is wrong? No; and they will also see that others do not do it. That is the feeling, the spirit, and principle that actuate them.

There are thousands of you who are Americans, who have been born in this land, whose fathers fought for the liberties we used to enjoy, but have not enjoyed for some years past. There are thousands of such men here who feel the same spirit that used to burn in their fathers’ bosoms—the spirit of liberty and equal rights—the spirit of according to every man that which belongs to him, and of robbing no man of his rights.

Your fathers and grandfathers have met the tyrant when he sought to put a yoke on your necks; as men and true patriots, they came forward and fought for their rights and in defense of that liberty which we, their children, ought to enjoy. You feel the same spirit that inspired them; the same blood that coursed in their veins flows in yours; you feel true patriotism and a strong attachment to the Constitution and institutions bought by the blood of your fathers, and bequeathed to you by them as your richest patrimony.

There are others of you that have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States; and some of you, not understanding correct principles, may, perhaps, feel qualms of conscience, and think, probably, that if we undertake to resist the powers that are seeking to make aggression upon us, we are doing wrong. No such thing. You let your conscience sleep at ease; let it be quiet: it is not us who are doing wrong; it is others who are committing a wrong upon us.

What was the case in Missouri? Let me draw your attention briefly to some of the circumstances that have transpired in our history as a people. Whom did we interfere with in the State of Missouri? Did we rebel against the United States, or against the State in which we lived? Verily no; and I am at the defiance of that State and Congress, with all the world at their backs, to prove that we did rebel in one iota. Did they give unto us the protection of American citizens? They did not; and they perjured themselves in not doing it. They perjured themselves before God and all honest men.

Whom did we rebel against in Illinois?

Let me mention one circumstance in the State of Missouri. How much land did we purchase there from the United States, and pay for, which they promised to warrant and defend us in the possession of? Did they protect us in the right they guaranteed unto us? No; they allowed us to be robbed and plundered with impunity. And how many suffered death in consequence of their recklessness, carelessness, and barefaced iniquity? Thousands. I have seen their condition when many thousands were driven from their lands and homes, were persecuted, harassed, and driven like felons without redress, robbed, plundered, imprisoned, and put to death; and thousands of men, women, and children wandered houseless and homeless exiles in their own land, and fugitives flying from the rage of a lawless rabble, infuriated banditti, and bloodthirsty miscreants and murderers. I saw then a whole people robbed and disfranchised, and this too in the middle of winter. Did the State authorities yield us any redress? No. They were foremost in the mob. Did the United States? No.

Many of my brethren around me also witnessed these things, and know the misery, destitution, and death caused by those bloodhounds, when they first fled to Nauvoo, resting where the mud was knee deep—the only position they could get—with three or four little sticks put up, and a counterpane thrown over them, and there left to die.

Brother Wells was in Nauvoo at the time. After the excitement was over, there was not enough of well folks to wait on the sick.

I was off on a mission to England at this time, and all my family were sick; and my son George, who has been away and returned with me, being quite a little boy, not able to draw water, and nobody in the house able to get it, had to go and wait at the well, with a little bucket, for somebody to come and draw him a little water to carry home to the sick, to quench the parching tongue and allay the raging fever occasioned by these Missouri demons.

Brother Brigham, brother Kimball, George A. Smith, and the Twelve here, and everybody, almost, was down sick; and in this condition, feeble, faint, and half dead, they started off on a mission, because we were commanded to go. We went to fulfil the word of the Lord. Did the United States step forward and yield us any redress? No; but they stood there, and were willing to see us imposed upon and robbed of our property and rights; and we have obtained no redress for it to the present day.

Who are the transgressors? Are we? Martin Van Buren, the then President of the United States, acknowledged the injustice done to us when he said, “Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you.” And we endured it.

We stayed in Illinois, lived there as peaceable citizens, and had a city charter, and under its protection improved our city, and had in a short time, by our energy, industry, and enterprise, built one of the best cities in the western country, and had one of the most peaceable societies that existed anywhere, without exception.

The first thing they did to aggra– vate us was to rob us of our city charter; and this very Judge Douglas, of whom we have heard so much as being our friend, was one of the first movers for its repeal. The first time I ever met with him was in an hotel in Springfield, Illinois, the time they were trying Joseph Smith before Judge Pope. He told me then that they had a right to do it, and that the Judges had decided so. I said, I did not know anything about the Judges.

I did not know who he was at the time, and it would not have made much difference if I had. I told him, It is no matter to me what the Judges decided about charters; the Legislature had given us our charter for perpetual succession; and for them to take away a charter with these provisions proved them either to be knaves or fools.

They were knaves if they did it knowingly, to give what they knew they had not power to do; and if they did not know it, they were fools for giving us a thing they had not power to give. Did they do it? Yes. And that State robbed us of the rights of freemen; and the only chance we had then, when they sent their scamps and rogues among us, was to have a whittling society and whittle them out. We could not get them out according to law, and we had to do it according to justice; and there was no law against whittling—so we whittled the scoundrels out.

I remember that one of the legislators who had annulled our charter, named Dr. Charles, went to President Young, and says he, “Mr. Young, I am very much imposed upon by the people around here; there are a lot of boys following me with long knives, and they are whittling after me wherever I go; my life is in danger.”

Brother Young replied, “I am very sorry you are imposed upon by the people: we used to have laws here, but you have taken them away from us: we have no law to protect you. “YOUR CAUSE IS JUST, BUT WE CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU.” Boys, don’t frighten him, don’t.”

They deprived us of the rights of law to protect ourselves, and in doing it, they deprived us of the power of protecting them; and we could not help them when they wanted help.

[Voice: “We still have whittling societies.”]

Yes, we still have whittling societies, as brother Kimball says.

Why did we leave Nauvoo? Had we killed anybody? Had we broken any law? Had we trampled upon the rights of any people? Had we done anything that the laws of the United States or of that State could interfere with us for? If we had, they would pretty soon have dragged us up.

The people wanted us to leave; and because the people were dissatisfied—because there were a lot of religious enthusiasts, political aspirants, blacklegs, and scoundrels, who wanted to possess our property, all bound together to rob us of our rights, we must go away, of course.

Judge Douglas, General Harding, Major Warren, and some of the prominent men from Springfield met together in my house in Nauvoo, and these men could go to work and talk deliberately (and there was no less than two United States’ Senators among them at the time), about removing thousands of people, and letting them be disfranchised and despoiled, as coolly as they would cut up a leg of mutton.

[Voice: “And you told them of it.”]

Yes. I did.

Now, then, whom did we injure? What law did we break? Whose rights did we trample upon? Did we dispossess anybody of his land, rob anybody, interfere with anybody’s rights? Did we transgress any State’s law, national law, or any other law? We did not; and they never have been able to prove one item against us, and we stand clear. We maintained the law and tried to make it honorable.

What must we go away for? Why, they had murdered our Prophet and Patriarch under the sacred pledge of the Governor of the State and of his officers, all combined, and we could obtain no redress; and because they had done one injury, they must heap a thousand on the back of it.

That is the only reason I know of. They were murderers, and sanctioned the practice, and those men have got to atone for these wrongs yet. [Voices: “Amen.”] The debt has got to be paid.

[Voice: “Douglas is not a bit better than the rest of them.”]

Not a particle.

What is our position at the present time? Why are we here, gentlemen and ladies? Answer me, ye sons of the ancient patriots—ye sons of those fathers who fought for the rights and liberties this nation boasts so much of. Answer me—Why are you here? Because you could not go anywhere else—because you could not be protected in those rights that your fathers bled and died for. That is the reason you are here, gentlemen.

We are here, because we are exiled and disfranchised, because we are robbed of our rights, because we could not possess equal rights with other American citizens—rights that the Constitution guaranteed to every citizen of the Union.

We had to fly from the face of civilization, and found a refuge among the red men of the forest; we had to seek that mercy from the hands of the savage that Christian civilization denied us.

We are talking now about rights, laying aside religion. If we come to talk about the kingdom of God, that is another matter. We are talking now about our rights as American citizens, or rather our wrongs—the rights we have been robbed of.

We are here, then, under these circumstances. Have we broken any law here? No. I defied the whole Eastern country, when I was there, to prove that we have broken any law, and have not found a man that dare take up the gauntlet—not one, because they could not do it. Why could they not? Because we have done no wrong.

What did we do on the road here? Right in the midst of difficulties, in the midst of exile, when we were journeying to this place, this Government called upon us for 500 soldiers to go and fight their battles, when they were literally allowing us to be driven from our homes and to be robbed of millions of property without redress.

Did we send the soldiers? We did. Was it our duty to comply with such a requisition at such a time, and under such circumstances? I don’t know. I think it was one of those works of supererogation which the Roman Catholics talk about. I do not think any law of God or man would have required it at our hands; but we did it; and I suppose it was wisdom and prudent, under the circumstances, that we should take that course, because our enemies were seeking to entangle and destroy us from the earth. They laid that as a trap, thinking to catch us in it; but it did not stick.

What did we do when we came here? We framed a Constitution and a Provisional Government, and reported our doings to the United States again, right on the back of all the insults, robbery, and fraud which we had endured. We still went constitutionally to work.

Afterwards, we petitioned for a Territorial Government. Did they give it to us? They did. Is there any step that we have taken that is contrary to law? There is not. They have appointed our Governor, our Secretaries, our Judges, our Marshals; they have done to us the same in this matter as they have done with other Territories.

I do not believe in their right constitutionally to appoint our officers. Still they have done it, and we have submitted to it. And they have sent some of the most cursed scoundrels here that ever existed on the earth. Instead of being fathers, they have tried every influence they could bring to bear in order to destroy us.

Such have been our protectors. These have been the men who have been sworn to fulfil their public duties; but they have foresworn themselves in the face of high heaven.

What law have we transgressed? None. They trump up every kind of story that it is possible to conceive of, but have always been and are now unable to substantiate any of their barefaced assertions; and I declare it before you and the world, that this people are the most peaceable, law-abiding, and patriotic people that can be found in the United States.

What have they been doing in Kansas, in California, in Oregon? What in Cuba, in Nicaragua, and at present in New York, if you please? They have been filibustering in Cuba and in Nicaragua; and officers of every grade and condition, both civil and military, have winked at it and suffered those things to go on, right under their noses.

The position of affairs in Kansas has been anything but flattering; it has been North against South, and South against North, and Kansas has been the battleground.

The people there are not, perhaps, much worse than the rest of the people; they are principally emigrants from the North and South, who are arrayed against each other, whilst Kansas is the greatest Sebastopol, where the battle is fought. The inhabitants there are the representatives of Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern civilization and Christianity, all combined.

Are they traitors? O, no! They are only a little excited. We must try and get a Governor who will try and compromise matters between the parties, and we will get things straightened out by-and-by. They send one Governor—he fails; and another, and he fails; and they have sent another; but whether he will fail or not, time must determine.

What are they doing in New York? The Legislature of New York passed laws interfering with the city of New York, and the city is in rebellion against the State of New York, and it was raging at the time I left. The State says, “I won’t submit,” and the city says, “I won’t submit.” And they had two different classes of officers there to regulate matters in the emporium of the United States: it is the mercantile emporium at least.

They are very peaceable; they are good citizens; there is no harm in that; it is only a little family trouble that we have to settle; and in doing so, we must use any pacific measure we can.

What is the matter with us? Have we broken any law? James Gordon Bennett, a man who is quarrelling with everybody, comes out at last, and says, “The Mormons have the advantage of us, and they know it.” And out of all he could hatch up and scrape together against the “Mormons,” there is only one thing that seems even in his eyes to supply any pretext for hostilities against them, and that is, the charge of burning some 900 volumes of United States’ laws; and this charge is also false. Bennett is one of the most rabid “Mormon“-eaters you can find, with the exception of Greeley.

What are they sending an army here for? I had thought things were a little different until I got here; but I have found, in conversing with President Young, that he knows more about things as they exist in the Eastern country than I did, who had just come from there. I had read all the newspapers, examined the spirit of the times, and tried to get at all the information I could; and I find, from the information I have received since then, that he understood things more correctly than I did.

I thought it was a kind of a pacific course which the Administration was taking, in order to pacify the Republicans, that they might have a reasonable pretext to have fulfilled their duties; for I do know that they were apprised of the unreliable character of some of their informants. When I heard that the troops now on their way here had sealed orders, were coming with cannon, and had stopped the mail, it argued that there was the Devil behind somewhere.

I will give you my opinion about their present course. The Republicans were determined to make the “Mormon” question tell in their favor. At the time they were trying to elect Fremont, they put two questions into their platform—viz., opposition to the domestic institutions of the South and to polygamy. The Democrats have professed to be our friends, and they go to work to sustain the domestic institutions of the South and the rights of the people; but when they do that, the Republicans throw polygamy at them, and are determined to make them swallow that with the other. This makes the Democrats gag, and they have felt a strong desire to get rid of the “Mormon” question.

Some of them, I know, for some time past, have been concocting plans to divide up Utah among the several Territories around; and I believe a bill, having this object in view, was prepared once or twice, and came pretty near being presented to Congress; but that was not done.

Now, they go to work and send out an army with sealed orders, and, if necessary, are prepared to commit anything that the Devil may suggest to them; for they are under his influence. They wish now to steal the Republicans’ thunder, to take the wind out of their sails, and to out-Herod Herod.

Say they, “We, who profess to be the friends of the ‘Mormons,’ and support free institutions, squatter sovereignty, and equal rights, will do more to the ‘Mormons’ than you dare do; and we will procure offices by that means, and save our parties;” and, as Pilate and Herod could be made friends over the death of Jesus, so they go to work and plan our sacrifice and destruction, and make up friends on the back of it. They would crucify Jesus Christ, if he were here, as quick as the Scribes and Pharisees did in his day, and the priests would help them.

President Young says they shall not come here and destroy us; and I say, Amen. [The congregation shouted, “Amen.“]

I have not quoted a great deal of Scripture today, but I will quote some. It says there was the opening of the “first seal;” so we will open this seal for them. We will declare their orders—a thing they have not manhood to do. They are too sneaking and underhanded, and have not manliness enough to declare their mind to a handful of people—the poor, pusillanimous curses. We dare do it; and I thank God, that I live among a people that dare; for I do despise this sneaking, miserable, cowardly tribe, that are obliged to act underhanded in all their ways. Why? For fear of something to come. We dare declare our intentions, and risk the consequences.

Now, I want to touch upon a principle which I spoke about awhile ago. We have submitted to their sending officers here; that is all right enough, if we have a mind to. We are citizens of the United States, and profess to support the Constitution of the United States; and wherein that binds us, we are bound; wherein it does not, we are not bound.

They have sent Judge after Judge, and many times we have been without them: their loss, however, was not felt. They have sent their officers, and we have treated them well; and for the good treatment we have received curses, bitterness, wrath, lying, and destruction in return. They have sought to destroy our reputation—to rob us of our rights. They have sought to injure us in every possible way that men could be injured, as patriots, Christians, and moral men. They have lied about us in every conceivable way.

We have borne it and borne it over and over again. Are we bound to bear it forever? That is the question that necessarily arises. Are we bound to suffer their abuse and oppression continually? And if we are, upon what principle? If there is any man in this congregation, or anywhere else, that will show me one principle or one piece of instruction or authority in the Constitution of the United States that authorizes the President of the United States to send out Governors and Judges to this Territory, I would like to see it.

I cannot find such authority. I will admit that a usage of that kind has obtained—that it is quite customary for the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate, to appoint Governors, Judges, Marshals, Secretaries of State, and all of those officers that you have had here. But it is a thing that is not authorized by the Constitution—much less to force them upon us by an armed soldiery. There is no such authority existing.

I wish to quote to you one little thing. If I had the Constitution here, I would read it to you. It is to the effect, “That the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

No matter, therefore, whether the people live in States or Territories, they possess constitutional privileges alike. The most that is said in regard to Territories and the authority of the President and Congress is, that “The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States.” That is speaking of it as land; and some of the most prominent statesmen of the United States have so construed it. It is property as land—territory as land they have a right to interfere with, not territory as regards the people.

I published this in the “Mormon” long ago, and said the Missouri compromise was unconstitutional. By-and-by, the United States’ Judges gave the same decision. I gave mine, however, before they gave theirs.

It is a true principle, they have not the authority. If they have it at all, it is in the people ceding it to them, and not what they possess by the Constitution of the United States. They have sent scoundrels amongst us from time to time. If they had sent decent men, would we have opposed them? No: we would have respected them. But will we submit to such infernal scoundrels? Never; no, never!!

So far as right is concerned, then, they have no right to appoint officers for this or any other Territory; and I will defy any man to prove that there is any such right in the Constitution.

I conversed with a Judge Black, who was coming up to Nebraska Ter– ritory on a steamboat—an intelligent man, a Democrat, of course. When talking about these principles to him, which he acceded to, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “Judge, what are you doing here?” “I am here,” said he, “according to the usage that has obtained; but if the people do not want me, all they have to do is to express it, and I will go away again.” I wish we had only half such decent men as that sent here.

He tried to take another tack, which is this: He pointed out in the Constitution where the Supreme Court of the United States was made one of the branches of the Government, and the President has the appointment of its Judges. That is true—he possesses the power to appoint the greater, but not the less. How do you make that appear? Simply because one is mentioned in the Constitution, and the other is not. The United States’ Supreme Court is a co-ordinate branch of the Government, and there is provision made by the Constitution for the election and appointment of its officers.

This is not the case in regard to the officers of a Territory. Out of courtesy we, as citizens of the United States, may say, “Mr. President, if you have a mind to appoint discreet persons to fill those offices, all well and good; but if you don’t, you had better take them back; for we won’t have them: we stand on our reserved rights as citizens of the United States.”

We are not lacking for men in the United States, at the present time, who want to make it appear that the United States have a right to lord it over the Territories, the same as the British Government used to do over their colonies.

Thousands of you before me were citizens of the United States, where you came from. You had the right of franchise—had a right to say who should be your Governor, and who should be your Municipal and State officers. You came out here by thousands or by tens of thousands. By what right or upon what principle are you disfranchised? Can anybody tell me? Say some, “You need not have come out here unless you had a mind to.” Of course not. But we had a mind to; we were American citizens before we came out, and we have transgressed no law in coming; and by what rule are we deprived of our citizenship? If we had a right then to vote for anything, we have a right now; and nobody has a right to cram this or that man upon us without our consent—much less have they a right to dragoon us into servility to their unconstitutional exactions.

What was the great cause of complaint at the time the Constitution was framed? In the Declaration of Independence, it was stated that the people had rulers placed over them, and they had no voice in their election. Read that instrument. It describes our wrongs as plainly as it did the wrongs the people then labored under and discarded.

Our Government are doing the very things against us that our fathers complained of. “They send armed mercenaries among us, to subjugate us,” &c. What is our Government doing? The same thing.

As American citizens and patriots, and as sons of those venerable sires, can we, without disgracing ourselves, our fathers, and our nation, submit to these insults, and tamely bow to such tyranny? We cannot do it, and we will not do it. We will rally round the Constitution, and declare our rights as American citizens; and we will sustain them in the face of High Heaven and the world.

No man need have any qualms of conscience that he is doing wrong. You are patriots, standing by your rights and opposing the wrong which affects all lovers of freedom as well as you; for those acts of aggression have a withering, deadly effect, and are gnawing, like a cankerworm, at the very vitals of religious and civil liberty. You are standing by the Declaration of Independence, and sustaining the Constitution which was given by the inspiration of God; and you are the only people in the United States this time that are doing it—that have the manhood to do it. You dare do it, and you feel right about the matter as the vox populi.

According to the genius and spirit of the Constitution of the United States, we are pursuing the course that would be approved of by all high-minded, honorable men; and no man but a poor, miserable sneak would have any other feeling.

I lay these things before you for your information, that you may feel and act understandingly. I have carefully criticized these matters, and examined the views of many of those who are said to be our greatest statesmen on this subject; for I have desired to comprehend the powers of the Government and the rights of the people; and I have watched with no little anxiety the encroachments of Government and the manifest desire to trample upon your rights. It is for you, however, to maintain them; and if those men that are traitors to the spirit and genius of the Constitution of the United States have a mind to trample underfoot those principles that ought to guarantee protection to every American citizen, we will rally around the standard, and bid them defiance in the name of the Lord God of Israel.

In doing this, we neither forget our duties as citizens of the United States, nor as subjects of the kingdom and cause of God; but, as the Lord has said, if we will keep His commandments, we need not transgress the laws of the land. We have not done it; we have maintained them all the time. When we talk about the Constitution of the United States, we are sometimes apt to quote—“Vox populi, vox Dei;” that is, The voice of the people is the voice of God. But in some places they ought to say, VOX POPULI, VOX DIABOLI; that is, the voice of the people is the voice of the Devil.

