[Brigham Young Sermon] All the brethren of the Camp assembled near the bridge, when I arose in a wagon and cried with a loud voice--"Attention! the whole camp of Israel." I proceeded to explain the cause of delay of the camp, which was, in short, that Bishop Whitney and Elders H. C. Kimball and Wm. Clayton were not ready, or were waiting to secure and bring with them Church property needed in the Camp. Some of the brethren have been here nearly two weeks, and if all had come on according to counsel, I should have been here sooner, if I had come without a shirt to my back.
I wish the brethren to stop running to Nauvoo, hunting, fishing, roasting their shins, idling away their time, and fix nosebaskets for their horses, and save their corn, and fix comfortable places for their wives and children to ride, and never borrow without asking leave, and be sure and return what was borrowed lest your brother be vexed with you and in his anger curse you, and then you would be cursed according to the power of the Priesthood that brother possesses, and evil will come upon you. That all dogs in the Camp should be killed, if the owners would not tie them up, and any man who would keep a horse in camp, that had the horse distemper, ought to forfeit all his horses.
We will have no laws we cannot keep, but we will have order in the Camp. If any want to live in peace when we have left this, they must toe the mark.
I then called upon all who wanted to go with the Camp, to raise their right hands, and all hands were up. I said--We must wait here until we get the artillery, canvas, and public property; that the brethren must build a pen for corn and hay. George W. Harris was appointed commissary. That all spare men were for pioneers, guards, watchmen, and that all men of families must be organized into companies of tens, fifties, and hundreds. Wm. Clayton would be general clerk of the camp.
I requested the brethren to report all matters of history which might arise, to Willard Richards, the historian. [Sugar Creek, Iowa - MHBY 33-34]
[source: Elden J. Watson, ed. Brigham Young Addresses, 1801-1877: A Chronological Compilation of Known Addresses of the Prophet Brigham Young, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Privately published, 1971)]
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