We are moved by a higher law. They talk sometimes about a higher law in the States. Greeley is a great man to talk about a higher law, which means, with him, stealing niggers. We do not care anything about that. We want to do something better—something higher and more noble. That is rather too low for us; consequently, they need not be afraid of our stealing their niggers: we will let them have all the benefits of them as one of the grand institutions of Christians, together with the amalgamating process as another of the institutions of Christianity. And another grand institution they have among them is prostitution.

Well, thank God, we do not know anything about such things. A very respectable gentleman in Philadelphia said to me a while go, in talking over some of these matters—“Suppose a Mahommedan should come into the city of Philadelphia”—that is one of the puritanical cities, where they profess to be so good, the city of brotherly love—and walk through our streets in the evening, and see a number of ladies walking alone, being informed that it was usual for respectable ladies to be protected, he would necessarily enquire what was the meaning of this. Being informed that these were prostitutes, he would very naturally say, “Then I suppose this is one of the institutions of Christianity?” This is the conclusion he would come to at once. Well, so it is; and this niggerism in the South is about the same kind of thing, only a change of color.

These are all moral, all legal, all truly Christian. Men East may have one or a dozen misses, keep part of their children, and turn the other out as paupers. In the South, they buy them body and soul, prostitute them at pleasure, and sell their own children. Yet these men talk of our morals, and send out armies to chastise us for our corruptions, when God knows, and they know, that they are a thousand times more corrupt than we are.

We are not taking any steps contrary to the laws and the Constitution of the United States, but in everything we are upholding and sustaining them. Gentlemen, hands off: we are free men; we possess equal rights with other men; and if you send your sealed orders here, we may break the seal, and it shall be the opening of the first seal.

In relation to the kingdom of God, that is another matter. You before me understand about it—its laws, priesthood, principles, and influences, and the things that are about to transpire. God has set His hand to accomplish His purposes, to roll on His great designs, and bring to pass the things spoken of by all the holy Prophets since the world began, that should take place in the latter days, to establish His kingdom on the earth, that shall become mighty and prevail over all other kingdoms. You know all about this.

We are established here, and have the oracles of God in our midst, and the principles of truth revealed. This is the kingdom of God. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands has got to roll forth and become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth.

Satan has held dominion, and rule, and power, over the human family, for generations and generations; and God is gathering together a little nucleus here—a band of brethren clothed upon with the Holy Priesthood and the Spirit of God, by which they will be able to roll back the cloud of darkness that has overwhelmed the inhabitants of the earth, and plant the principles of truth, and establish the kingdom of God. That is what we are engaged in, and what we mean to accomplish by the help of the Lord; and in regard to any little thing that may be transpiring around us, in regard to their little armies they are sending here, great conscience! It is comparatively nothing; there will be thunder and lightning and the bellowing of earthquakes, in comparison with that, before we get through. Thrones will be cast down, and desolation, war, and bloodshed will spread abroad in the earth, and desolate nations and empires, and God will turn and overturn until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ, and he will reign forever; and we are going to have part in it, and our children and our children’s children.

It is for us to act as the sons of the living God, magnify our calling, honor our God and His Priesthood, and live as men and as God’s true children on the earth, accomplish His purposes here, and then join with the redeemed that have gone before to help to roll on weightier matters in the upper world.

I do not know but I have been talking long enough. I feel well. I am happy. All is right; and if it thunders, let it thunder; let the lightnings flash and the earthquakes bellow; let them rage: there is a God in heaven that can hold the children of men, and He will do it, and His work will spread, His kingdom increase, and His power be made manifest among us and among all nations, and Zion will spread and go forth, and every creature in the heavens, and on the earth, and under the earth will be heard to say, “Blessing and power, might and majesty be ascribed to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever.”

Brethren. God bless you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, August 23, 1857.

I feel very much pleased at the arrival of our brethren that take missions. I know how to sympathize with them. There are a great many young Elders that are taking missions now. Twenty years ago, I was laboring in England; I baptized brother G. D. Watt, twenty years ago last month (July), in 1837. That was the first foreign mission that was taken by the Elders of this Church.

At that time it was almost impossible to realize what we now see and understand. I went over to England at the time the Church was broken up in Kirtland. There were very few persons then who could stand by “Mormonism” faithfully and uphold our Prophet Joseph Smith: where one would stand valiantly and uphold him, there were twenty who did not.

That day was a day wherein the Saints were tested; their integrity was proved; they were put to the test whether they would stand by “Mormonism” and by the Prophet, or not.

Many people now pretend that they stand by what they call ancient “Mormonism,” or “Mormonism” in their own way, but in brother Brigham they do not believe particularly.

No man can believe in “Mormonism,” except he believes in the man that leads the Church of God—in the man that holds the keys of life and salvation pertaining to this people.

How is it possible for a limb to be attached to a tree, and at the same time manifest its disapprobation of the tree? That limb will die and wither away, except it manifests its approbation, faith, and favor to the tree to which it is connected.

So it is impossible that a man or a woman who disbelieves that brother Brigham is a Prophet—that he is God’s representative and holds the keys of his kingdom pertaining to this people, can retain the Holy Ghost and partake of the life and sap of the true vine. Such persons have no faith of the genuine bearing kind, and consequently there are no works to correspond.

Will good works produce faith? Yes; there is very little faith without works; and then again, there never was but very little works without faith.

How can my body exist when my spirit leaves it? It cannot. Can my spirit exist without this tabernacle? It can; but the body cannot exist without the spirit, because the spirit that dwells in my body is the life of my body, and there is no life without it.

Some say the earth exists without spirit; I do not believe any such thing; it has a spirit as much as anybody has a spirit. How can anything live, except it has a living spirit? How can the earth produce vegetation, fruits, trees, and every kind of production, if there is no life in it? It could not, any more than a woman could produce children when she is dead: she must be alive to produce life, to manifest it, and show it to the world. It is so with “Mormonism.” We must manifest our faith by our works.

I speak these things because they come to my mind. When I arise to speak, I have never a premeditated subject; I let God, by the Holy Ghost, dictate me and control me, just as a musician would his violin. It is the player on the instrument that plays the tune; the instrument does not dictate the player. So I should be in the hands of God, to be dictated by him; for we are told that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, will teach us all things past, present, and to come.

The Holy Ghost knows the minds of this people, and what is necessary to deal out to every man and every woman in due season—their portion. If I am not dictated by the Holy Ghost, I cannot communicate to you that which is necessary.

Supposing you are all pure, except a very few—say there are twenty or thirty men in the assembly that are impure, and then there are a dozen or fifty women that do not keep the commandments of God—when I am speaking to the disobedient, the Spirit in me alludes to those persons only.

Why do men or women condemn me when the Word of God is sharp, and say I am harsh and hard? It is because they are not right; and that is the way I prove them. You never would complain of the sharpness of the word of God, if you were not under transgression.

You say I allude to you: so I do; or, it is the Spirit of God alludes to you through me. You are the persons who are under censure—you are the birds that flutter, because it hits you. Why should a person find fault who is not under condemnation? That proves they are.

How shall we manifest our faith by our works? I will speak of that a little further; and I cannot speak the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, without I censure many of you. I will ask those who have been here for four, seven, and eight years past, and from the day that we came into these valleys, if they have proved by their works their faith in the words of the Prophet Brigham?

Here are brother Amasa Lyman, brother Woodruff, and other brethren, who recollect Brigham testifying most strenuously in the Bowery—then occupied by the pioneers, when we first entered the Valley—of the propriety of this people laying up grain and other stores for seven years—because, said he, “The time has come when the words of the Prophets should be fulfilled, that the earth should rest every seventh year.”

He said it was our duty to lay up grain for seven years, because he foresaw what would be; he foresaw what we came here for—viz., to be the saviors of men. I have spoken also of these things constantly. How oft have you heard these things proclaimed for four years past? And, after all we have said, who is there that has laid up grain to last them one year, much less two, previous to the late scarcity we have passed through?

Those that did lay up a little had to feed that out, or be called scoundrels constantly. Some of the people considered a man a scoundrel that would not hand out the last kernel he had, or the last load of wood he had at his door.

Brother Brigham, myself, and Jedediah have blazed away on this matter for the last four years; and how many have manifested their faith by their works? Have one of you got wheat laid up to last you seven years? No; not one of you have got enough laid up to last three years.

Uncle Sam—I won’t call him uncle—he is a likely man, but his children have degenerated most awfully; and one of his sons who sits in the chair of state, Mr. Buchanan, is most awfully adulterated and sunk in degradation, that he would permit an army of 2,500 or 3,000 men to come here to enforce officers upon us contrary to the Constitution, and to enforce a Governor upon us, when we have got one of our own choosing.

The Prophet said that our Governor should rise up among ourselves. That you will find in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah—“And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.”

Now that day has come, as true as you live; our nobles will proceed from ourselves, and our Governor, and our judges, and all of our officials shall come out of ourselves, from this day forth. [Voices: “Amen.“]

Now mark it, gentlemen and ladies; the day has come for this people to take care of themselves. The President of the United States has taken a course—that is, the Lord has let him do it, knowing that no man can do anything against the truth, but for it; He has organized His work in that way. The Lord has permitted him to pursue a course that has brought you to your senses, to know whether or not it is necessary that you should lay up wheat, because you did not believe what brother Brigham said; and if you had believed what he said, you would believe what brothers Heber, Jedediah, and Daniel said, and the Twelve.

You have never believed me, nor brother Brigham, nor one of the Prophets, ancient or modern. You say you did believe it, but you did not think it was so near to us. You should always be the judges, should you not?

Have I any fears about them coming here? No. If the day has come for there to be a collision between us and the United States and the world, they will come, you may depend upon it, because God will stir them up; but if the time has not come, they do not come here; so you may set your hearts at rest.

You now see there is a time coming for every man to go to with his might, and lay up his wheat and his oats, his barley, his peas, and his beans, and dry your fruit, and lay it up; and then, when you have done it this year, do it next year, and then prize it as the most precious thing upon the earth.

The Bible says a man will give all he has got for his life. If you had a million of dollars in gold or in silver, you would give the whole of it for food to save your life. Well, then, why do you not take a course to lay up that very thing that will save your lives and the lives of others, as Joseph did the lives of the people of Egypt and his father’s house?

Joseph warned the people of a famine that was coming on the land, and laid up corn; so Brigham and Heber have taught you that we are going to see a day similar to that, but more terrible—more awful.

How strange it is, brethren, that you are so dilatory in those things that pertain to your salvation and the salvation of millions besides us? Am I taking that course? I am. And before I built my storehouse, I saw these things, and I went to work and set an example that was worthy of imitation, although it was small; and the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society gave me a diploma, but did not give me any money, although I had done the best, in their thoughts, of the kind. And I am going to continue.

I have got somewhere between eleven and twelve hundred bushels of old wheat now in my storehouse, and it will stay there until Brigham says, “I want it.” And I have room for another twelve hundred—yes, for twelve times twelve; and when that is filled, I will fill another one, and so I will keep it going. The Lord will put means in my hands that I will continue to do so, and he will bless every man and woman that will take that course and continue it; they will increase in their stores, while those who take the opposite course will decrease and they will wither away.

Do you not see that the man who will store up knowledge, virtue, wisdom, and understanding, will increase in those principles? It will be just so with the fruits of the earth.

I shall continue to teach you these things and arouse your minds.

I have referred to you ladies. I told you, a week or two ago, to take some of your fine clothes and buy wheat. Let me bring up a circumstance of a certain woman that came to me and wanted an everyday dress. She said she had seven dresses too good for everyday. I said, “Why do you not make an everyday dress of some of them; for one of them will outwear three dresses made of twenty-five cent calico?”

I would advise you to take every– thing that is unnecessary, and buy wheat and barley, and such things as you need with it, and lay up your stores for the time that is to come, that you can feed your own kindred and friends, who will actually come to you. Lots of my kindred will come to me, and brother Brigham’s will come to him, as Joseph’s father, and mother, and brethren came to him in Egypt. As that is true, this is, as the Lord liveth.

The Lord says that saviors shall come upon Mount Zion in the latter days. Mount Zion is here in the tops of the mountains; and has not our Governor come out of us? He has come out of this Church—out of a branch of the house of Israel; yes, our Governor and our Lieutenant-Governor, and our Judges and Marshals, &c.

Now, sisters, I am going to bring before you a circumstance of one man: he is our barber down here—brother Squires. Although he is shaving to good advantage, if he had subjects enough, he could make ten dollars a day—that is, if he could get enough for it. He went down here close to a piece of land I am keeping, and he worked four or five days; he took his wife and two children with him, and he averaged two-and-a-half bushels every day at gleaning the heads of wheat that were scattered.

Now, supposing those that have got no wheat would take the same course. Is the wheat there? I presume there could be fifty bushels gleaned from ten acres with all the ease in the world. Go to brother Brigham’s ten acres, and fifty bushels could be gleaned there; a man would make his bushel a day. I am telling you how to get your wheat.

Would it not be better for you to leave your mechanic shops, every one of you, and spend a week in the wheatfield, and see what you could do? Will we discharge you? Yes; go in peace, and God Almighty bless you, and make you glean double all the time. Do we want that wheat saved? We do.

Hundreds of this people have not raised a kernel, and brother Squires can go with his wife and two children and glean two-and-a-half bushels a day. It is a pretty good example, ladies. How much better are you than they—that is, if they do right and keep the commandments of God? I want to know why one person is better than another, without they surpass another by their good works?

Says one, “I used to belong to the aristocracy in the States, and I belonged to that class in the old country.” But, gentlemen and ladies, I belong to the aristocracy, and that is all the difference there is between you and me.

Supposing you have been brought up in “high life,” what made you well off? Because, in the providence of God, you had a rich father or a rich uncle, and they made you comfortable; but I had the misfortune to be a poor boy, and had to go from house to house to beg my bread.

I want to know if I am any the worse for that? Joseph of old was a shepherd, and was considered one of the most inferior boys in his father’s house; but God made him a king and a Prophet, and a savior of his father’s house and millions of the human family; and so He will you, and so He will me, so sure as I am faithful, honor my calling, and be obedient to my superiors, and honor the Priesthood, and God will honor me; but He will not honor me except I honor myself.

If I had time, I would go into the wheatfield myself, and esteem it a privilege, in preference of doing what I have to do here.

Need you take the straw and stubble and bring it to your homes? No. Be like the honey bee; she carries away the honey and leaves the rest; she goes and gathers the bee bread, and leaves the flowers behind her, and of this she makes pots or bins to store away the honey: that is all the bee bread is for. We use it for many purposes. Brother Squires, instead of taking the straw, broke off the heads of wheat, and put them in a bag; he took the wheat and left the straw.

Are these things interesting to you? There is not one of you has got an article of clothing on your back, but what has been obtained through the industry of men and women.

We talk about smart women: we have the smartest women on the earth, and the smartest men and smartest boys; and we have also got some of the meanest men and women there is on God Almighty’s footstool; they are the taglocks, and will be sheared off.

The farmer never takes a sheep into the water to wash him until the taglocks are first cut off, because they have taglocks so quickly again, they besmear the wool. They did that where I lived; still there were a great many things done where I lived that was not done where you lived.

I merely speak of brother Squires to show you what advantages there are to be gained by gleaning. Then I will go to the field where men and women have been and gathered up a few scattering straws, and make a better sweep of it than they, and then another will follow me up, and gather a good pile. What is the cause of this? They cannot see much—only now and then a few stalks.

I will be bound to say, in this county of Salt Lake, that if people will go to work, they may gather four thousand bushels of wheat from the gleaning; and I am not straining it one particle; and it is the best of the wheat that falls to the ground.

Just so with the Saints: the best Saints lay at the feet of Jesus, serving him and doing the will of God. These things are not only for you who are present today, but they will go to every city and place throughout the mountains, to arouse the people, and they will think more of them than you do that are continually under the droppings of the sanctuary.

The world and many of the Saints abroad and at home are asleep, and that day will overtake them as a thief in the night, and it will come upon them like a whirlwind; and so it will you, if you do not wake up and listen to our words.

How many times I have heard it—“We believe what brother Brigham says, and we believe this, and we believe that; but here is brother Heber—he is a kind of wild, kind of enthusiastic; he is full of visions and wild notions.” Tell me one notion I have had that is not correct. Say you, “Some things you have prophesied have come to pass, but we do not know whether the rest will or not.”

I do not profess to be a Prophet. I never called myself so; but I actually believe I am, because people are all the time telling me that I am. I do not boast of that. I say that every man and woman who will live their religion, be humble, and be dictated by the Holy Ghost, the spirit of prophecy will be upon them.

Some of you, ladies, that go abroad from house to house, blessing the sick, having your little circles of women come together, why are you troubling yourselves to bless and lay your hands on women, and prophesy on them, if you do not believe the principle? You make yourselves fools to say that that same power should not be on the man that has got the Priesthood, and with sisters that have not got any, only what they hold in connection with their husbands.

We can tell what will come to pass; and one of you can talk in tongues and pour out your souls to God, and then one interpret; that is the course you take, and it is all right: go ahead, and God bless you and multiply blessings on you; but do not go round tattling about your husbands and talking against the Priesthood you are connected to. I do not say many of you do it; but you that do it are poor, miserable skunks.

Brethren and sisters, let us go to work now, every man and woman, where you have it in your power, and lay up our grain—lay up our oats, barley, and everything else that will keep, and go to work and raise flax, and make clothing.

Now, you said you did not believe a word I said here a few Sundays ago, that if we would go to work and raise flax, and cultivate it, and pray for it, and keep the commandments of God, it should have a coat on it fourfold more. I said that, ladies and gentlemen. You go to, and do as I told you, and see if it does not come to pass.

Did not the Lord rain down the honeydew upon the trees and upon the vegetation in Utah? Yes. I can go down on Cottonwood here, and show it to you, lots of it. If he can do that here, what will he not do, if we keep the commandments of God? And, gentlemen and ladies, if you will do just as you are told, without any deviation, you need never trouble yourselves about mobs—never, no, never.

The Lord said to Joseph, If you will do my will, and listen to my counsel and the counsel of my servants, it is my business in the last days to fight your battles and provide for my Saints.

I have no more fears, nor never shall have, if you will do just as you are told, everyone of you, and stop your contentions, your lying, your deceptions, and your dishonesty; and let every man do right—let him do justice, and we will never be troubled with troops, and we will have one, two, three just as good years of peace as we ever had since we were born, beginning now; and I know it. Gentlemen, it depends on your doing right.

Could the Lord stir you up, through the testimony of brother Brigham or his brethren, to believe it was necessary to lay up your stores, until the Devil kicked up a fuss to show you that death and destruction would come on this people? That is true. Do not tell me that you listen to his counsel, when you do not practice his words.

And, ladies, do not tell me that you take his counsel, when I do not see you here with bonnets manufactured out of the elements of this valley. It is a lie before God when you say you listen to his counsel, and come here before him and sit under his eyes in open disobedience to it.

Where did you get your bonnets? Were they made here? No; they were made in the States; they came by succoring those poor curses who would send us all to destruction, by nourishing these Gentile merchants here. The best of them would sell this whole people for ten dollars, and permit my life and Brigham’s life to be taken in a minute. I know this.

What do they care for us? There is not one of them that is in any degree friendly towards us, and feels to believe and sustain “Mormonism.” There is not one of them but what would be perfectly willing that the troops should come here and massacre this whole people, for the sake of a few dollars.

Have we any confidence in them? Yes, as far as deal is concerned; but when it comes to “Mormonism,” I have not a particle. I never saw that man that had not an inclination in his heart to embrace “Mormonism” that I ever had one particle of confidence in.

Many of you have sustained Judge Douglas as being a true friend to this people; and he is just as big a damned rascal as ever walked, and always has been. He has taken a course to get into the chair of State, and that is what he is after: he will try to accomplish that, if he goes to hell the next day; but he will not go into the chair of State; he will go to hell.

Now, do not be scared; I am going to talk what I feel, and I ask no odds of anybody, except my leader: I will be subject to him. I will be amenable to any branch belonging to the true vine of Jesus Christ, and I will nourish it, and cherish it; but those poor curses, I have not one particle of confidence in them.

I never knew an instance in the days of Joseph, when he confided in those poor devils, but what they turned traitor to him, and were the very men that took his life, aided by the apostates that left this Church; and I know it, and so do you.

How many times have I been through the mill? Lots of times; and I expect to go through it again, and then through the bolt, and the screen, &c.

Joseph never trusted in one of them but what they betrayed him; and I wish to God I had taken some of their lives when I had a chance: they were blacklegs, whoremongers, murderers, liars, sorcerers, and rascals; and you may take many of the leading men of the United States Government, and they are not one whit better.

These merchants here have collected their millions of dollars from us. Are they your friends, ladies? There are not many of them, if they dared do it, but what would seduce you in a minute, if you would yield to them.

In Kirtland, when we were broken up, which was a serious time, and in Far West, in Missouri, and Illinois, the priests of the day, the bigger portion of them, and those they call the best men, were combined against us.

But let me tell you that the best men in the United States are not among the rulers; they do not scramble and gamble for office. They have got the meanest curses for politicians, and the poorest curses for priests.

What did they say in Missouri, in Kirtland, in Illinois—the Methodist priest, the Baptist priest, the lawyer, the judge, and the governor, with all their religion? They positively considered it no crime to seduce a “Mormon” sister, nor do they now; and that is what they are after.

Sisters, let us take a course that you may not be brought into these straits—that you may not have to take your children, and your budgets under your arms, and flee to the mountains. But if you do not listen to counsel, and begin today, you will have to do that; but if you obey counsel, you never will have to go into these mountains—no, never, while the earth stands.

We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and the hens will crow, and the chickens will crow, and they will all crow long and loud, and you will not be able to tell the difference between a hen and a rooster, nor between a rooster and a hen, for they will all crow the same tune. We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and say what we please from this day, and they never will prevail against us—no, never; and I will prophesy it in the name of Israel’s God. [Voices: “Amen.“]

Do as you are told, and Brigham Young never will leave the Governorship of this Territory from this time henceforth and forever—no, never; and there shall no wicked judge with his whore ever sit in our courts again; for all who are against Israel are an abomination to me and to our God.

When you look upon it, you shall know that Heber told the truth, as wild as he is; but there is no wildness in this boy.

Will we go into these mountains? Will these troops come here? No, no, no, not yet. We do not want them to come till we are brought to the test and have not anything to help ourselves with: then we want them to come and bring the honey and the good things; then we will show them how it is done. We do not want armies of men to go out of here; we have got boys here, ten thousand of them, enough to take everything they have got.

The Lord said there should be no time in the last days; the time is only measured to the ungodly, but to the Saints there shall be no more time; it is all time. Go ahead, and we do not care if you let your beard grow sixteen feet long.

You need not ever trouble yourselves, gentlemen and ladies, about the army coming here to this land, whether you have your endowments or not: those that have not got their endowments are just as safe as those who have, and they will live just as long. Do not trouble yourselves at all; let these things sleep and you be awake, and watch, and pray, and be humble, and serve your God, and go and glean wheat.

Bless your soul! If the daughters of Israel go and glean wheat, they may be like the woman anciently, increase all around: she had been a barren woman formerly, but gleaning wheat put her in the notion of getting——I can’t say it.

The Spirit that is on me this morning is the Spirit of the Lord; it is the Holy Ghost, although some of you may not think that the Holy Ghost is ever cheerful. Well, let me tell you, the Holy Ghost is a man; he is one of the sons of our Father and our God; and he is that man that stood next to Jesus Christ, just as I stand by brother Brigham. If brother Brigham goes ahead, and I stand by him, and Daniel stands by me, and the Twelve by us, we never shall be separated—never, no, never.

Men that are engaged in this work and kingdom, if they are one, they will be tied together, that they never will be separated, no more than two drops of water.

There is a great curiosity here. Some say they are of Judah, some say they are of Jacob, some of John, and some of Peter. When we are restored back to our Father, we shall find that every one of us is in the tree of life: and what is the difference, as long as we are all in one tree.

You say there are twelve limbs in the tree of life, and we have all got to be connected to those twelve limbs or branches. Go and read the Bible, and see what is said about the tree of life, and those that partake of the fruit of it. It is all on natural principles. We are all one family: God the Father is the tree of life; he is the root of it, and we spring out of it, or else we spring into it by grafting, by inoculating, and by doing the things of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, there have several left since we proclaimed last Sunday: they have put right out; some went that very day. Am I not glad? If they had been here, and waited till today, and heard what I have said, they would not have gone. We wanted them to go; so they could not hear what has been said today. They think troops are coming here, and that we are going to fight. What the devil can we fight, when there is nothing to fight?

I want you to go and get your butcher knives, your bowie knives, and jack-knives, and sharpen them. There is nothing to fight, and there will not be this year; we shall have a year of peace. They may try to come here, and then they will not come here. If they do not undertake to come here, then there will not be any trouble; but they never will force a Governor on us again—no, never—nor their poor, rotten-hearted judges and marshals, &c., if you will do right.

If these words fail, it is on your backs. I am pretty careful there, and not careful either. I am going to let it out, and let God speak and tell you words of consolation, if you will receive them.

Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, Brigham’s words, and Heber’s words, and Jedediah’s words, and Daniel’s words have been to many of you like the sound of a bell: it is a pretty sound in your ears, but as soon as the sound is gone, it has lost its charms.

You have come here and heard the sound, and you know no more about the sound when you have gone away, than though you had never heard it, as good as the people are.

If you would have listened, there would have been this day millions and millions of bushels of wheat in store. Instead of that, we have not any, with a very few exceptions, except that which has come in this year.

We are more choice of it than we would be of gold or of silver. I would part with money quickly for it. I mean to part with every rag of clothes that I have to spare for wheat; and if you have got it, I will sell everything I have got, except a change, and you shall have it forthwith. I will set you an example.

Will the United States send troops here? Yes. And when they have done, the other inhabitants of the earth will send them. But, remember, the Prophets have said that the riches of the Gentile world shall be consecrated to God and to his people. I think we will have a little of it along occasionally.

Do not be sad; our God rules in the heavens and in the earth beneath, and he has almighty power.

Will you go to work now, and lay up your grain? There are a great many boxes making at the Public Works that will hold from fifteen to twenty bushels each; but the boxes cost more than the wheat. That I do not like; still we are willing to make them for you. Some of our Bishops have been to me, and wanted to know if the design is to cache the wheat now. No, sir, not till we get it; I am not going to cache anything I have not got.

Go and build your storehouses, and get your wheat together, and when the time to cache the wheat comes, we will cache it.

Bless your souls, Uncle Sam is not coming here yet awhile; we shall not let them. And when they do come, we shall take their cabbage, stock, and all.

I have told you the truth, every word I have spoken. You think our Father and our God is not a lively, sociable, and cheerful man. He is one of the most lively men that ever lived; and when we have that sociability and cheerfulness, it is the Spirit of the Lord.

God delights in a glad heart and cheerful countenance. Some people carry faces as long as my leg, and that is about three feet long; and they are just the biggest hypocrites we have got in this city.

Confidence in them? Yes, I have confidence to believe they are the meanest hypocrites that ever walked. You may go to their houses, or wherever they are, and speak about Brigham, Heber, and Daniel, and they are ready to give them a dab and hoe them down. How do you suppose I feel about them? Such persons feel about me as they do about my brethren, all the time. I will not speak a blessing for them, for they are damned.

What! Speak against the man who holds the keys of life and salvation for you, and the Priesthood of God that has been handed down directly from him? You poor, miserable creatures—you are not fit to live. There are not many such characters; but they are those poor, miserable, sanctimonious ones you find around.

“Oh, Brigham, don’t! Don’t, Heber! Don’t, for God’s sake! All the world will be on us!” Damn the world. Now, that is just as they feel. I wish there was a magazine in you, and we could touch you off. You are not fit to live in hell, nor anywhere else; and you ought to be touched off before you get anywhere.

Now, I do not mean any of you good folks.

Brethren, be honest; and when you are to work for the Public Works, work; and when you are to work for me, work; when you are to work for brother Hyde, work, and earn your wages, and not carry it all off when you go home at night, in your bags, as some do at the Public Works. You have quit it now yourselves; but some of you have set your children at it. Stop it! You have no business to touch a nail, nor a pin, nor a block two inches long, for they are not your property. What is it but stealing?

When people come to visit the works, you sit down and spend your time with an acquaintance. That time is not yours. If I was brother Mabin, I would not let a man go about those works without he had permission, and then not to hinder the men from their labors.

I have no fault to find with good men.

You men that come from England, were you idle there? You never were permitted to be idle in your own land. They have to go to work at such a time, and work until the time to stop, and go to dinner, and so on. This is the way the people work in the old country, except those who belong to the aristocracy. There are not many of them here.

I belong to the humble and meek, and they will inherit the earth. I am an heir to it with them. God help me to be faithful, good, kind, and benevolent; that is my prayer.

Let us remember that we will not be rewarded for that we do not do; but you will be rewarded for that you do, and nothing more.

There are a great many things I might talk about. God bless you, brethren and sisters. I bless the pure and good; and I bless that man and woman that will go to and do as they are told; and you shall be blessed, with your children after you, forever; and those that do not do it shall go the other way. Amen.

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857.

Beloved brethren and friends—Being called upon this morning to address you in a few words, I do so with very great pleasure. The sea of upturned faces that present themselves to my view at the present time is indeed something new, although I have been in what may be called the metropolis of the United States for some length of time.

Gazing round upon my brethren and sisters with smiling countenances and happy, contented feelings, imparts peculiar sensations to my mind; and it is difficult for me at the present time to concentrate my thoughts so as to express the feelings that are in my bosom, if in fact I could express them. Suffice it to say that I am glad to be here; I am happy to meet with my brethren of the Priesthood, and my sisters, and all those who are friends to the cause of God; I rejoice to see you, and am glad of the opportunity of standing before you once more to speak of the things pertaining to the interests of Zion, and the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth.

There are many here who, like me, have been absent from home for some time, who, when they come to meet with former associations and friends, particularly those with whom they have battled for years in the cause and kingdom of God, feel as I feel on the present occasion. Those alone, and there are many of them, can enter into the sympathies and emotions which I experience at the present time.

There is a very material difference between associating with those that have the fear of God before their eyes, whose first object is their own salvation, the salvation of their progenitors and posterity, and the building up of the kingdom of God, and associating with those who “have not God in all their thoughts,” who regard him not in all their transactions, but who are living “without God and without hope in the world,” whose hearts—and I am sorry to say it, but yet it is true—whose hearts are “full of cursing and bitterness,” who roll sin under their tongues as a sweet morsel, “whose feet are swift to shed blood,” and “the way of peace,” as the Prophet hath said, “they have not known.”

There is a very material difference between associating with men and women who are the sons and daughters of Zion, and characters such as I have last named. The contrast is so striking, the spirit is so different, the atmosphere varies so much, that any man possessing one spark or particle of the Spirit of the Most High must experience it the moment he breathes the atmosphere and comes in contact with the two contending parties. The one is engaged in the acquisition of wealth: gold is their god, and, associated with that, lust, pollution, and corruption of every kind.

While we are aiming to fulfil our destiny on the earth, to accomplish the object for which we were created, to magnify our calling, to honor our God, to build up His kingdom, to redeem the earth from the curse under which it groans, to roll back the tide of corruption that seems to have overspread the universe, our opponents are engaged in pursuits directly tending to dissolution and destruction. Their lives, their views, their objects are short, transient, and evanescent. Ours are wide as the universe, extended as eternity, deep as the foundations of the earth, and elevated as the throne of God; receiving and imparting blessings that are rich, glorious, and eternal—blessings which effect us and our posterity through endless ages that are yet to come.

The contrast so striking, so vivid, so manifest, is it to be wondered at, when a person reflects upon these matters, that ten thousand thoughts should crowd upon the mind and produce sensations that is impossible to fully express with human language? Such, then, are my sentiments, and such my feelings.

I have been for some length of time past associated with the Gentiles. I have been engaged in battling corruption, iniquity, and the foul spirits that seem to fill the atmosphere of what you may term the lower regions, if you please; and the Lord has been with me, His Spirit has dwelt in my bosom, and I have felt to shout, Hallelujah! and to praise the name of the God of Israel, that He has been pleased to make me a messenger of salvation to the nations of the earth, to communicate the rich blessings flowing from the throne of God, and put me in possession of truth that no power on this or on the other side of hell can controvert successfully.

In regard to the world, the Elders who have been out, as I have, and as others have around me, know something of its nature and spirit, and the feelings by which the people are governed and actuated. Our young men and women, who have not come in contact with it, can scarcely conceive of the amount of iniquity, depravity, corruption, lying, deception, and abomination of every kind that prevails in the Gentile world.

Talk of honesty! It is a thing in theory; and they will preach about it as loud and as long as anybody. As a matter of theory, it is honorable to be honest—to be men of truth theoretically; but when you come to put your finger upon it, you cannot find it, it is like a shadow—it vanishes from your grasp.

Where are the men of truth—nationally, socially, religiously, morally, politically, or in any other way? Where are the patriots? Where are the men of God? I declare before you and high heaven, I have not found them. Sometimes I have thought I had got my hand upon them, but they slipped out of my fingers.

I bless the God of Israel that I am permitted to mingle with the Saints of the Most High—to associate with men who, when I meet them and ask them concerning anything, I may expect to have an honest and truthful answer—men in whom there is some truth, some integrity, something to catch hold of, something you can rely upon.

To speak of men whom I have seen dissatisfied, and who have gone back to Babylon, I must say that I do not very much admire their taste. If people understood things as I do, and as I have seen and experienced them, they would thank God from the bottom of their hearts that they are permitted to have a name and a place among the people of God in these valleys of the mountains.

We have been engaged in publishing a paper, which is generally known, because it has been circulated here. About my proceedings and acts, I have got very little to say, only that I have done as well as I could, the Lord being my helper; and I believe my brethren here have prayed for me, and that I have been sustained by their prayers and faith.

I have not been in that place, because it was my desire to be there; for I have had a hard struggle and a good deal to pass through: but that is common with us all; and if there were no struggle, there would be no honor in a victory.

I have conversed with some of the Twelve since I came home, and they all feel about the same; and when I have read about your affairs here, and the position in which you have been placed, I have said, “My brethren have had to struggle.”

There is one thing that I have noticed: wherever I have come across a Saint, they differ very materially from others. I have met with those in different places who have been sent out on missions to the various stations, and missionaries going off to preach in Canada and other places; and I found, wherever I came in contact with one of them, I came in contact with a man; and wherever I came in contact with those who had not been up here, I came in contact with children—babies, if you please, hardly knowing their right hand from their left, I mean in the practical sense of the word.

There are a great many theorists in the world. They can talk and splutter, and make a noise, and have a great many theories; but they cannot reduce them to practice. There is no energy, vitality, or power. But come in contact with our own brethren, and they are all quick, full of animation, life, and energy; and there is a spirit infused into them that I do not see anywhere else. This is my experience.

You may pick up men from any part of the world you please, and bring them to this place, and what are they fit for? They are poor, miserable, croaking old grannies. But there is something in the atmosphere of the place—something in the scenery we have passed through. There is something in the difficulties we have spoken about, and something in our joys and prospects, that has a tendency to strengthen the mind and brace up the nerves. There is something, too, in the hope that is implanted in the bosom, that is different from that in the possession of other men.

Every true man among us feels he is a Saint of the living God, and that he has an interest in the kingdom of God; every man feels that he is a king and a priest of the Most High God. He is a savior, and he stands forth and acts with energy and power, with influence, and he is full of the Spirit of the Lord. Hence the difference between them and others, and hence the necessity of the experience we are passing through, the various trials we have to combat with, and the difficulties we have to overcome.

All these things seem to me to be so many lessons, which it is absolutely necessary for the young, the middle-aged, and the aged to learn, to prepare them and their posterity for more active scenes in the rolling forth of the great work of God in the last days. Consequently, if we have to pass through a few trials, a few difficulties, a few afflictions, and to meet with a few privations, they have a tendency to purify the metal, purge it from the dross, and prepare it for the Master’s use.

So far as I am concerned, I say, let everything come as God has ordained it. I do not desire trials; I do not desire affliction: I would pray to God to “leave me not in temptation, and deliver me from evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” But if the earthquake bellows, the lightnings flash, the thunders roll, and the powers of darkness are let loose, and the spirit of evil is permitted to rage, and an evil influence is brought to bear on the Saints, and my life, with theirs, is put to the test; let it come, for we are the Saints of the most High God, and all is well, all is peace, all is right, and will be, both in time and in eternity.

But I do not want trials; I do not want to put a straw in anybody’s way; and, if I know my own feelings, I do not want to hurt any man under the heavens, nor injure the hair of any person’s head. I would like to do every man good. These are the feelings, the spirit which the Gospel has implanted in my bosom, and that the Spirit of God implants in the bosoms of my brethren. And if men will pursue an improper course, the evil, of course, must be on their own heads.

I used to think, if I were the Lord, I would not suffer people to be tried as they are; but I have changed my mind on that subject. Now I think I would, if I were the Lord, because it purges out the meanness and corruption that stick around the Saints, like flies around molasses.

We have met on the road a great many apostates. I do not want to say much about them. If they can be happy, all right; but they do not exhibit it. When a man deserts from the Gospel, from the ordinances, from the Priesthood and its authority, from the revelations of the Spirit of God, from the spirit of prophecy, from that sweet, calm influence that broods over the upright man in all his acts, he loses the blessing of God, and falls back into error; and, as the Scripture says, “The evil spirit that went out of him, returns again, bringing with him seven spirits more wicked than himself; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

It has become proverbial, where apostate “Mormons” live, to say, “Oh, he is only an apostate Mormon.” They look upon them as ten times meaner than a “Mormon.”

I happened to go into a barber’s shop, one day, to get shaved. A man came in, and when he went out again, the enquiry was made, “Who is that man?” “Oh, he is only an apostate Mormon.” Their mouths are full of cursing; and you will find them chewing tobacco and getting drunk, thinking that, by so doing, they will recommend themselves to the people; but they have not learned the art very well; they can’t swear and degrade themselves so naturally as others, and the people find them out and repudiate them.

You that don’t know him, have heard of Thomas B. Marsh, who was formerly the President of the Twelve Apostles, but who apostatized some years ago, in Missouri. He is on his way here, a poor, decrepit, broken down, old man. He has had a paralytic stroke—one of his arms hangs down. He is coming out here as an object of charity, destitute, without wife, child, or anything else. He has been an apostate some eighteen years. Most of you know his history. He has been all the time since then afraid of his life—afraid the “Mormons” would kill him; and he durst not let them know where he was.

In meeting with some of the apostates, he said to them, “You don’t know what you are about; if you want to see the fruits of apostasy, look on me.” I thought they could not look on a better example.

In relation to some of those other folks that left here—the Gladdenites and others—where are they? Some of them that contended most strenuously for Gladden have cast him off, and now have nothing to tie to. Where is their hope of salvation?

In regard to the spirit of the time, I do not know but that I have published my feelings. I would observe, however, that there is a material difference between the people of the East and the people of the West. A great majority of the people of the West, on the borders, may be emphatically termed “Border ruffians.” The Eastern people call them by that name, and by that name they are known. There is a species of ruffianism among them, of rowdyism, groggeryism, of bantering, bullying, fighting, and killing, that is a disgrace to humanity.

The most of you who have read the news must be familiar with the scenes that have transpired in Kansas between the two parties that have existed there—one party in favor of slavery, and the other opposed to it. There has been a great struggle between them, and mobocracy has abounded to a great extent. Who are the best and who are the worst, would be very difficult for me to tell.

The Eastern people, of whom I have been speaking, as quick as they go to the borders, partake of the spirit that reigns there, and turn “border ruffians” too. It is not difficult for them to enter into it; for the spirit of deep seated hatred which prevails among many in the East towards the South soon breaks out, and their feelings are manifested in acts of violence, and they generally maintain their points by the bowie knife and pistol, by mob violence, vigilance committees, &c.

This disorder of things extends all along the frontiers. If a man does not do right, they get up a vigilance committee, and it takes up a man, judges him, whips him, banishes him, or puts him to death, as they please; and it has become popular to act in this way in all those border places.

They are called “border ruffians,” and I think the name is as appropriate as anything you could give them. I do not know that I could pick out a better title. In the East, they do it with their tongues; they do not use the bowie knives, pistols, and rifles so much as in the West and in the South; but a spirit of rancor, animosity, and hatred seems to be engendered in the bosoms of the people, one against another. They have their most deadly enemies in their very midst. Every man’s hand is against his neighbor.

The feelings of the North and South have run very high, each party seeking to support their own peculiar views alone, and truth is out of the question. If they tell the truth, it is by accident. The object is not to tell the truth, but to sustain parties and party interests; for to tell the truth is not generally considered very politic.

True, there is a great profession of truth, and a great deal of apparent abhorrence of lies and falsehood, because falsehood is not popular, although it is practiced all the time.

The ministers say it is right to tell the truth, and then go to work and lie. One politician banters another, on account of the hypocritical course he has taken: and as quick as he has done that, he goes to work and lies, and deceives as much as he possibly can to sustain his party; and it is not whether a thing is true or not, but whether it is policy or not; and if a thing becomes policy, every influence, every kind of chicanery, falsehood, and deception is brought to bear upon it; and when a little truth will tell better, they mix that up along with it, but it is generally the least ingredient in the whole mass.

Talk to them about the Gospel and the Scriptures! They seem to think, even the ministers among them, that it is old fogyism. Talk about Abraham and his institutions! Say they, “You are taking us back to the dark ages. Such things would do eighteen hundred years ago; but we are more enlightened now; we have got more philosophy, more intelligence, and comprehend the nature of human existence better; we are men of greater renown than they. Those things might do for our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, but they will not do for us.”

If a little Scripture will suit them, they put it in; but if it won’t, they keep it out, and talk about expediency. Expediency is the great principle by which men are governed.

Talk about politics! What is it? It is this or that man’s policy. “If it is policy to tell the truth, we will tell it; if not, we will tell a lie.” A man cannot obtain a cause because it is just, but because it is policy, and because he can bring certain influences to bear on that thing. This is about the position of things as I find them, so far as my experience goes.

But, as is the case in Congress, bullyism seems to be one of the most prominent arguments in the West, where they seem to imitate their honorable example. These are the two prominent places—Kansas and Congress. Brother Bernhisel here has been among them there; he knows something about it and something about their proceedings. If a man dare get up there and speak his sentiments, another stands over with a cane, and goes to work at caning him, and lays him in a sick bed for several months, so that he cannot speak; and for this dignified act, he is presented with numerous canes by his constituents, to show how they appreciate this Congressional argument, and to prove to others that if they speak the truth, they may look out for a caning. These things take place in this land of liberty and in the Congress of the United States. We have had a good deal of trouble sometimes in getting our appropriations; in fact, not sometimes, but always. And I will tell you how they do in the West and in California. A fellow goes up and seizes another by the collar, and says, “Damn you, if you stand in my way, I will put this into you”—showing him a deadly weapon. The official says, “I am afraid that fellow will kill me; I will give him what he wants.” But if an honest man goes and asks for his rights, he cannot get them, simply because he is honest, particularly if he happens to be a “Mormon.”

I have vowed in my own mind, over and over again, if I was in Utah, the United States might stand over me until doomsday, before I would do anything for them, unless I was paid for it beforehand. Excuse me, Governor Young, if I am not very patriotic. No men need call upon me to do anything in Utah for the United States, unless they pay me the money down. I won’t trust them.

I speak from experience—from things I have seen and known—from circumstances that have come under my own notice. I have seen the difficulties my brethren have labored under, when they have had to do with Congress or the Departments at Washington.

Any unprincipled scoundrel, no matter how mean, if he comes with a bowie knife or revolver in his hand, can get what he wants. People back East used to blame me for speaking and writing plain. I talk the same now. I feel that I can be sustained by the truth; and if I cannot live by truth, I will die by it and I am not afraid of telling it before any people. I met a gentleman on the road, on his way to the States from California. I asked him how things were getting on in Utah. He said, “Very well; all is peace there; they seem to do very well. Are you going there?” “Yes, sir, I am going to Utah.” “Did you live there?” “Yes.” “I think it is not prudent, the policy upon which they act. I would recommend your people to pursue a quiet policy. I saw everything peaceable and quiet there as could possibly be in any community; but I heard Governor Young talk about General Harney. He said he was the squaw-killing General. I did not think that was courteous to be said of a United States’ officer.” I replied, Are we the only people that must not talk about the United States’ officers? What do you do in California, in the East, and everywhere we go? Are we going to be imposed on from time to time, and not have the privilege of saying our souls are our own? “Oh, I merely recommend it as the best policy to be peaceable and quiet until you get to be a State, and for the present put up with these things.” I said, We have been outrageously imposed upon by United States’ officials. They send out every rag-tag and bobtail, and every mean nincompoop they can scrape up from the filth and scum of society, and dub him a United States’ officer; and are we expected to receive all manner of insults from such men without one word of complaint? They will assuredly find themselves mistaken. “What! You don’t mean to say you will fight against the United States?” We don’t want to; but we feel that we have as much right to talk as anybody. We have rights, as American citizens, and we cannot be eternally trampled on; but we shall assuredly maintain our constitutional rights, speak fearlessly our opinions, and take just the course that we think proper. That is our policy, and we shall pursue a course of that kind. He replied, “My idea is, that quietness and peace is better.” I told him, it is, sometimes; but a little bristle sometimes does good in keeping off the dogs. That is about how I feel.

In relation to the general condition of things in the East at this time, there has been a great hue-and– cry, and almost every editor, priest, and dog that could howl, has been yelping. They joined heartily with Drummond, one of our amiable, pure, virtuous United States’ officers. You know him. I never saw him; but I have heard about him as one of those spotless, immaculate, holy kind of men that they sent from the United States to teach us good morals, correct procedure, virtue, &c., &c.

This pure man commenced a tirade against us, then other dogs began to bark. We soon told the truth about it; then, by-and-by, somebody else would tell it; and he now stinks so bad, that they actually repudiate him. He is too mean even for them, and they had to cast him off. They supported him as long as they could, and finally had to let him drop.

The people are raging, and they do not know what for. The editor of the New York Herald, after summing up the whole matter, the only thing he could bring against us, after trying and trying for several weeks, was that we have burned some nine hundred volumes of United States’ law books. Of course I do not know anything about it; but if you did so, it is true, and if you did not, why it is a lie, and it all fizzles out. And, finally, he says, “The ‘Mormons’ have got the advantage of us, and they know it.” [Voices: That is true.] That was one truth, but it was told accidentally; one of those accidental things that slip out once in a while—“they have the advantage of us, and they know it.”

The majority of the people think you are a most corrupt people, following a doctrine something like those Free Love societies in the East. Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, was associated with one of those societies, and was its principal supporter.

That is what is called a virtuous kind of an abomination, used under a cloak of philosophy, a species of philosophy imported from France. Hence they call Greeley a philosopher; and, in writing about him, I have called him the same. I believe him to be as dishonest a man as is in existence.

These are my sentiments and feelings. I have examined his articles, watched his course, read his paper daily, and have formerly conversed with him a little; but lately I would not be seen in his company. I was thrown in his society in traveling from Boston, and occasionally met him afterwards; but I would not talk to him. I felt myself superior to such a mean, contemptible cur. I knew he was not after truth, but falsehood.

This Greeley is one of their popular characters in the East, and one that supports the stealing of niggers and the underground railroad. I do not know that the editor of the Herald is any more honest; but, as a journalist, he tells more truth. He publishes many things as they are, because it is creditable to do so. But Greeley will not; he will tell what suits his clandestine plans, and leave the rest untold. I speak of him, because he is one of the prominent newspaper editors in the Eastern country, and he is a poor, miserable curse.

I do not consider that many of them are much better. They are in a state of vassalage; they cannot tell the truth if they felt so disposed. People talk very loudly about liberty; but there are very few who comprehend its true principles. There is a species of bondage that is associated with every grade of society. It is with the mercantile community, the editorial fraternity, the political world, and with every body of men you can associate with, up to members of Congress and the President of the United States. There are yokes made for men of every grade to put their necks into; and everyone bows down to them willingly, and they are driven in their turn according to circumstances.

In the mercantile world there is what is called the credit system, which I consider one of the greatest curses that was ever introduced among men. Some will set up a small groggery or grocery; they go into debt to those who have a bigger groggery, or to a man who can, perhaps, buy a barrel of whiskey at a time, or a few pieces of calico. These little merchants are in debt to some larger ones in St. Louis; those to merchants in Cincinnati, New York, and New Orleans; and they are in debt to larger houses in England, France, Germany, and other places.

They all bow the neck: they are all trammeled and bowed down with the same chain. People talk about our credit not being good lately. I hope to God nobody will credit a “Mormon.” We don’t want anything on credit. I want us to live as we can live; and if we cannot live without going into debt to our enemies, let us die—never put our heads under the yoke.

The same thing exists in other branches. You may take a constable; he has got to pledge his honor to support such a man, no matter whether he keeps a doggery, a groggery, or whether he is an honest man or a rogue. Then a number of those support some other man that is more elevated, if there is any elevation in such doings. Then those other “elevated” ones form combinations and clubs, and sustain others; and so on, until you get up to the President of the United States. All are pinioned, and their tongues are tied.

There is Fremont, that great man, who could not lead a few men over these mountains without starving them to death. A few men, understanding his position, got him cooped up in New York, so that he could not be seen without coming at him through committees and checks, bars and bolts, lest he should speak and people find him out; and after all their great care, he came out at the little end of the horn: he was not elected.

When a President is elected, a crowd of men press around him, like so many hungry dogs, for a division of the spoils, saying, “Mr. President, what are you going to do for our town? Remember, here is Mr. So-and-so, who took a prominent position. We want such a one in such an office.” And, finally, after worryings and teasings, and whining and begging, some of those little men, mean, contemptible pups, doggery men, broken-down lawyers, or common, dirty, political hacks, bring up the rear, swelled up like swill barrels; they come to the table for the fragments, and, with a hungry maw and not very delicate stomach, whine out, “Won’t you give me a place, if it is only in Utah?” In order to stop the howling, the President says, “Throw a bone to that dog, and let him go out;” and he comes out a great big “United States’ officer,” dressed in a lion’s garb, it is true, but with the bray of an ass. He comes here, carrying out his groggery and whoring operations, and seeking to introduce among us eastern civilization.

The people here, however, feel a little astonished, some of them, although they are not very much astonished at anything that transpires; and when they look at him, they say in their simplicity, “Why, that man is acting like a beast.” His majesty, however, swells up, struts and puffs, and blows, and says, “You must not insult me. I am a United States’ officer; you are disloyal. I am a United States’ officer; don’t speak to me.” Of course you are, and a glorious representative you are.

I did start once to write a history of the judges sent to Utah; but I did not get through with it. You know we have the history of the judges in former days. If I had only had time, I would have liked to have written a history of the judges of Israel that came out from the Ammonites and Moabites down yonder.

There was one man here whom you considered one of the most honorable men among your judges. I refer to Judge Shaver. I do not know much about the man; he was spoken highly of, and a great deal of ceremony made at his funeral. I was on board of a steamer coming up to Florence, when some gentlemen got to talking about the “Mormons.” One man said, “I was there a year and a half, and I know them to be as good, peaceable, and quiet a society as I ever was among; but there is a pack of infernal scoundrels sent among them by the Government, that are not fit to go anywhere. A man, by the name of Shaver, was sent there, and he lay drunk around our town six months before he went there!” Thinks I, if that is one of the best, then the Lord have mercy on the rest.

With regard to office hunters, they are in bondage to each other; and even the President of the United States is trammeled, bound down, and no man has the manliness to say, I dare do as I please.

These things are so in a monetary point of view, in a religious point of view, and they are so in a political point of view, and in every way you can view it. Every man bows down his neck to his fellow, and they have their parties of every kind in the United States; and every man must be true to his party, no matter what it is. Politicians are bound by their parties, editors by their employers, ministers by their congregations, merchants by their creditors and Governors and President by political cliques. Divisions, strife, contention, and evil are everywhere increasing, and there is little room for truth in the hearts of the people.

I believe, notwithstanding, there are thousands of honest people in the United States; but so much evil prevails, and so much corruption, that it is next to impossible for them to discover the difference between truth and error.

Our preaching does not seem to have any value or effect on the minds of men at all, scarcely. You can revise, renovate, regenerate the Saints; but come to take hold of the world, and preach to them, it is like idle tales to them. As I have said, talk to them about the Bible, and they will tell you it is an old-fashioned, old fogy affair, with very little exception.

I have labored myself, as the rest of the Elders have, and the general result, wherever we have preached the Gospel, has been the same. I remember, in old Connecticut, the land of steady habits, some few embraced the Gospel, and one or two we had to cut off from the Church in a week or two after. There was one old lady, a farmer’s wife; she believed, and her husband treated us kindly, and they got a place for us to preach in, &c., and after listening for some time, said she would give anybody five hundred dollars to prove “Mormonism” untrue. I said I would do it for half of that sum; if she wanted a lie, she should have it.

In the neighborhood of Tom’s River, a number came into the Church; some have stood, and some have not: they are doing pretty well there. There was as good a Church when I first went there as I found in the East. There was also another in Philadelphia. In New York, when we went there, we found a people that called themselves “Mormons.” I called a meeting, and there was only two that I would acknowledge as such. I told the rest to go their own way; told them what I acknowledged to be “Mormonism,” and, if they would not walk up to that, they might take their own course,

Since then, a great many emigrants have come from the old countries—from England, France, Germany, Denmark, and other places. They form quite a body: there are now five or six hundred. At Philadelphia and around there, there have been some few brought in; but most of the Saints there are those who have come in from England and other places.

It is almost impossible to produce any effect on the feelings of the people. In New Jersey, I held several days’ meeting, to see if something could be done. They turned out in great numbers: “Mormonism” was popular; as many as 200 carriages were present. We were treated well, and preached faithfully. Somebody came and set up a little groggery, and it was removed forthwith. Was anybody converted? No. They turned their ears like a deaf adder to the cause, and that is the general feeling, so far as I have discovered.

They do not love the truth. In most of these places they have rejected the Gospel, and they listen not to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Many asked about their friends, and if their was any speculation on foot. I could get thousands to immigrate to this Territory for speculative purposes; and committees waited on me to learn what inducements are held out to settlers. I could get thousands to come here, if we would give them good farms, and furnish them cattle, and work their farms for them until they got started, and let them carouse around, and have all the lager beer they could drink.

Those who love the truth are scarce. There are, however, a great many scattered all over the United States, who believe “Mormonism” is truth, and have not moral courage to embrace it; but if it is policy, they dare once in awhile say a few words, but in a kind of milk-and-water way: they dare not say much, because it is unpopular; and many dare not read a “Mormon” paper; it is unpopular.

I have met men in the world as much my friends, apparently, as those that are in the Church; and they have handed out means to me when I was in need. One man wrote to me that he would be glad to see me; but if I would not let the people know who I was, he would be obliged to me. I told him I did not go to such places, for I was a “Mormon,” outside and in, and I could get along in the world by holding my head up, and I despise men who will go crawling and cringing around.

In relation to things that are now transpiring in the United States, I suppose you have later news than I have. The mail team passed me on the road, but it had no mail. In relation to any policy that may be pursued here, I feel it is just right. I know that President Young and his brethren associated with him are full of the spirit of revelation, and they know what they are doing. I feel to acquiesce and put my shoulder to the work, whatever it is. If it is for peace, let it be peace; if it is for war, let it be to the hilt. It has got to come sometime, and I would just as lief jump into it today as any other time.

We are engaged in the work of God in rolling on His purposes; and if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to Him. The Lord has put His hand to the work, and all the potentates of the earth and their power cannot hinder its progress. The work is onward, and in the name of Israel’s God it will roll on, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ.

We are gathering a nucleus for a kingdom here that is bound to stand forever—

“While time and thought, and being last; And immortality endures.”

All is peace—and I feel like shouting, Hallelujah, hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and all nations shall be subject to His sway.

I have talked longer than I thought I should.

There is one thing further I would like to say a few words upon. Brother George A. Smith, Dr. Bernhisel, and myself were appointed as delegates to go to Washington. I have never yet inquired what the First Presidency thought about our proceedings there. I was in Washington several times, and counseled with my brethren on the subject of our admission. We counseled with some of the most prominent men in the United States in relation to this matter; and those that dare say anything at all, dare not, if you can understand that.

That was about the feeling. We need not say much on this matter; but I believe that brother George A. Smith and brother Bernhisel labored with indefatigable zeal to the best of their knowledge and intelligence to accomplish the thing they set about; and I did, while I was with them. But it was not necessary for me to remain there; and I told the brethren, if I was wanted, by sending me a telegraphic dispatch, I would be there in a little time. I believe these brethren did all that lay in their power.

While speaking of the acts of the Elders, I remember remarking to brother Bernhisel that a set of men could not be found on the face of the earth that would go with the same talent and ability, and act with the same disinterestedness and zeal in the performance of whatever is required of them.

I have counseled with them, and that is the feeling and testimony I have to bear concerning them. When they get together, their feeling is, How can we best promote the cause in which we are engaged? Can a cause sustained by such men sink? Can the cause sustained by the power that sustains them sink? No. The truth will triumph, and shall roll forth until all nations shall bow to its scepter.

I pray God, in the name of Jesus, to bless you and guide you, that we may be saved in His kingdom. Even so. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857.

So far as I am concerned, with regard to the performance of duties by the Elders of Israel—the duties which have been placed upon them and required at their hands upon their missions—for the gratification of the brethren just referred to by Elder Taylor, I will say, If there has been nothing hitherto expressed here manifesting the feelings of the First Presidency of the Church and the members in general on this point, I can answer for the people, by asking and answering a question.

Brother Taylor, brother George A. Smith, and brother Bernhisel, did you do your duty in Congress in reference to presenting our petition for a State? I think that I can answer for this Committee, as well as for the people, and say that they discharged their duty manfully and satisfactorily to their God and to their brethren. I can answer for the people, and say that they are most perfectly satisfied with the labors of our Committee. When a man can say of a truth, “I have done the very best that I could in my mission,” the heart of every Saint on earth acquainted with the circumstances, the angels in heaven, and our heavenly Father are all satisfied. There is no more required of us than we are capable of performing. The First Presidency are satisfied, and I can say that the people are satisfied.

With regard to the labors of brother Taylor in editing the paper called The Mormon, published in the city of New York, I have heard many remarks concerning the editorials in that paper, not only from Saints, but from those who do not profess to believe the religion we have embraced; and it is probably one of the strongest edited papers that is now published. I can say, as to its editorials, that it is one of the strongest papers ever published, so far as my information extends; and I have never read one sentence in them but what my heart could bid success to it and beat a happy response to every sentence that I have read or heard read. Brother Taylor, that is for you; and I believe that these are the feelings and the sentiments of all in this community who have perused that paper.

We are satisfied with the labors of the Elders generally. True, it is not every one that knows and understands all things; it is also true that men are liable to falter and fail in their judgment; but that is nothing against the real character of the man, if he is doing the best he knows how. It is true that at times Elders need correcting, and they receive correction in this place. It is also true that, when you correct an individual in his errors and try to place him in better circumstances pertaining to judgment and discretion, it is annoying, it is grievous, it is painful to the sensation of that individual. It is very true that chastisements are grievous when they are received; but if they are received in patience, they will work out salvation for those who cheerfully submit to them.

If the time was that the Elders of Israel could not be chastened and corrected for their wrongs, and be set right, you may know that they have proved recreant to the faith. And if those who are appointed to lead this people dare not rise up and tell them of their iniquity and chastise them therefore, and teach them the way of life and salvation, you may know that your leaders have fallen from their station.

The Lord has bestowed the everlasting Priesthood upon the children of men for their salvation. It is not believed for a moment, by any person who believes in the Bible, that a man or woman can be saved in their sins. They have to be separated from their sins and iniquity; they have to put off the old man, with all his deeds, and put on the new man Christ Jesus. If ever we see the time that we dare not tell men of their evils, and correct them when in fault, you may despair of salvation in this kingdom.

One grand cause of the enmity entertained towards us by officials sent here by the General Government has simply been, that I take the liberty of telling men where they do wrong and wherein they do wrong—both those who are in the Church and those who are out of it; and my brethren take the same liberty. If men do evil, we tell them of their meanness; whereas, in the other portion of our Government, men dare not speak their minds. They are tied up, bound up; they are in fetters and chains in every particular—as much so as brother Taylor has told you, and a great deal more. He said that if a man was found in Congress who dare speak in favor of innocence, justice, truth, and mercy, he dare not speak. If there were any there, when our petition was expected to be presented, who felt in their hearts to favor it, they dared not open their mouths in favor of its being granted; for if they spoke at all, they must speak according to the popular notions of the people; they must go with the tide of popularity.

This is the case with the whole world; but we are chosen out of the world. And if we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deal, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives, fearless and regardless of every principle of error, of every principle of falsehood that may be presented. We have no difficulties with our Government: we never have had any difficulties with any government under which we have lived. But there has been a difficulty, and what is it? The “Mormons” have got something that the rest, of course, have not, “and we will kill them out of the way; we will not have them.”

As brother Taylor has said, speaking of the wisdom and power exhibited by the people of the world, there are men of talent, of thought, of reflection, and knowledge in all cunning mechanism: they are expert in that, though they do not know from whence they receive their intelligence. The Spirit of the Lord has not yet entirely done striving with the people, offering them knowledge and intelligence; consequently it reveals unto them, instructs them, teaches them, and guides them even in the way they like to travel. Men know how to construct railroads and all manner of machinery; they understand cunning workmanship, &c.; but that is all revealed to them by the Spirit of the Lord, though they know it not.

You can find in the minds of the people most admirable intelligence in things pertaining to the world; but when you touch the intelligence that pertains to other worlds, to the kingdom of heaven and heavenly things, they are dark as midnight darkness—so dark as this, that, let ever so good a thing be revealed to them, no matter how good for a nation, a people, a community, or an individual—let a man have it revealed to him how he can benefit the whole nation, they turn around and deny God in it. They are so dark as that, when they never received a particle of intelligence but what came from God. They are filled with darkness.

Instead of wishing injuries to come on them, my heart is pained for them when I behold their situation. They are drunk, not with strong drink, but with their own anger, and rage, and the spirit of the enemy which they have received. They are as wild as California horses. When a lasso is thrown on them, they will run madly against a knee, or a stone wall, or over a person, or anything; they are frantic, and would break their own necks. It is just so with the inhabitants of the earth, and especially so with our Government; and they are hastening with all possible speed, with the larriet around their necks, to jump the precipice and destroy themselves.

I can tell you one thing that I know concerning the inhabitants of the United States. It has come to this, that the honest among them—men, women, and children, have dreams foreboding evil. The visions of their minds are troubled; they are in sorrow; they feel melancholy, and have a presentiment that something evil is going to befall the people. And if you could discern the thoughts of their hearts this day, you would probably find millions of such persons in our Government. When they reflect upon the maddened zeal of the leaders, they know that they can endure but a little while, and query, “What will come?” What will the Lord bring on the people—upon this happy government? What evil catastrophe is about to befall us? Will there be war? Will we fight the “Mormons,” and will the Lord give the “Mormons” power to fight against us? Will the North make war upon the South? Will they take the sword one against the other? What will become of us? These forebodings are upon the people. They have dreams in the night which frighten them, and reflections in the daytime which give them sorrow; and they are harassed from day to day. They are to be pitied; for sorrow, woe, destruction, shame, and misery await them. I am sorry for them: they are to be pitied—to be prayed for.

Almost every man that has come from the East of late is telling you the political feelings and desires of the Government towards this people. Brother Taylor has just related that a gentleman he met on the road remarked, “What! Can you ‘Mormons’ fight the United States? Can you contend with them? You had better take a more specific policy than you have. Do not speak about the President, nor about any of the officials.” We shall talk as we please about them; for this is the right and privilege granted to us by the Constitution of the United States: and, as ministers of salvation, we shall take the liberty of telling men of their sins.

I shall take the liberty of talking as I please about the President of the United States, and I expect that I know his character better than he knows it himself. I will tell you in a few words a little of it. James Buchanan, who is now sitting in the chair of state, and presiding over this great Republic, is naturally a passive, docile, kind, benevolent, and good man—that is his natural disposition, I will venture. Arouse him, and he has been a man who could make flaming speeches. He is now bound up; they have the fetters upon his feet; he is handcuffed; his elbows are pinioned; he is bound on every side, and they make him do as they please. Is he obliged to do so? No.

Is a man fit to be President of the United States, who will bow and succumb to the whims of the people? No. A President should learn the true situation of his constituents, and deal out evenhanded justice to all, utterly regardless of the clamor of party. Suppose the President to be under the clamor and dictation of several parties, he would order out a company today, and tomorrow call them back; he would make a decree today, and next week revoke it and make another to suit another party. He ought not to pay attention to any party, but consider the nation as a family, and deal out justice and mercy to them equally and independently.

I wish that Hickory Jackson was now our President; for he would kick some of those rotten-hearted sneaks out, or rather order his negroes to do it. If we had a man in the chair who really was a man, and capable of magnifying his office, he would call upon his servants, and order him to kick those mean, miserable sneaks out of the presidential mansion, off from its grounds, and into the streets. But the President hearkens to the clamor around him; and, as did Pontius Pilate, in the case of Jesus Christ, has washed his hands, saying, “I am clear of the blood of those Latter-day Saints. Gentlemen, you have dictated, and I will order a soldiery and officials to Utah.” It is said in the Bible, that whosoever ye yield yourselves to obey, his servant ye are. The President has yielded himself a servant to cliques and parties, and their servant he shall be. And all that has been spoken of him by brother Kimball, in the name of Jesus Christ, shall come upon him.

Do you think that we shall be called treasoners, for rebuking him in his sinful course? Yes. Talk of loyalty to Government! Hardly a man among them cares for the Government of the United States, any more than he does for the useless card that lies on the table while he is playing out his hand. They disregard the Constitution as they would any old fable in any old school book. Scarcely a member on the floor of Congress cares anything about it.

While brother Taylor was referring to the conduct of officers of the Government, to the pistols, bowie knives, the oyster suppers, the pleasant little knick-knacks, and this, that, and the other, I was reminded of a circumstance that transpired in the region of the Salt Works in the State of New York. In that section there was a place called Salt Point, one of the roughest in the world for drunkenness, gaming, fighting, and cursing; and within a few miles from Salt Point was a place called Onadaga Hollow, and the people in those places used to be in a constant strife to see which should act the worst. As a man named Thaddeus Woods, who had become considerably wealthy by making and selling salt, was going from Onadaga Hollow to Salt Point, he stopped at a tavern, half-way between the two places; and when he and his traveling companions had rested themselves and fed their horses, Woods told one of his teamsters, who was one of the wickedest men to be found in those two places, that he would treat him if he would say three of the wickedest words that he could think of. The man agreed that he would; and when he had the attention and eyes of the company fixed upon him, he shouted out “Onadaga Hollow, Thad. Woods, and Salt Point,” remarking that those were three of the worst words that he could think of.

Brother Taylor says that language cannot express the conduct, the feelings, and the spirit that are upon the people in the States. Well, suppose you take up a labor and swear about them, what are the worst words that can be spoken? ‘Nigger stealing,’ Mobs or Vigilance Committees, and Rotten-hearted Administrators of a Government are three of the meanest and wickedest words that can be spoken. I expect that somebody will write that back to the States, as being treasonable, because spoken by a Latter-day Saint.

With regard to the present contention and strife, and to our position and situation, there are few things to be considered, and there is much labor to be performed. Let the Saints live their religion; let them have faith in God, do all the good they can to the household of faith and to everybody else, and trust in God for the result; for the world will not believe one truth about us. I tell you that the Government of the United States, and other governments that are acquainted with us, will not believe a single truth about us. What will they believe? Every lie that every poor, miserable, rotten-hearted curse can tell. What are we to do, under these circumstances? Live our religion. Are you going to contend against the United States? No. But when they come here to take our lives solely for our religion, be ye also ready.

Do I expect to stand still, sit still, or lie still, and tamely let them take away my life? I have told you a great many times what I have to say about that. I do not profess to be so good a man as Joseph Smith was. I do not walk under their protection nor into their prisons, as he did. And though officers should pledge me their protection, as Governor Ford pledged protection to Joseph, I would not trust them any sooner than I would a wolf with my dinner; neither do I trust in a wicked judge, nor in any evil person. I trust in my God, and in honest men and women who have the power of the Almighty upon them. What will we do? Keep the wicked off as long as we can, preach righteousness to them, and teach them the way of salvation.

Some speak of the nations now on the earth forgetting God, they have not forgotten Him, for they have never remembered Him. They have not departed from His ways, for they never found them; they have not lost faith in Him, for they never had any. There are men sitting here who were brought up Christians, who were trained to believe in the sacred words of truth contained in the Old and New Testament. What were you taught by your priests, your fathers, mothers, and associates, with regard to God? How many anxious hours I have experienced in my youth, to know, see, and understand things as they were and as they are. Did I ever see a man who could instruct me in those matters, until I saw Joseph Smith? I never did. And after I had made a profession of religion, I would ask the most powerful preachers whether they knew anything about God—where He is located, where Heaven is, and, where Hell is, who is the Father, who is the Son, and what the distinction is between them, who is Michael the archangel, who is Gabriel, and so on. Could they tell a thing about it ? No: and I am a witness that no man in Christendom knew anything about it, unless it was revealed by the Spirit to him.

I may say that many had revelations from God, but they had not the keys, and rights, and knowledge, and system of the religion of God. John Wesley was a good man, and so were thousands of others. Will they be saved? They are saved. You know what my doctrine is with regard to this matter. Every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Did they know anything about heaven, or God? No, they did not. Could they even explain one of the first simple lessons in the religion we believe, with regard to mortal man? Could any of them explain what the soul of man is, when it is written in the Bible, and they have read it thousands of times? No.

I have heard men preach hours upon the soul of man; and one of the smartest men that I ever heard preach, wound up a long discourse by saying, “Finally, brethren, I must come to the conclusion that the soul of man is an immaterial substance.” I have sat days and weeks, and months, and years to hear men explain the things of God; and what did they know about them? Nothing.

We have the keys of the priesthood and the words of eternal life, and understand them, and what manner of persons ought we to be? We ought to live our religion, believe in our God, love and serve Him, be faithful to Him, to one another, to all our covenants, and keep the devils from killing us as long as we can, and that is just as long as we have a mind to.

I recollect saying to a certain official here—one who wanted a few Indians for killing Gunnison, “If you want them, I will put them into your hands.” They were presented to him, but he dared not take them. I told him at the time of the conversation, that there might be some thirty of those Indians; but, if the United States should send 50,000 of their troops here they could not get one of them, if they had a mind to keep out of the way; and he believed it. I suppose you would like to know upon what principle? Like some of brother Taylor’s honest men that he thought he had found in the States, who, when he thought that he had found them, and went to put his hand upon them, were like the Paddy’s flea—they were not there, they were somewhere else. That is the reason why they could not get the Indians. There is the same reason why they cannot get us, until we have a mind to go them.

Do you wonder that the world is angry at us? No; for the time must come when your faith must be tried. Can the Lord take this kingdom and separate it from the kingdom of darkness? Can He bring it forth to establish His work upon the earth as extensively as the Prophets have prophesied, without separating us from the kingdoms of this word? You say, No. How is he going to do it? You have seen how, so far. In the days of Joseph, a string of guards was set around him on every side, lest he should have communion with the remnants of Israel who are wandering on the plains and in the canyons of this country. Those guards fought us, whipped us, killed our Prophets, and abused our community, until we are now driven by them into the very midst of the Lamanites. Oh, what a pity they could not foresee the evil they were bringing upon themselves, by driving this people into the midst of the savages of the plains. And here am I, yet, Governor of Utah.

Do you wonder that they are angry? Five years ago I told them that I should be Governor as long as the Lord wanted me to be, and that all hell could not remove me. They have tried during those five years to remove me, and I have had to appoint a Secretary for this Territory three times in that period; for the ones appointed by the President absconded from the Territory. And the prospect now is, that I shall still have to be the Governor—that I shall again have to preside over the Legislature, and that Captain Hooper, whom I appointed Secretary, will have to continue in that office.

God bless you. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857.

I have appreciated brother Elias Smith’s remarks. He has stated things as they are, according to my knowledge. I have been acquainted with him some twenty-three or twenty-four years. He is our Judge in this county, and I can say to his praise that he is one of the best Judges we have in the Territory; and my prayer and wish to God is that we may not have a swore Judge from this time henceforth and forever, and that we may never have any Judges in this Territory but men of our own choice, and that we may never have any person to preside over us in the capacity of a Governor of this Territory but the man of our own choice. [Voices: “Amen.”] And I can say further, we never will. [Voices: “Amen.”] I have my reasons for this.

This people here are the people of God. Here, in the Territory of Deseret, is the kingdom of God, and here are all the officers pertaining to that kingdom; and here is an organization that is organized after the order of God, and it is organized after the order of the Church of the Firstborn.

Let me explain what the Church of the Firstborn is. It is the first Church that ever was raised up upon this earth; that is, the first born Church. That is what I mean; and when God our Father organized that Church, He organized it just as His Father organized the Church on the earth where He dwelt; and that same order is organized here in the City of Great Salt Lake; and it is that order that Joseph Smith the Prophet of God organized in the beginning in Kirtland, Ohio. Brother Brigham Young, myself, and others were present when that was done; and when those officers received their endowments, they were together in one place. They were organized, and received their endowments and blessings, and those keys were placed upon them, and that kingdom will stand forever.

Now mark it—that kingdom will never be overthrown; although they may kill, that is, if they can, brother Brigham and me, and brother Daniel H. Wells, and they may kill the Apostles, if they can, and so they may keep on from this time to all eternity, and they never can obliterate this work. I know it. They may kill, and destroy, and waste a great many limbs that are upon this Church; but let me tell you, they never can kill the tree nor destroy the root from whence we have sprung; for our Father and our God is that root, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the tree or vine, and we spring out of that vine; and if we keep His commandments and receive the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, it is that nourishment that comes down directly from the Father, from Jesus Christ, the true vine.

And as President Buchanan, the President of the United States of America, holds the keys of the government of this whole nation, so Brigham Young holds the keys pertaining to this Church and people.

Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here without President Buchanan’s permission? No, not for a moment: he has permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one thousand miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken up five times; and he and his coadjutors have acknowledged it and have said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and here we are, after sending forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and our Elders.

Brethren, I will tell you one thing, and you may be sure of it, as the Lord God lives, and as my soul lives, that nations that raise the weapons of war against this people shall perish by those weapons. [Voices: “Amen.”] Every nation, every tongue, and every people shall perish, and every man and woman that gives consent to it. [Voices: “Amen.”] You may “Amen” to the whole of it, for it is true. Go and read the Book of Mor– mon, the Prophets, and the revelations given to Joseph the Prophet; and you will learn that God has said that every nation and every people on this earth that will not serve Him shall be destroyed.

This is the kingdom of God. When they fight us, they fight God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and they fight all the Prophets that have been from the creation down to the present time. Why? Because Joseph was the last Prophet; God spoke to him, placed the keys upon him, by Peter, James, and John. Do you suppose they did it without having authority from Jesus? No; Jesus told them when to do it, and told them who the man was; and Joseph, the Prophet of the living God, placed those keys on brother Brigham.

The Father told Jesus when to go and again commit these keys to men on the earth; Jesus told the Twelve when to do it; Joseph told Brigham when to do it. Now, look at it naturally, and you will see that every man and woman that raise their hands against this people will be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Set your heart at rest, then: you need not be troubled, nor frightened at all; for as the Lord liveth, and we live, we will prosper, and we will come off victorious. [Voices: “Amen.”] You know we have to stick in an if—if you live your religion, and will do as you are told, and become like the clay in the hands of the potter.

Who are you to be subject to? You say you are willing to be subject to God—to Jesus Christ. You are willing, if Peter came along, to listen to him. Well, Peter is here, John is here, Elias is here, Elijah is here, Jesus is here, and the Father is here. What! In person? If not in person, their authority is here, with all the power that ever was or ever will be to seal men and women up to everlasting life—seal them on earth and in heaven, by the power of Elijah, which is upon brother Brigham; and it is on every man he authorizes.

Joseph had those keys and powers directly from those men, and we received them from Joseph; so you see we are legal heirs to the kingdom of heaven. You have got to be subject to these powers that be; for there is no power only that which is ordained of God. You have to listen to that.

Can we be Saints by having our own will, our own way? Brother Elias has been talking about that this morning, how he has felt that will that was in him. Gentlemen, he has not been easy to handle and place upon the wheel; if he had been, he would have been filled with almighty power, even the power that was upon Joseph and Brigham, and upon every other good man in this Church; but he is going to walk up henceforth; he ain’t going to stand back any more. He is akin to brother Joseph, and Joseph is ashamed of his own kindred that will not step forth and be valiant, and God is ashamed of them.

Be passive in the hands of God, in the hands of His servants, as clay in the hands of the potter. How is that? How can the servants of God mold you, fashion you, and prepare you to become molded and fashioned after the likeness of God, unless you are passive?

If you go into the adobe yard, you may see men engaged in the business of adobe making, and you can see them molding adobes out of the elements. Suppose that clay would not be passive, but would have its own will, and not be subject to the molder of the adobes, he could not mold them, because the adobe would not let him mold it.

When I carried on the pottery business, I used to take a good deal of pains to get good clay, and hauled it a long distance, and then I always immersed it before I put it into the mill to grind it. Why? To make it passive; and I mold, grind, and grind it again, until it becomes passive; then I took it out of the mill, and carried it into the shop, where it was kneaded as you would a cake, and then put on to the wheel and turned into a vessel unto honor. Did I ever design to turn a vessel unto dishonor? No. If I did, I did not get any reward for it: I only got reward for those I molded and fashioned according to the dictation of my master; and I presented them to him that he might receive them, as Jesus says—“Father, I have lost none of those thou gavest me, except the son of perdition.”

Go into the blacksmith’s shop, on this block, and you will find brother Jonathan Pugmire, the foreman. I go to him and say, “Brother Jonathan, make me an axe.” He goes to work with a piece of iron that, the moment he tries to shape it, flies into a thousand pieces. “I can do nothing with that,” says he; “I must get a piece of iron that will be passive, and then I will make you an axe that will be as keen as a razor.” He gets another piece, and that begins to fly. It is not the fault of the blacksmith. “But,” says the iron, “don’t you handle me in this manner.” He throws that aside: that has got to go back to the furnace again, to be melted and made into a loop, and that turned out into iron again, because it was not passive; and then it becomes passive by getting the snappish stuff out of it: it runs out with the dross. The dross, you know, is very brittle and snappish.

When you find a man or woman snappish and fretful, and not willing to be subject, you may know there is a good deal of dross in that character, because dross is brittle. That dross has got to come out.

Talking about trials, brother Elias says he did not come here with the pioneers. It was pretty hard and laborious, I admit; but it was one of the pleasantest journeys I ever performed. Still there was a great deal of care and anxiety, especially on brother Brigham and those that helped him. Did we persevere? We did. We came here to the Valleys of the Mountains, and you have followed us.

Let me tell you, gentlemen, you have got to learn to be passive and be like clay in the hands of the potter, or be like a tallowed rag or wick before a hot fire: it becomes limber and passive, and you can tie it into a thousand knots, and it will not break.

Are you of that nature that you will not break and fly as though there were a hundred convulsions in you? You have got to come to that standard, as true as you ever become the true subjects and heirs of the kingdom of God. And let brother Brigham take a hundred men of that character, and I would give more for them than ten thousand people who are stiff in their own way; and he would take that hundred men and go into the mountains and whip out the world.

We read that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. We read that in the Bible. You have always heard it from the days of your youth to the present time. Do you appreciate it?

We will refer to Gideon, the Prophet of God, when his host was so numerous that he went and made a selection of three hundred men to put all his enemies to flight. That is in the Bible. For heaven’s sake, believe that, if you won’t believe me.

There was Daniel, a servant of God, one who kept His commandments; he was valiant, and his friends said to him, “Daniel, put down the window, or they will see you praying.” “I will pray with it open,” he replied; and he opened his window and prayed, and told them all that he asked no odds of them. “I will pray to my Father and God, who can preserve me in a den of lions, or in boiling hot oil, or in anything else, and He will sustain me while He will send you to hell, you poor devils.” He had such confidence in his God.

Should not you have as much confidence in God as brother Brigham, Heber, or the Twelve Apostles have?—as much confidence in this vine as any branch that pertains to it? You should.

To gratify some who cry, “Oh, don’t say anything, brother Heber—don’t say anything, brother Brigham, to bring down the United States upon us,” we have at times omitted printing some of the remarks that might offend the weak-stomached world, and we have made buttermilk and catnip tea to accommodate the tastes of our enemies; but the poor devils are not pleased after all. Would they come any quicker if we told them that they were poor, miserable, priest-ridden curses, who want a President in the chair that dare not speak for fear those hellhounds be on him?

God knew that Zachary Taylor would strike against us, and He sent him to hell. President Fillmore was the next man who came on the platform, and he did us good. God bless him! Then came President Pierce, and he did not strive to injure us. We hoped that the next after him would do us justice; but he has issued orders to send troops to kill brother Brigham and me, and to take the young women to the States.

The woman will be damned that will go: she shall dry up in the fountain of life, and be as though she never was. But there ain’t any agoing—[Voices: “There are none that want to go!”]—unless they are whores. If the soldiers come here, those creatures will have the privilege of showing themselves and of becoming debauched.

I tell you there is not a purer set of women on God’s earth than there is here; and they shall live and bear the souls of men, and bear tabernacles for those righteous spirits that are kept back for the last time, for the winding-up scenery.

Will the President that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse him; and He will also curse his successor, if he takes the same stand; and he will curse all those that are his coadjutors, and all who sustain him. What for? For coming here to destroy the kingdom of God, and the Prophets, and Apostles, and inspired men and women; and God Almighty will curse them, and I curse them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to my calling; and if there is any virtue in my calling, they shall be cursed, every man that lifts his heel against us from this day forth. [Voices: “Amen.”]

Am I afraid? No; but I am afraid to do wrong. I feel joy in my heart to be valiant and tell you the truth; and I pray that God my Father and his Son Jesus Christ may bring the evil upon them that they desire for this people.

Our enemies are crying out that we are confused, that we have rebelled, and that the Devil is to pay. I pray that God Almighty may bring that thing upon them that they have imagined upon us. But we are at peace and in harmony; we are worshipping and serving God. Will they overcome us? Never; no, never; no, never, while the earth stands, if we will stand up and be valiant.

I know that you never heard brother Brigham rebuke me for being valiant before this people. He says, “Let her go, Heber; let her slide.” You never saw any other spirit in him in your life; and every other good man there is will say so and has said so; and they are the elect of God, and they will be saved.

But be wise, be wise, be still, as I told a man this morning. Said I, You are always talking, you talk to everybody, and think everybody our friends; but they are not. I have lots and scores of friends here, and so has brother Brigham, who, by their ignorance would destroy us from the earth.

You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to hold your tongues, and keep what you get, and increase upon it. If you do not keep the word of life you receive—that which proceeds from God, your minds never will expand, and you will always be barren, like unto a barren woman.

Now, receive the seed, as Jesus says; and if that seed takes root, it will grow, and swell, and sprout, and bring forth. What will it bring forth? Something like the character that produced the seed. If you plant corn in the field, and that corn is rooted out of the ground, it perishes, and don’t produce anything. Receive the word and treasure it up in your hearts, and then you shall continue to receive the word of life, here a little and there a little; and you shall grow, and increase, and multiply, and no good thing shall be withheld from you.

Learn, above all things, brethren and sisters, to have a passive spirit, and be subject where you should be subject. I hear a great many say, “I am willing to be subject to brother Brigham, but I don’t want to be subject to this one and to that one.” Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, if you won’t be subject to my words, and listen to them, and receive them, you will not be subject to and receive brother Brigham’s words. How can it be possible for you to receive his words and reject mine?

Now, we will say brother Brigham is the head of this vine that has sprung out in the latter days—that is, the head of the vine that is upon the earth, that you naturally see; but Joseph was the head of the vine when he was here, and he is now, only you cannot see him: then I am connected to that vine, as one of brother Brigham’s Counselors; and then the Twelve, the Seventies, High Priests, and other officers. Now, just look at it. Why should you not listen to one man as much as to another connected to that vine; in case he produces the fruit of that vine? And they should know whether that branch is connected to the vine: they should know whether the fruit is the same as that produced by the head of the vine.

When I speak the truth, is it not the same as though brother Brigham spoke it? When I tell it as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is the difference? I can go into my garden and show you apple trees there with perhaps a hundred limbs which have apples on them. You may taste an apple from the first or head limb, then of the second, and the third, and the hundredth; and the fruit tastes just alike, because it all came from one tree, and the tree came from the root, and it is all one thing.

This is the principle; we should be connected one with the other, every Quorum in its place, and keep organized, and keep in our places, according to the order of the Church of the Firstborn.

Are we going to be preserved? Bless your souls! I have no more fears, if this people will live their religion, and learn to be passive like clay in the hands of the potter, than as though I was in heaven; for if I was there and rebelled, as Lucifer did, I should expect to be chastised and cast out with all those connected with me.

A great many suppose that when they get there they will be perfectly safe. You will, if you keep the com– mandments of God; but if you cannot learn to keep the commandments of God in Great Salt Lake City, how can you learn to keep them when you have to flee to the mountains? And if you cannot keep them here, how do you expect to keep them in Jackson County?—for we are as sure to go back there as we exist.

This Church and kingdom will reign triumphant; and when the United States take a course to bring us into collision, they will strive to take away everything from us that they have given us. What of it? We will make them the aggressors: they shall be the first men that shall rebel against God and against this people; and if we are not the aggressors, and we stand on the defensive, and they come upon us, and they fall into our hands, the Lord says, if they repent and we forgive them, our blessings shall be doubled unto us; so also for the second time: but if he comes upon you the third time, thine enemy is in thine hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good: but if he repent, and you forgive him the third time, then I will reward unto you a hundredfold. But don’t you forgive, unless brother Brigham does. If he says, Give them justice and righteousness, then it will be right.

Now, you need not sit here as judges, and judge brother Brigham. Good heaven! How does anyone without any priesthood look when judging him and his brethren? He is capable of judging all things pertaining to this kingdom; for he has the keys of light and revelation, and God is with him. I cannot comprehend him, only in proportion to the measure of the Spirit bestowed upon me. Can brother Wells comprehend me? No, he cannot, nor never can, only as he has the same measure of the Spirit; and no man can comprehend his file leader, except he has the same measure of the Spirit.

But let me walk in my place, and the sap that is in brother Brigham is in me; and the sap that is in me is in him: but can I measure any further than my capacity? No. Then what do you judge me for? God will lead brother Brigham; don’t you be scared. He will give him revelation upon revelation; and when he says, Do this or that, God will sanction it, and he will bless all men and women that walk up to it, and curse every one that backs out.

Suppose I am partaking of the same spirit and nourishment that brother Brigham partakes of, and he is resting himself while brother Heber speaks, don’t you see he speaks the mind of brother Brigham? You may see it has been so all the time, and it will be so forever.

You have come to me, and I have given you counsel, and then you have gone to brother Brigham, and he has given you the same counsel; and when you have asked counsel of him, and then come to me, you say, “That is just as brother Brigham said to me.” Do you suppose I could give any counsel contrary to his mind?

Well, then, let that Spirit and power be in our families, and I want to know what difference there will be? Brother Hyde, don’t you never give counsel from this time henceforth but what would be the counsel of brother Brigham. Just so with the Seventies.

There is brother Pratt, in England, and the brethren that preside there: let those men do as the Spirit of God dictates them, without being carried off by some other spirit, and they will never go astray—no, never, although they are nine thousand miles from here. By taking this course, would you ever see a wife trying to pervert the way of her husband? I am talking about good men and good women. Would she do it? No: she would be one with him, even as I am one with brother Brigham.

Listen to the counsel of God and those men that are placed here; and if you will do that, I can promise you, in the name of Israel’s God, and by virtue of my calling, that you never shall be swerved aside, and our enemies shall be overcome every time before they cross that Big Mountain, if we have to do it ourselves.

If I did not say that, you would be calculating that we were going to make a perfect servant and drudge of our God, just as a great many of you wish to make of us. If you want a pound of coffee, or tea, or a pair of shoes, it is, “Come, brother Heber, go quick, and get me what I want; if you don’t, I will go and tell brother Brigham.” Go, and be damned.

I wish that all such characters were in hell, where they belong. [Voice: “They are there.”] I know it; and it is that which makes them wiggle so—the poor, miserable devils. They would make our Father and God a drudge—make him do the dirty work, kill those poor devils, and every poor, rotten-hearted curse in our midst. With them it is, “O Lord, kill them, kill them, damn them, kill them, Lord.” It is just like that, and their course has just as much nonsense in it. We intend to kill the poor curses ourselves, before they get to the Big Mountain. And we are going to dig a cache, or take some natural one, and put all the whining men and women into it, and let them whine. We want to be released from such poor hellions, and we will be; we won’t have a murmurer or complainer in the House of Israel. If we go out to war, let them stay here, and let the Devil handle them.

How long is it, brother Brigham, since we first went to Kirtland? [Brother Brigham: Twenty-four years, this fall.] In September, 1833, we went to Kirtland and gathered with Joseph and the Saints. We had to go and buy guns, and stand in his defense, in that early day; and we did it for months and months, to keep the hellions from him in Kirtland, twenty-four years ago; and so it continued from that day to the day of his death; and it is just so now. They are trying to take the lives of brother Brigham and your leaders. It is their design, and the design of the President of the United States, with his cabinet, and of Congress; and all the priests there are in the world back them up. That is the truth.

Get the Spirit of the Lord, and stop your whining, every one of you. “Oh,” says one, “I will leave you, if you don’t wait on me as you have hitherto, and get me all the things I ask for.” I wish you would: you could not please me better. Does that show such whiners have got integrity in them? A man or woman that has got integrity should have it, if there is nothing but a potato to eat. And if you have not a stocking to your feet, nor a gown, nor a petticoat, nor a short gown, you should be as true as the sun to the servants of the living God; and if you are not so under such circumstances, you would not be if you were loaded down with treasures.

It is true, I will tell you, the day of your being petted is past; and you have got to come to the crisis when the gate will be shut down between us and the United States, and that very soon, ladies and gentlemen; and if you don’t get your test, you may say I am false. [President Young, in a crying tone, said, “There are no more ribbons coming here: what shall I do?”]

O dear, I want to know if we ain’t going to have any more ribbons? A great many of your hearts are on nothing else but ribbons, and fine dresses, and bustles, and fineries: you don’t think of anything else. What is your religion good for, or your integrity? Did brother Brigham and Heber turn away from Joseph, because the Kirtland Bank broke, and the stores all run out, until there was nothing but an old dried-up johnnycake?

Did we forsake him? No, never; and we never had anything except we worked for it and go it by the hardest licks; and our wives would think that they were very extravagant to get a piece of calico of six yards for a dress pattern; and they thought that there were too many puckers then: and now you have got to have six or eight breadths puckered up. Why don’t you take some of those breadths out and make aprons, and not call on your husbands for new calico, &c., every week.

No man on the earth loves women better than I do. I love a good woman, one that has a good spirit; I love that woman that will strive to make me happy, and I love that son that seeks to please his father and mother; for he will make a good husband. I love that daughter that seeks to please her father and mother, because she will make a good wife.

You cannot help yourselves; the gate will be shut down directly, ladies. I am talking to you because it is customary in the States to address the ladies first; so, if you get it first, you must not be jealous of me. I respect our ladies; and there should not be a lady in the house of Israel but what should be like an angel to administer to her husband, and to pray for him, and to nourish him by night and by day, and watch his house and his pillow, and see that he is preserved in the last days.

We have got to go to work and manufacture our own clothing, our shoes, our stockings, our bonnets, our dresses, and everything we need.

I will refer you to brother Brigham’s words. How many times has he said to you, Ladies, make your own bonnets at home, out of the elements that grow in the valley of Great Salt Lake and in the regions round about. Why do you not do it? Tell about listening to brother Brigham! You look today as though you were listening to his counsel.

Many of the sisters presume to judge us. Say they, There is brother Kimball; his women have all got store bonnets, and ribbons, and laces, and this, that, and the other thing, brooches, jewelry, and feather beds sowed under their arms. Ain’t we just as good as they? Yes, if you do as well as they do.

I won’t say anything about anybody else’s family, only my own. Are you listening to brother Brigham’s counsel? Some of you say, I am willing to listen to him. Well, listen to him, and listen to him forever. I am under the necessity of laying out of my substance, and every dime I have got, and that I can get, that I would lay up for a little sugar, a little of this, and a little of that, that we actually need, a little butter and lard, that we grow in our midst; but instead of that, I have to pay every dime I can get for morocco shoes, for my women to wear to meeting; and they will wear out a pair while once going to meeting. [Voice: “Don’t you wish they earned them themselves?”] Yes, I pray that you may have to earn them with your own fingers, or go without them. I pray that prayer, and I know it will come to pass.

I am defending brother Brigham here, and that by the Holy Ghost and the dictation of the counsel he received from the Father, and the Son, and the old Patriarchs, and Prophets. You may go home, and say, Brother Kimball is hard. Go and say it as quick as you please. I ask no odds of any such people. I am independent of you; I know his feelings, I will preach his word, and the word of God that came through him; and that is all that will save you.

Do you want such things to cease? I just know it ain’t right. We ought to make our own leather, and we can make as good as can be made in the States: but no, we must have some States leather. We can make as good things here as can be made by any other people; but you want foreign fixings.

We have our Spanish fixings—a pair of spurs that will weigh seven pounds, ringing and gingling as though all hell was coming. Why don’t you put them away? I want you to make an ox goad with a spike in the end of it, and ram that into your horse, and get this instead of spurs, and destroy a horse at once. I cannot keep a decent horse, neither can brother Brigham, or any other man; for the boys will kill them. Let them rest: they are as good as we are in their sphere of action; they honor their calling, and we do not, when we abuse them: they have the same life in them that you have, and we should not hurt them. It hurts them to whip them, as bad as it does you; and when they are drawing as though their daylights would fly out of them, you must whip, whip, whip. Is there religion in that? No; it is an abuse of God’s creation that he has created for us.

I do not think that many ever suppose that animals are going to be resurrected. When God touched Elijah’s eyes, and he looked on the mountain, he saw chariots and horses, and men by thousands and millions. Where did they come from? There is nothing on this earth but what came from heaven, and it grew and was created before it grew on this earth: the Bible says so.

We grow peaches here, and they are created, and we send them to Sanpete. Don’t they grow before they are sent? Yes, and everything that is upon this earth grew before it came here; it was transported from heaven to earth.

Let as us be merciful to the brute creation.

God bless you, brethren and sisters, and multiply you. Peace be with you, and upon this people, and upon your children, and upon every being on the Lord’s footstool that wishes peace to Israel. [Voices: “Amen.”]

The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. [Voice: “They will destroy themselves.”] They will destroy themselves, as the Lord liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. [Voices: “Amen.”]The Lord God will bring mildew on the nation that has afflicted us; for that nation shall take it first, and thence it shall go forth to every nation, kingdom, government, and state, and upon every town that shall lift their heels against God and this people. Amen.

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 2, 1857.

I suppose that my brethren and sisters are acquainted with George A.; and whenever he presents himself in the presence of the Saints, and attempts to entertain them or amuse them with his chin-music, they expect that he will say something funny.

I have been interested today very much in listening to the instructions of brother Elias, and brother Kimball, and the President. I have been interested, amused, and instructed, and I may say chastened and reproved, perhaps, all at the same time; and I hope that the instructions of the forenoon will be of lasting benefit to me. In every part of the Territory, and in every other place where I have been, I have taken a good deal of pleasure in endeavoring to talk to the people, to preach to them; but whenever I have been in Great Salt Lake City, I have felt disposed to listen and to take counsel from my brethren; and I have felt that there were many others whose appearance in addressing the Saints would be much more acceptable; and hence I have felt to hold my tongue.

My father, late Patriarch John Smith, was the sixth son of Asahel Smith, and was born in New Hampshire. Joseph Smith, the father of the Prophet, and second son of Asahel, was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts. The second Asahel Smith, the father of Elias who addressed you this forenoon, was the third son of my grandfather.

I merely name this fact because, as brother Kimball and brother Young remarked, so very few of that family have been valiant for the truth. There are but few comparatively of their numerous posterity that have been valiant for the truth.

After the family of Joseph Smith, senior, was destroyed, there were but few left to stand up for the truth of the Gospel, of all that numerous family. My father’s elder brother was the father of a numerous posterity, and was a bitter enemy to the truth, and his descendants remain so to the present time. The only remaining brother of the Prophet, William, has done all that he could do—all that was in his power, I may say, from the time of the Prophet’s death, to annihilate and destroy the principles which the Prophet taught to the nations of the earth.

My uncle Silas Smith, the fourth son of Asahel, died on his way to Missouri, or rather on his return from there, being driven from that State in 1839, in Pike County, Illinois. He had been in the Church some years, and had been faithful.

Asahel Smith, the father of Elias, was a man of an extraordinary retentive memory, and possessed a great knowledge of the Bible, so much so that he could read it as well without the book as with it; and after he embraced “Mormonism,” nobody could oppose him successfully, for all their objections were answered from the Bible immediately, giving chapter and verse. He died on his way to the Valley, in the State of Iowa, in 1848. He was a Patriarch in the Church, and bore a faithful testimony to the truth.

Of my grandfather’s family there is but one living—an old lady by the name of Waller, residing in the city of New York, and she is 90 years of age, and remembers all that has transpired during the last eighty years just as well as if it had all just occurred. I visited her when I was last back there, and in talking with me she would talk of things that had transpired many years back, as though they had occurred within a year. She is sanguine in relation to the truth of “Mormonism,” although she has never embraced it; and, to use the language of her son, she preaches it all the time.

My grandfather, Asahel Smith, heard of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and he said it was true, for he knew that something would turn up in his family that would revolutionize the world. The news came to us in 1828: we then lived in New York. The four brothers were there, Asahel, Silas, Jesse, and John; the old man, my grandfather, living with them.

We received the news that some place had been discovered containing plates of gold. The old man, as I remarked, said that it was true, although his oldest son felt disposed to ridicule it. He lived till the Book of Mormon was brought to him, and died when he had read it, about half through, being 87 years of age.

The congregation will excuse me for naming this; but I was so disgusted with the conduct of William, that, when I was in the Eastern States, I almost took pains to obliterate the fact from the earth that my name was Smith; for I considered it was the worst thing a man could do to endeavor to build himself up on the merits of others, and I feel so yet; and for cousin William to go and endeavor to pull down the work of his brother, I feel that he has disgraced the family and the name.

I have never suffered one single exertion to be omitted on my part that would in any way tend to sustain the principles and doctrines of the Holy Gospel, and aid in the development of the Holy Priesthood which God has revealed. I have endeavored all the time to preserve as perfect a history of the Prophet and those connected with him, from the organization of the Church to the present time, as I possibly could.

The Saints could have carried William upon their shoulders; they could have carried him in their arms, and have done anything for him, if he would have laid aside his follies and wickedness, and would have done right. It is like the Latin figure—but I beg your pardon, I never studied Latin; but suffice it to say, the husbandman found a rattlesnake cold and frozen, and he took it, and he put it in his bosom, and kept it there till it was warm; and then the snake coiled about the husbandman and destroyed his life.

This was the conduct of William Smith in the days of Joseph and afterwards, up to the present time. The principle that a man should stand upon in this world is simply this—He should do right himself, and thereby set an example to others. But for a man to have good blood in his veins, and then to go and disgrace that blood, is perhaps a double responsibility.

If we descended from Abraham, or from Joseph, or from any other virtuous, good, upright man, and we do not emulate his deeds and follow his example, the greater will be our shame.

When I was about eleven years old, my grandfather received letters containing the news that Joseph, the son of uncle Joseph, had discovered, by the revelations of the Almighty, some gold plates, and that these gold plates contained a record of great worth.

It was generally ridiculed and laughed at. A short time after this, another letter came, written by Joseph himself, and this letter bore testimony of the wickedness and the fallen condition of the Christian world. My father read the letter, and I well remember the remark he made about it. “Why,” said he, “he writes like a prophet.”

Some time in August 1830, my uncle Joseph Smith and Don Carlos Smith came some two hundred and fifty miles from where the Prophet was residing in Ontario County, New York, and they brought a Book of Mormon with them. I had never seen them before, and I felt astonished at their sayings.

Uncle Joseph and Don Carlos were anxious to get to Stockholm to see grandfather. Accordingly they started, and my father went to carry them. I and my mother spent the whole of Saturday, all day Sunday, and Sunday night in reading the Book of Mormon; and I believe I read and studied it more then than I have done ever since. I studied it attentively and penned down what I considered to be serious objections. Although I was but thirteen years of age, yet I considered the objections I had discovered to be sufficient to overthrow it.

About five o’clock in the evening the neighbors came in and wanted to see the book. They took hold of the book, and some of them were professors of religion, and they began to raise their objections, to find fault with and ridicule the book, and there was no one to defend it; so I thought I would try. I commenced to argue in favor of the book, and answered one objection after another, until I came off victoriously and got the compliment of being a very smart boy. No one brought the objections to the book that I had: mine were geographical objections. I had studied geography a few weeks, but that few weeks’ study made me think that I knew a good deal about it.

It is like a man that studies the Hebrew language; he has to drink deep before he can do much with it, and I thought I could confound them. In a few days I saw my uncle and talked with him, and in about half-an-hour all my learned objections to the Book of Mormon were dispensed with, and I found myself in the same position as my neighbors; and from that day to this I have been an advocate of the Book of Mormon, and have never suffered it to be slandered nor spoken against without saying something in its favor, with one exception, and then I said something.

I had been the favorite of my uncle Jesse, and he was a religious man—a “Covenanter;” and I thought what he did not know was not worth knowing. He came out with all his strength against it, and exerted the most cruel tyranny over his family, prohibited my uncle Joseph from talking in his house, and threatened to hew down with his broad axe any who dared to preach such nonsense in his presence.

I went to visit him, and he abused me because I had become favorable, and because uncle Joseph had a private conversation with me. I had always treated him with the greatest respect, and entertained a very high opinion of him. He was a man of good education, and had considerable display; and, being the elder of the family, he naturally elicited from us more or less respect.

Finally, in conversation upon various subjects, he turned and talked about that private conversation, and he said, “Joe dare not talk in my presence.” Then says he, “the Devil never shut my mouth.” I replied, “Perhaps he opened it, uncle.” I thought I should have lost my iden– tity: he gave me to the Devil instanter. I went and told uncle Asahel what had transpired, and the old gentleman laughed; and I then went to see uncle Silas and told him; and he said, “If old men begin to talk with boys, they must take boys’ play.” And from that day to the present, if I have said anything, I have said what I have thought.

During the fall of 1830, a gentleman who lived in our neighborhood went to Western New York and saw the Prophet, got baptized and ordained an Elder; and that was Elder Solomon Humphrey. Very few knew the old gentleman: he died in Missouri in 1835. He was a very faithful man. Previous to joining the Church he was a Baptist exhorter. He came back to our place of residence in company with a man named Wakefield, who is named in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They came and preached and baptized for the remission of sins.

I had been raised a Presbyterian, and my mother was a very pious woman. The Reverend Elijah Lyman, her uncle, who lived in Brookfield, Vermont, was the standard of religion in that country, and he had bestowed upon her the greatest care, that her religion might be of the best kind; and of course I had a great deal of this religion in me, which I had learned from her.

I wanted to know what I should do to be saved; so I went to a Presbyterian revival meeting to get religion, that I might be prepared to join the Latter-day Saints, or “Mormons,” as they are termed.

At the time, my father was sick with the consumption and given up to die. I had a herd of cattle to take care of; but, notwithstanding my numerous duties, I went to the protracted meeting, and took a load of persons with me; I carried them there and brought them back every day. They had a fashion of religion that I had never heard of, and it was one that was not known in the days of the Apostles; and even John Wesley, nor any of the old reformers had got such a thing into their heads—that of converting souls by machinery.

The process was like this: All who desired to be prayed for were to take certain seats, and then one of the ministers preached to them and depicted the miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Then those people were taken to a praying establishment, where praying was carried on night and day. Then, after a certain time, they were brought back and preached to again, the ministers keeping before their eyes the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. When the ministers got them to feel anxious, they would sing with them, and then pray again. When a man by this process was declared to be converted, then he was required to get up and formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and to tell his experience. This was about the process as near as I can recollect. I did not go to the anxious seat myself, for I was not yet under conviction.

During this time of going to the protracted meeting, I had firewood to cut, my sick father to attend to, and to take care of our stock; but still I endeavored to attend meetings, partly to accommodate my friends, and partly because I desired to be present myself. Subject to these circumstances I was under the necessity of returning home every evening, and hence I could not stay as late as many of them.

While at the protracted meeting, however, I had the satisfaction of hearing some of my own comrades who had got converted formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and promise henceforth to be Christians.

In the midst of all this, you may depend upon it that, if ever a poor soul asked God to show him the way of life, I did—and that, too, with all my might, mind, and strength. I could not be a hypocrite; and to say I was afraid of damnation, when I had no fear of it at all, that was what I could not do.

I always had the credit of being the greatest coward in the family, and hence the others used to take pleasure in ridiculing what they termed my cowardice. It is also well known that whenever there has been anything the matter in the shape of Indian difficulties, I have had the character of being the greatest coward in the country, especially in the southern part of this Territory; and yet I was not afraid of hell, when all its miseries were painted before my eyes, neither would I say that I was under conviction when I was not.

This meeting was a great one, and the progress made in converting souls was also great; and they made hell look so terrible to nearly all present, that they burnt out and frightened about all the sinners in the place, except myself. At one time they had two hundred sinners under conviction; and such crying, groaning, sighing, and lamentation for sins I never heard either before or since: they were so forcible and terrific, that they are indelibly written on my memory.

I soon found myself alone; not a soul except myself but was either converted or awfully on the way. Mr. Cannon, our minister, pointed his finger at me as I sat alone; for there was not a sinner in the gallery except myself; and he said, “O sinner, I seal you up to eternal damnation, in the name of Jesus Christ.” He repeated it three times over, and concluded by saying, “O sinner, may your blood be upon your own head.”

I went home that evening and scattered my friends about, leaving the girls at their respective homes; for I, like my brethren, am very fond of the ladies; therefore I carried a goodly proportion of them to meeting every day. I thought a good deal upon what I had heard, and scarcely knew whether to go again or not, but finally concluded that I would go; therefore the next morning I gathered up my load of passengers, and carried them to meeting again.

When on the way to meeting, a young man by the name of Cary asked me where I was going to sit that day. I told him I was not very particular. “Well,” said he, “suppose you sit with me.” I said, “Agreed.” I had heard this same young man in a previous meeting formally renounce this world, the flesh, and the Devil.

When we arrived at the place of meeting, according to agreement, I followed him with the intention of sitting with him. I had a decided objection against being driven to heaven, but I found he was actually leading me to the anxious bench; and I considered that if the priest the day before, who had sealed me up to eternal damnation, had any authority, it was very little use in my going to the anxious bench.

I did not discover where friend Cary was leading me to, till I got nearby the minister. He looked at me, when I turned away from the anxious bench, and he again walked into the pulpit, and pronounced the solemn sealing of eternal damnation upon me, and again appended to it that my blood was to be upon my own head.

On that day, the Reverend Mr. Williams delivered an address on the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Whether my mind was then agitated in consequence of the solemn woes pronounced upon me by the other minister, or whether the address was such a very eloquent one, I cannot now say; but, of all the discourses describing hell, eternal damnation, and the complication of miseries to which damned souls were subjected, it seemed to me that his address was the most terrific. I admired it for its sublimity and the beautiful descriptive powers that were exhibited throughout the whole discourse; and where he got it from I did not know, and of course could not tell.

At the conclusion of the meeting, I gathered up my passengers, took them home, and distributed them about, and told them that I had no idea of going any more to the protracted meeting; for, said I, I have been sealed up nine times to eternal damnation, and hence, if the priest had any authority, it is no use in my going any more; but, said I, if he indeed had any, he would not act the infernal fool.

[Elder O. Hyde blessed the sacramental cup.]

I have, no doubt, wearied you with so minute a detail of my experience; but it is at least a gratification to me to relate it; and hence, I trust, you will excuse my being so minute in detail.

A short time after this, the Elders of Israel preached in our neighborhood the doctrines of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, precisely as preached by the Apostle Peter and by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These doctrines I was pleased to hear. I believed them and received them in my heart.

Now, you are all aware how I was formerly sealed up to eternal damnation. Notwithstanding this, I was waited upon by the agent of the “Presbyterian Young Man’s Society,” and told that if I would abandon my father, and pledge myself never to become a “Mormon,” they would give me seven years’ education; and then, at the expiration of that time, I might study divinity, and become a minister of the Presbyterian order.

But, said I, Mr. Cannon sealed me up to eternal damnation, and hence it would not do for me to become a minister. He replied, “Oh, that don’t make any difference.” Well, then, said I, if that is all the force your religion and your ministers have, I will not have anything to do with them. Then he concluded they would not require me to preach, but he said they would give me seven years’ education, and then I might choose what profession I liked.

I told him I was required to honor my father, and as he was sick, I should attend to him at present, however much I might desire an education.

As soon as I had got baptized, all the folks in the neighborhood commenced imposing upon me. The idea that they had of a religious man was this—If he would stand still to be spit upon, to be mocked, and abused, then he was religious; but if he resented any of these insults, then they considered that he had no religion.

I was very large of my age, but I had not strength in proportion to my size, and I was always very clumsy; but finally I told the boys who were imposing upon me, that it was part of my religion to fight, and I pulled off my coat and flogged the whole school, and from that day I was respected so long as I stayed in the neighborhood.

It was with a good deal of reluctance, however, that many of the boys who had previously been able to handle me would yield; for some of them were four or five years older than I was: but in two days it was all finished up, and I had peace.

That winter I commenced to study arithmetic. I had previously studied geography, as you have already learned and during that winter I worked at arithmetic until I got to “Vulgar Fractions,” but I could not find out what vulgar fractions were, and I don’t know yet, and hence I do not think I am entitled to much credit for the proficiency attained in my education.

I always took great pleasure in reading history, both religious and profane; but as to getting an education such as is requisite for a professional man in the world, I did not have the chance, excepting the one before alluded to, and that I did not choose to accept of.

In 1833 I moved to Kirtland with my father, and went to work on the Temple, doing whatever I was able to do.

I will here digress from the subject of my experience, and remark that I have asked a great many if they could tell who those twenty-four Elders were who laid the foundation of that Temple; but I have never yet got the information: and if there are any who can give it, they are smarter than me, and I was there and looked on. If there are any of the brethren who have this information, they should hand it in to the Historian’s Office, where it can be preserved in the archives of the Church.

It is proper here to say that I went to work at the first principles, and that you know is necessary for everyone to do. I went to work at quarrying rock, then hauling rock, tending mason, and performing such other work as I was considered capable of doing in my bungling way.

We were a pious people in those days; but, notwithstanding our piety, our neighbors soon talked of mobbing us. They had already tarred and feathered the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon, and they threatened us with mobbing and expulsion. As I remarked, we were then very pious, and we prayed the Lord to kill the mob.

It was but a little time before the Saints were driven out of Jackson County, Missouri, the printing press destroyed, men tarred and feathered, women ravished, and men, women, and children scattered to the four winds of heaven, all in consequence of our religion.

Now, I am never afraid when I do not think anything is going to hurt me. When I am certain that there is no danger, then I am not the least afraid. The reason I have been called a coward has been from the fact that, whenever I believed there was any danger, I have always gone in for providing for it, and used my ingenuity to thwart that danger; and hence I have been called a coward by some.

With my brethren who have addressed you, I have lain by the side of the Prophet, in Kirtland, to guard him half of each night for a whole winter, so that, if anything occurred, I could give notice to all the brethren in a very short time.

I have been by those crossroads that some of the brethren remember, and have seen our enemies pass by so near that I could have knocked them down with a stick. Things were so arranged that, if a considerable number came along, I was prepared to communicate it to the brethren. I have had considerable experience, and I have learned that, curious as it may appear, whenever a man becomes a Latter-day Saint, the Devil wants to kill him.

As I have told you, I was raised in the northern part of New York, a rough country, where, instead of going to get poles to fence with, we used to cut down hemlock trees, and split them up into rails.

East is said to be the quarter for light: hence it may be admitted that I have acquired a little. I once strayed as far as Massachusetts, and in a town where there were several Baptist priests. I endeavored to preach the Gospel; but they sent their sons into the meetinghouse, who smoked out the congregation with brimstone; and that is a specimen of what would be poured out upon the Saints by the whole Christian world, if they had the opportunity.

In an address delivered some years ago, I spoke of Maryland as a State of liberty; but our reporters made me say Massachusetts—though they are not to blame, for they are raw Englishmen, and therefore the fault must have been with the Editor.

I said that Massachusetts was the hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance, and that Maryland was the first State that by her laws and institutions allowed men to worship God as they pleased. Whether this mistake was accidental or not, I cannot say, but I wish now to correct it; for I do believe Massachusetts to be the very hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance.

In the progress of this Church, mobs gathered around us, and continued to grow thicker till our history brought us to Far West, where the Governor ordered out seventeen thousand troops to exterminate the “Mormons,” and a great many were marched on to the ground preparatory to being shot by the order of Major Clark.

There are a great many men alive that were there, and lived through the operation, and who were finally driven from Missouri, not to say anything of the hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands who are dead, whose deaths were more or less caused by the sufferings and distress that were brought upon them by their extermination.

It was a free State; it was a free country: it had a Constitution that guaranteed liberty, at least to every white man. All religions were tolerated by their laws; but we must be exterminated from the State, because we were that kingdom which had been spoken of.

The result was that Prophets and High Priests were arrested and put in prison, numbers of them were murdered, women were ravished, goods and property stolen, houses burnt, and children butchered, and every possible cruelty was invented to cure men of their religion.

I told Mr. Morril, of Vermont, last winter, that it was utterly impossible by law to change men’s opinions. If a man believes a thing, you may whip him, and he will believe it still.

Men and women are as apt to be tenacious as the old lady was down in the country, where men have but one wife. She got quarrelling with her husband, and called him “cracklouse.” He told her that if she called him that any more, he would drown her. She repeated it again, and he took and put her in the river, then took her out, and she said, “Cracklouse!” So he put her in again, and held her down awhile, till she was almost gone. Then he took her out again, and she could hardly speak, but finally she made out to say, “C-r-a-c-k-l-o-u-s-e!” He was determined to use her up; so he put her down, and held her under till she was dead; but she came up with her finger nails clenched, or rather in the position required for cracking a louse. So, you see, she stuck to it to the last moment.

So it is with our Uncle Sam—our dear, infirm, old uncle; although he has got very rich, and has got several millions of money in the Treasury that he scarcely knows what to do with, he wants to expend some of it in bringing us to the standard of virtue and righteousness according to their notions. To this end he is sending out 2,500 troops, with ministers and schoolmasters to regulate things in Utah. Notwithstanding all this, he may possibly find some instances where people may be as determined and stern in their notions as the old lady was of whom I have been speaking.

Now, a religion that is not worth living for is not worth having. If religion is not worth living for, I am sure it is not worth dying for; and of course, if we are not willing to stand the test, our religion is of very little use. Our enemies judge us by themselves, for they know that the best of them will renounce their religion for the sake of self interest. They treat it as a mere work of time.

A gentleman once asked another why he turned from the reformed Methodists to the Episcopalians; and he said, in reply, “A good fat living will change any of us.” If we can be changed in our religious views by a few soldiers or a few threats, we certainly made a great blunder in coming out here, that we may have the privilege of turning a little, and of giving a little change into the bargain. Our dear old Uncle has had a desire to give us a little of the change from the time we came here. Soon after we arrived, we began to turn this desert into a garden. There came a captain with troops into this city: they were a specimen of the virtue and morality of the United States. They came here and began to insult the people, and then tried to cover up their wickedness by the dignity of Uncle Samdom. Passing along, they came to a lone house, and there undertook to ravish a woman in open daylight; and the brother who interfered to prevent this villainous outrage was most shamefully maltreated by them, and got some of his bones broken. After this outrage, the officers of the company were soon told that if they did not take their troops out of the city, the “Mormons” would cut all their damned throats; and that was the last we had of them here.

I may be a little mistaken as to the precise language made use of; but this subject follows up so close to what I had in my mind, that I wanted to ask myself what I was now going to do in case the soldiers come here.

From year to year we have had companies of these gentry visiting us, and remaining for a season, and then going away. The Government have tried, year after year, to establish garrisons, and get troops into these valleys. They have had troops at Laramie, at Fort Hall, and several other points; but circumstances so turned that they soon marched into Oregon.

The talk now is that they are going to bring 2,500 soldiers into this Territory. That is not a peace establishment; for twenty-five hundred men are not enough to obtain peace in an Indian country. These troops, we are informed, are to be furnished with fifteen months’ provisions, to be delivered in this city this fall, and twelve months’ provisions to be lodged on the other side of the mountain. They are to have four hundred mule teams for hauling their extra baggage, and they are to be provided with judges, and a full corps of territorial officers; and these soldiers are sent along to enforce their rule. This is what we understand from those channels which have been opened to us.

Whether it is done with the intention of making a disturbance here and taking the lives of our leaders, the facts in the case being known to the Government of the United States is not for me at present to say. The mail is stopped, and no more permitted to run, because, they say, of the unsettled state of affairs in Utah.

Now, I am a “Mormon,” and a descendant of the old Puritanical stock that descended from the old Anglo-Saxon reformers, and hence I feel all the sentiments of resentment that any man could feel during the rise against the mother country, when our forefathers were determined to break off the yoke of bondage and be free. When I see men, the descendants of those worthy sires who were the first to stand forth and create the resolution of the colonies, and to break loose from the King of Great Britain—I say, when I realize that my own country and nation are disposed to hold the sword over my head and to threaten me with extermination, I feel to say, Let them send who they please. They are determined to send who they please for Governor, who they please for Judges, and who they please for our Territorial Officers, and to permit those men whom they send to place their interpretation upon the acts of our Territorial Legislature, and upon the condition of things as they surround us; and I care but little what comes next.

They will send men here who are ignorant of the circumstances that surround us—men who are totally ignorant of the irrigation of the land by mountain streams; they will permit them to interfere with the rights of the people of this Territory, with fifteen hundred or two thousand bayonets to back them up.

Under these circumstances, as big a coward as I am, I would say what I pleased; and for one thing I would say that every man that had anything to do with such a filthy, unconstitutional affair was a damned scoundrel. There is not a man, from the President of the United States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low-bred letter-writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a dead nigger’s eyes, if they had a good opportunity. If I had the command of thunder and lightning, I would never let one of the damned scoundrels get here alive.

I have heretofore said but very little about the Gentiles; but I have heard all that Drummond has said, and I have read all his lying, infamous letters; and although I have said but little, I think a heap. You must know that I love my friends, and God Almighty knows that I do hate my enemies. There have been men, and women, and children enough who have died through the oppression and tyranny of our enemies to damn any nation under heaven; and now a nation of 25,000,000 of people must exercise its wealth in violation of its own principles and the rights guaranteed by the blood of their fathers—blood that is more sacred than their own heart springs; and this they are doing to crush down a little handful who dwell in the midst of these mountains, and who dare to worship God as they please, and who dare to sing, pray, preach, think, and act as they please.

All I have to say is, Just go ahead and burst your boiler. [Voice: They will.] This is the way the thing shapes itself in my mind; and if I were not afraid to die, I would fight as long as there was a finger left. Yes, if I were not afraid to die, I would fight till there was not as much left of me as there was of the Kilkenny cats. Just look at him—view his conduct towards this people: besides his being my uncle, he has acted most shamefully mean. When I told my uncle I was afraid, he only laughed at me; but I now tell you that if I were not such a well-known coward, I would die like a man of war. The very idea that a man has been awed down by the bayonet is something that I cannot stand. It will do very well for the Emperor of France, and it may do for the Autocrat of Russia, but it don’t do for freeborn men; and if asked which we will prefer—slavery or death, we should be very apt to answer in the language of a Roman senator, if we had any voice in this matter, who, when this question was once put in the days of Julius Caesar and Pompey, promptly answered, We prefer death to slavery. But you know we are Latter-day Saints—we are “Mormons,” and hence we cannot be treated as free men.

Report says that the plan is deep, and it is laid with the intention of murdering every man that will stand up for “Mormonism.” But the evil which they design towards us will fall upon their own heads, and it will grind them to powder. The men that have been living in these valleys, living their religion, and serving their God. They will laugh at their calamities, and mock when their fear cometh.

We must die like the Irishman, and then we shall do well enough. An old parson was riding along one day, and met with an Irishman, and said, “Sir, have you made your peace with God?” Pat replied, “Faith, an I’ve never had a falling out.” The parson seemed very much surprised at the answer, and very piously said, “You are lost, you are lost!” The Irishman very quaintly answered, “Faith, and how can I be lost right in the middle of a great big turnpike?” The moral which I wish to deduce from this is, that, if we have not had a falling out with our God, we are in the middle of the great turnpike. They may cut off our supplies of tobacco and tea. [Voice: What a pity!] Why, bless you, there are young men in Israel who would suffer far more, if deprived of their tobacco, than the ladies would if their ribbons had to be stripped off right in the public meeting; and therefore I advise them to go to work and plant tobacco, for if they were deprived of it, it would take away their peace and happiness, and they could not nasty and besmear everything within a mile of them; and when they wanted to come and get counsel, they would not be able to let out of their mouths a stench that would drive away a skunk.

I feel great pity for those young men, and I would like to discipline them as a certain lieutenant did the cabin boy on a steam packet. He said, “Boy, there is something the matter with your mouth,” whereupon he ordered one of the sailors to bring him a pair of tongs, and ordered the boy to open his mouth, and with the tongs took out a large quid of tobacco. He then called for some canvass and sand and scoured the boy’s mouth out, and told him that when he got sick and needed that again, he was to call on him and he would give him another dose.

I consider it a disgrace to any young man under thirty-five years of age to use tobacco. [Voice: Forty is the age.] That is my age: I was thinking I was thirty-five.

Brethren and sisters, I am a Latter-day Saint, and I know that this is the people of God; I know that this people have the Priesthood, and that Brigham Young is as much an inspired man as was Moses or any other man that ever lived upon the earth.

This is my testimony, and I believe that if I were cut in pieces, though I never was killed, and of course don’t know how it feels; but I do not believe that it would alter my testimony.

I am a good deal like the man in the old world, where they have but one wife. He was shaving, and at the same time having some unpleasant words with his wife: finally, he said he would cut his throat if she did not hold her noise. She replied, “Cut away; I am young and handsome.” “I would, if I did not think it would hurt so damned bad.” And I don’t know but it would feel so very bad to be killed, that I am really afraid where there is any danger. But just so long as I think there is no danger, I shall go ahead.

Brethren and sisters, pardon me for detaining you so long; and may the Lord God of Israel bless you, and may He curse and damn every scoundrel that would bring misery and injury upon this innocent people. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857.

I rejoice in the privilege of hearing the servants of the Lord speak to the Saints. It is a feast to me, and to hear men speak by the Holy Ghost. I very much rejoice in seeing brother Elias Smith upon the stand this morning. I have been acquainted with him for many years, and yet I have never until now heard him address an assembly, except in the capacity of a Judge. I am thankful to hear his voice in public. He is a cousin of the Prophet Joseph and of George A. Smith.

I have reflected much concerning the family of the grandfather and father of Joseph the Prophet. Their family connections were very extensive; and it has been a subject of deep regret to me that there were so few in that large circle who have been valiant for the truth since the death of the Prophet. Still I do not know but that Joseph had quite as many of his connections valiant for the truth, in proportion to their number, as Jesus had; for Jesus had many brothers and sisters, and the most of them were opposed to him, and continued so during the greater part of their lives. I used to think, while Joseph was living, that his life compared well with the history of the Savior; though the most of father Joseph Smith’s family have believed and obeyed the Gospel, and have lived their religion in a good degree. Many of them are not here. Some of them I have known in the Eastern States that never have ga– thered with us. But the old stock are pretty much dead, and I do not know but what all of them are. Father John Smith was the last one, in this Church, of the brothers of father Joseph Smith; and he died, and is buried here. Grandmother Smith lived in Kirtland a short time after she gathered.

I trust in the good feelings and in the confidence that brother Elias has gained this morning in speaking as he has from this stand; for many times I have thought of it, and regretted that he was not on the stand a preacher with the rest. Some men rise here to tell about their feelings, and are so diffident, so bashful, and it is so hard for them to speak—men, too, who have had such privileges in their former lives as brother Elias has had, who is well schooled, and has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the best of society—with men of influence. When he arrived to years of discretion, as he has told you, he marked out his own path. His advantages in his youth were far greater than were those of most of our public speakers.

And there is brother Carrington, when he rises here to address a congregation—though it is seldom that we can get him on this stand—will tell how he shrinks from speaking to the people, how bashful and delicate his feelings are in this matter. Men who understand language, who were taught it in their youth, who have had the privilege of schools and good education, to get up and tell how they shrink from addressing this people.

When I think of myself, I think just this—I have the grit in me, and I will do my duty anyhow. When I began to speak in public, I was about as destitute of language as a man could well be. But tell about being bashful, when a man has all the learning and words he can ask for! With scores and hundreds of thousands of words with which to convey one’s ideas, and then tell about being bashful before a people! How I have had the headache, when I had ideas to lay before the people, and not words to express them; but I was so gritty that I always tried my best.

I do not like to hear men make excuses, although it is natural, and I put up with it. I wish they could see and understand that they have had advantages above many of their brethren—that they have been greatly blessed, and should never complain, but should stand up here and exercise themselves according to the best of their ability, and do all the good possible for them to do.

Brother Elias Smith, I can say, is a man possessed of as much judgment and discretion in his feelings as any man I know. He is filled with wisdom. He is filled with judgment and with counsel, if he would dare to let it out. I would like to hear his voice and the voices of others, and I would like to have them not complain much about getting up to speak before the public.

Often, when I stand up here, I have the feelings of a person that is unable to convey his ideas, because I have not the advantage of language. However, I do not very frequently complain of that, but I rise to do the best I can and to give the people the best I have for them at the time; and if it don’t suit them they can go without it, for I am not responsible whether it suits them or not.

I rejoice in the words of brother Heber this day. He has spoken by the power of the Holy Ghost, and you are his witnesses. You may all witness to this; and his ideas are as rich, I may say, as the flowers of eternity, and his ideas and his words are congenial to my feelings and spirit. He told you here today that we never differ—that I say, “Go ahead, say what you please.”

I look at the spirits and the principles of men, and try to behold what is in them; and if I can discover that they are right, I do not care one particle how they express their ideas, so that I can but understand them. I can say furthermore that you cannot, the best of you, beat brother Kimball’s language. You may call up the college-bred man, and he cannot beat it.

Brother Heber and I never went to school until we got into “Mormonism:” that was the first of our schooling. We never had the opportunity of letters in our youth, but we had the privilege of picking up brush, chopping down trees, rolling logs, and working amongst the roots, and of getting our shins, feet, and toes bruised. The uncle of brother Merrell, who now sits in the congregation, made me the first hat that my father ever bought for me: and I was then about eleven years of age. I did not go bareheaded previous to that time, neither did I call on my father to buy me a five-dollar hat every few months, as some of my boys do. My sisters would make me what was called a Jo. Johnson cap for winter, and in summer I wore a straw hat which I frequently braided for myself. I learned to make bread, wash the dishes, milk the cows, and make butter; and can make butter, and can beat the most of the women in this community at housekeeping. Those are about all the advantages I gained in my youth. I know how to economize, for my father had to do it.

There are a great many little items pertaining to life that I do not very often speak about. Still they have to be borne with. They arise from traits in our characters, and we have to meet with them right in this community. The imported goods that we purchase are brought over a thousand miles in wagons, and yet probably I have not a young child that is three years old but what has cost me more to furnish with shoes than I ever cost my father to furnish me with shoes in my whole life. Brother Heber has been teaching you a little economy. I tell you that you have been warned and forewarned again, that the time would come when, if you had hats, you would have to make them; and if the ladies had bonnets, they would have to make them here.

Whether it is to your sorrow or joy, I will tell you what I discover; and I have been much surprised, and sometimes I have been overjoyed with the discovery. Sometimes my heart quakes a little, my nerves tremble in consequence of the great things that God is bringing forth. Do we realize that they are coming on us, I may say, faster than we are preparing ourselves to meet them? There is one sign after another, revelation after revelation. The Lord is hastening his work. He is bringing to pass the sayings of the Prophets faster than the people are prepared to receive them. You know that we have often exhorted you to be wide awake to your duties, to be watchful and prayerful, and to be full of the Holy Spirit, lest the Lord should roll on his work faster than you could understand it.

It would be hard for the people to explain away the idea that the Government of the United States is shutting down the gate upon us, for it is too visible; and this is what hastens the work of the Lord, which you are praying for every day. I do not believe that there is a man or woman here, who prays at all, but what prays every day for the Lord to hasten his work. Now take care, for if he does, maybe you will not be prepared to meet it.

The time must come when there will be a separation between this kingdom and the kingdoms of this world, even in every point of view. The time must come when this kingdom must be free and independent from all other kingdoms. Are you prepared to have the thread cut today?

I know the feelings of a great many, and I need not go out of my own family to hear, “O dear, are there no ribbons coming? I want that artificial quick; I want you to go and buy me that nice bonnet, for I am afraid there never will another one be brought here.” If I am tried in any point in this world, it is with regard to the bearings of my own conduct to my own family. I have told them, and tell them, and talk to them, and talk about it, and ask them, Am I in the line of my duty while I can feed women and children who do nothing but sit and fold their hands, and wear out their clothing, and dress them in finery, and pamper them, and they get so that good beef, pork, bread, butter, cheese, tea, coffee, and sugar, with fruit, and all kinds of garden sauce, are no rarity to them at all, and their appetites are poor and they cannot eat? This is the case with me in my family. If there is any trial upon me, it is to know whether I am in the line of my duty in this matter.

Should not I take my tea and coffee, my beef and pork, and every other good thing, and put it into the hands of the men who sweat over the rock for the Temple, instead of feeding men, women, and children, who do not strive to do all they are capable of doing? I am tried on that point, and I must say that if there is anything in the world that bothers me, it is the whining of women and children to prevent me from doing that which I know that I ought to do.

I will acknowledge with brother Kimball, and I know it is the case with him, that I am a great lover of women. In what particular? I love to see them happy, to see them well fed and well clothed, and I love to see them cheerful. I love to see their faces and talk with them, when they talk in righteousness; but as for anything more, I do not care. There are probably but few men in the world who care about the private society of women less than I do. I also love children, and I delight to make them happy.

I accumulate a large amount of means, but I would just as soon feed my neighbor as myself. And everyone who knows me knows whether or not a piece of johnnycake and butter and a potato satisfies Brigham. I can live on as cheap and as plain food as can any man in Israel. I have said to my family, a great many times, I want you to make me homemade clothing; but I would meet such a whizzing about my ears, if I were to have even a pair of homemade pantaloons made. I do not know that I have a wife in the world but what would say, “You are not going to wear them; you ought to wear something more respectable, for you deserve to as much as any man does.”

It is the man who works hard, who sweats over the rock, and goes to the canyons for lumber, that I count more worthy of good food and dress than I am. But do not I labor? Yes, with my mind. Can any man tell what labor there is upon me? No, not a man can begin to tell what I feel for the Latter-day Saints in this Territory, throughout the mountains and the world—what I feel for their salvation and preservation. They have to be looked after and cared for; and all this more particularly rests upon me. My brethren love to share with me all that the Lord puts upon them; but in the day of trouble they look to me to secure them and point out a way for their escape.

Now, let me tell you one thing—I shall take it as a witness that God designs to cut the thread between us and the world, when an army undertakes to make their appearance in this Territory to chastise me or to destroy my life from the earth. I lay it down that right is or at least should be might with Heaven, with its servants, and with all its people on the earth. As for the rest, we will wait a little while to see; but I shall take a hostile movement by our enemies as an evidence that it is time for the thread to be cut. I think we will find three hundred who will lap water, and we can whip out the Midianites. Brother Heber said that he could turn out his women, and they would whip them. I ask no odds of the wicked, the best way they can fix it.

Brother Heber says that the music is taken out of his sermons when brother Carrington clips out words here and there; and I have taken out the music from mine, for I know the traditions and false notions of the people. Our sermons are read by tens of thousands outside of Utah. Members of the British Parliament have those Journals of Discourses, published by brother Watt; they have them locked up, they secrete them, and go to their rooms to study them, and they know all about us. They may, perhaps, keep them from the Queen, for fear that she would believe and be converted.

I know that I have seen the day when, let men use language like brother Heber has today, and many would apostatize from the true faith. In printing my remarks, I often omit the sharp words, though they are perfectly understood and applicable here; for I do not wish to spoil the good I desire to do. Let my remarks go to the world in a way the prejudices of the people can bear, that they may read them, and ponder them, and ask God whether they are true.

I am thankful to hear the servants of God speak; and, as I have frequently said, I do not care what you say when you rise to speak here; for I want to know whether a man seeks with all his heart to know the mind of God concerning him. If he does, all is right with him.

Brother Heber alluded to counseling men and women who come to him after they had been to me, and said that they always received the same counsel I had given them. I never have known it to fail, that if they come to me and then go to brother Heber, they will get the same counsel all the time. And so they would from every one of the Twelve, from the High Council, from the Seventies, and High Priests and every officer in the Church, if every officer in the Church would take the course that brother Heber, and I, and a few others do. What is that? Never to give counsel, unless you have it to give. If you have counsel, give it, because you can have no correct counsel except by the Spirit of revelation: that is my standard. I have no counsel for a man, unless I have the testimony of Jesus on the subject. Then, when the same man asks counsel of me, and goes to brother Heber, do you not see that if he acts on the same principle and gives counsel, it must be by the Spirit of revelation; or he has no counsel to give, if it is not by that Spirit. Then let the same man go to brother Wells and ask his counsel on the same subject, without letting him know that he has been to Brigham or to Heber, and brother Daniel will give the same counsel by the same Spirit.

The difficulty with regard to giving counsel that conflicts consists in men’s giving counsel from their own judgment, without the Spirit of God. Every man in the kingdom of God would give the same counsel upon each subject, if he would wait until he had the mind of Christ upon it. Then all would have one word and mind, and each man would see eye to eye.

But there is a weakness in the brethren, and it is in mankind in general. You ask almost any person in the world a question, and he thinks it a disgrace to be unable to answer it. He feels chagrined, his mind flags, when he finds that he is not quite as knowing as his neighbors think him to be; and, to avoid this, he will often venture an answer without knowing the facts in the case, or the effects of his answer.

If you would always pause and say, I have no counsel for you, I have no answer for you on this subject, because I have no manifestation of the Spirit, and be willing to let everybody in the world know that you are ignorant when you are, you would become wise a great deal quicker than to give counsel on your own judgment, without the Spirit of revelation. If the Elders of Israel would observe this rule, never to give counsel unless they give it by the testimony of the truth, by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, if they cannot give counsel in that manner, not to give any, there would be no conflicting counsel in the kingdom. All would be one; counsel would be one: we would soon come to understanding and be of one heart and mind, and our blessings would be increased upon us faster than in taking any other course.

May God bless you and preserve us in the truth. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, July 26, 1857.

I arise this morning, my brethren and sisters, feeling considerable dependence upon your faith to give me ability to address you. The prayer of faith of the righteous, availeth much; and if the Saints desire to be instructed by me this morning to any considerable extent, I am certainly satisfied that faith must be exercised in my behalf, as my lungs are not in a suitable condition to enable me to say much.

In entering into a congregation of the Saints, a man who feels the Spirit of the Lord, and has this ruling principle in him, must, under all circumstances of the kind, rejoice with exceeding great joy for the privilege of beholding the faces and of addressing the Saints of the Most High, and of bearing testimony of the truths of the everlasting Gospel in their presence.

Last year at this time I was in the city of Washington, surrounded by those who are struggling by any and every process that can be imagined to get their hands into Uncle Sam’s pockets. It was the principle and almost the only business of every man there to invent some scheme, or find some means or contrivance to make a draw on the Treasury. It was necessary that all their motives and their policy be guarded, and that they be careful of their acquaintances and cautious in their conversation, lest something they might say might endanger the object they were endeavoring to obtain. Praying, thanks– giving to God, and acknowledging His hand in all things was the last thing thought of, if thought of at all; but that is exceedingly doubtful. I looked upon the confusion, the struggling for power and place, the thirst for gold, the contention and strife that were attracting together so many thousands from the different parts of the United States, and all by the glittering of the United States’ Treasury; and I wondered. I cannot say that it produced in my mind the first pleasant feeling. The spirit of wrangling—the spirit of contention seemed to be determined to rend in pieces and utterly destroy the Union. There is a trampling under foot of the principles upon which the Union was founded, and this caused me to be sorrowful.

I frequently went into the Capitol to take a look at the boiling foam of political strife that was amongst them; and I saw a spirit that seemed to be determined to demolish the fabric reared by our fathers, or to disable it by anarchy and misrule.

Brother Heywood and I roomed together, we prayed together, we conversed together, and we visited brother Bernhisel, and talked to him, counseled with him, and comforted him all we could. I believe that we three were the only men in the city of Washington that had any idea that it was of any use asking God for anything, except they did it as a form. To be sure there are meetinghouses and temples of worship for the Catho– lics, for the Presbyterians, for the Methodists, for the Episcopalians, and for the various sects of Protestants; and there were chaplains who prayed a few minutes in the Senate Chamber and in the Hall of Representatives.

I heard the old gentleman pray several times who was the Chaplain in the House of Representatives. I used to go into the Representatives’ Hall with brother Bernhisel in the morning, and he would introduce me to the members and to the chaplain; and I could stay there until the praying was over: then all had to leave but members and officers.

They had a very fine man for Chaplain in the House. He was ninety-six years old. He had served in the revolutionary war. He was a sober, fine man; but his mind was set down to what he had learned forty-five years ago. I conversed with him, and told him what an excellent man Governor Young was—how kind he was to the Indians; and he replied that he was glad to hear it. The last session we discovered that his step began to falter, and that from one session to another he was considerably altered; but he made out to continue his duties through the session. The old man made it his business to preach in the Capitol on Sundays: he exhorted the people to do right. What they were to do to be saved had never, I suppose, entered into his brain. I must to the last of my days have respect for the old Chaplain; for I considered him a fair specimen of the old school soldiery.

As I became acquainted with the gentlemen of the House, the subject of “Mormonism” was soon introduced; and most generally the first question would indicate prejudice and the want of knowledge of our feelings and views here in the mountains.

It was said by some of the old Prophets that, “The people had made lies their refuge, and under falsehood hid themselves.” It is an old adage that falsehood will go round the world while truth is getting on its boots. In talking with strangers, I found very few who, from all they had heard and read, had formed any correct notions of this people, and of this Territory, and the circumstances which surround us: but tales of falsehood, tales of folly, tales of wickedness, and stories imaginary of various kinds—these could be found anywhere; but very little of the truth seems to have rested in anybody’s brain.

The Old Book talks about a city called the New Jerusalem. The passage I refer to is in the Revelation of John, 21st chapter, and from the 8th to the 11th verses—“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” [President H. C. Kimball: “They have got to die a second time.“] “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” John goes on and describes the city to a great length, and then in the following chapter and 15th verse, speaking of the same city, he says—“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

Just let me tell the truth—the naked facts as they exist in open day, to any person I would visit or meet, and they would look at me with distrust; and it would be plainly manifest in their countenances that the truth had no resting place there. No matter if I conversed with the great and wise men of the nation, they seemed not inclined to receive the truth; but let them read a falsehood or an exaggerated statement, and it would strike their attention in a moment. They loved lies, they loved falsehood, they loved corruption, they loved whoremongers, they loved wickedness.

I used to suppose that all that was necessary was to convince the children of men that anything that was presented was right, and I thought that all men naturally had a disposition to receive anything, and to accede to anything that was right; but I learned from the observations I made that the right of the case was about the last thing to be considered, and that justice, truth, or the righteousness of a subject is the last thing to be brought under consideration.

The question to be considered is, Is there any money in it, or is there a chance to make any? Is there a chance to get any political influence? Is there a chance to elevate ourselves in the eyes of our constituents? It makes no difference whether it murders an innocent person or not, if it is only popular, and money can be made at it. This appears to be the ruling power with the children of men in their present wicked and degenerate state.

We are here in the Valleys of the Mountains, and we profess a religion that has a form; and we are very technical in regard to the form, and in regard to our prayers, in regard to our baptism, in regard to our confirmation, in regard to our administrations to the sick, and in regard to all those things that pertain to our religious faith. We are very particu– lar, the most of us, in our feelings, and quite strenuous to observe strictly those outside ordinances—but no more so than we should be.

But the question arises, and we all ask ourselves the question, Is it the form only, or are we suffering ourselves to carry out the form without the inward work and the power of the Holy Spirit? Notwithstanding all this, we should realize that the Lord looks on the heart.

My desires and my feelings are that, if I can observe the forms of religion, I must also use my utmost exertions not to suffer the spirit to be lacking; for all these things must be done heartily and as unto the Lord. Now, I have some knowledge in relation to this work; I have been in the Church from my boyhood, and I have grown grey and bald in the midst of Israel. I have been in the Church when there were but few comparatively—when one such city as we now count by numbers in these valleys would have embraced all that were in the Church.

I was baptized in the year 1832, and I have grown and seen its windings and changings, and I can now bear testimony that every evil and distress that has come upon the Saints has been in consequence of not listening to the counsel of their Prophet and President; and this has been by misunderstanding, and in adhering to our old prejudices, and by not listening to the testimony and warning of the Prophet Joseph. For these causes our enemies have fallen upon our leading men, and operated among us like a mighty sieve to separate the chaff from the wheat.

The supposition is that the smut machine is ahead, and that by-and-by every man and every woman who feel disposed to serve the Lord with all their hearts will have a chance to be tried whether they love the Lord or the things of this world the best— whether they love the things of the Most High God, or whether their religion is a mere form carried out to please their Bishop, to satisfy their Teachers, or whether they do give their hearts to the Lord, and all their might, mind, and strength.

Now, I feel, my brethren, to thank my Heavenly Father for the spirit of reformation that I have witnessed since I returned; and I feel to pray that it may continue, and feel to exhort the people to fear God, who can destroy both the soul and body in hell; and also for them not to suffer doubt to trouble them, to make them wayward in their hearts or thoughts; for I have seen the effect of this to a great extent in times past.

I do know that the world is full of wickedness, and that it is bound in bundles, and is fast preparing for the day of burning; and I do know there is no chance of deliverance or of safety but in being tried, that they may be screened and sifted, and that all unrighteousness may be cleansed from their midst.

This is my testimony of these truths, brethren and sisters; and I pray that we may live up to them, and be prepared to inherit the glory of God in the worlds to come, through Christ our Redeemer. Amen.