[Brigham Young Sermon] Those names were selected that it might be to go but we don't want a man to go which would prohibit him going over the mountains next spring - this is designed to gather up all, those especially driven from Nauvoo, they may come and make a fit out and go very few have got through their journey to the valley here we have rising of a thousand before us, the people cant all go next season but we can keep our eye on the object - and we can get them there in two or three years - but it cant be done in one year - not even for one man - the second year sets a few of the inhabitants where they design to locate, there are 6000 anxiously waiting to know what to do to tell the people who were driven from Nauvoo especially we expect to continue our operations until the saints are all in the mountains - I don't expect to see a day without trying to bring to remembrance past covenants and my mind will act upon the covenants made in the temple to stick to each other until we are located in a healthy country - we cannot take them next spring - but we can get a few next spring and so on each spring - each man is to carry himself and all his family - just carry all we can - if this is the case with the brethren here and they remember their covenants they may see the propriety of our movements - it is a city sought out - will we take our families and leave our brethren behind? No, we'll tell them of it - only a [-] of the church can go next spring - next season they must carry provisions until they can raise - this is wisdom some thought were going to raise crops last season - but to shut up the gap of suffering - we have special orders that no man should go without 1 1/2 years bread stuff some thought we could raise crops although we travel three months in the very heart of see time - this is because they don't understand things - if the people were to rush into the valley without bread stuff - they would be in a state of starvation - here you waste corn - treading it under foot but you will find it will be worth .50 a bushel - in the valley they have to water the ground and do the raining part themselves - if they can get enough to sustain themselves they will do first rate - now send word to the brethren who have been driven from Hancock County to gather to the west of Iowa - it is more healthy than any other part the western country - it is a good country - they say they never saw land produce better - we wish the brethren to locate there - next June the laws are extended to the Missouri River - the United States will not worry themselves about us - the state cant drive us - if they come to drive they have to cross a many prairies - I don't care if the United States do expect us to leave the Potawatomie lands - Harvey wanted us to remove to the other side - I said suppose we were to remove there what would government expect us to remove - if we were to see any man like him he would expect us to leave - but I don't expect any such thing - the Mormons are actually in possession of half of the state of Iowa - the Mormons have a better foothold than anywhere except Caldwell County - we have the foothold and we shall stay to build our wagons to go over the mountains - we are going to gather up the saints - we don't owe the United States one penny worth of preaching - we want such men as can leave home and visit the branches - there is nothing compulsory about it - stay and take care of what you have got take care of family and property and do what you can the brethren are principally in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin - we want to notify them to come here we shall get as many to go next spring as can - some who grants can help themselves by loans and exchange say here are two families but both cant go - one stays here and farms - and lets the others man have part of his team so that he can go and next season return the team back again to convey him up who stays here - we can start as late as 1 June - go to Green River - drop the families - and return back to this place - then next season they can go through - I am lacking about six wagons - but by delaying so much last spring we cant get a team back - we have proved that we can take a team of oxen to the mountains and back same year - we made an entire new route to Fort John - got into the valley by 23 July and returned same year (rubbed John Pack and William Clayton, and the Spindle swelling) it is demonstrated to a perfection that they can go in safety - and now the people have got to learn that they can go and come in one year - we did it in seven months and stopped a month in the valley - don't any of you go and leave your families to suffer - but if you can go and sweep round from two or three months and notify the brethren of the facts it would be a relief to them - start and come here by planting time - raise all your calves and pigs - sheep and chickens - learn that a wagon can go to the mountains without any iron - and it will answer first rate - I want those boats crowded completely from St. Louis - they can go to farming - they have no business in St. Louis and in one or two years they will have to carry but very little bread stuff - in another years a man can take his two cows and cart and go through as easy as we have formerly traveled 100 miles. The real expense will not be more than 100 mile journey - We have not seen the end of Mormonism yet - the time will come that persons will be glad to pack what they can of their backs and go - If the brethren will do as they are told and if they preach to the world they will preach the first principles of the gospel - faith repentance baptism laying of hands - then stop - that's all belongs to the Gentile nations any how - then take the saints and tell them to come to the Bluffs - if they don't desire to come we don't want them to come - We have done wonders here - the poor lame and halt have built a large city and raised an abundance - cripples and boys that could not go into the army had to stop here - don't say the pioneers cant do anything, they just can do anything - almost 3000 sent into the valley last summer - we want you now to gather up to the west side of Iowa and if a man wants to try an improvement just sell out and make another claim - for we cannot gather in five years - some say we ought not to live - Tom Benton says we ought not to live - the women and children are a pestilential race, destroy them - they would be glad to destroy us but they cant do it - the brethren would have staid in Nauvoo and would not start until they were oppressed - in the very day and hour that all was ready then drive them out - ever since the Book of Mormon was published they have tried to get just where they are wanted by the Lord - now the Lord will stop them - the government of the United States made us squatters - on the Potawatomie lands - they then by the lands and [-] the Mormons actually squatters in the state of Iowa this is the place to tarry, suppose they were to drive the LDS - the land would not be improved - and we of necessity are obliged to stay - we are going to have a meeting and see what can be done to remove the saints from this place - if five or ten men will help me next spring I will turn around and help them - or give them 200. for every ton burden carry there - men that are here who have not enough to fit out who would be helped now who would turn around and help them next season we can go to Green River and back safely next season have I met the feelings of the Twelve - brethren and Seventies (Aye Aye Aye all around) I am not going to take my family or throw them on to the bishops - but if they can go and don't, they have it to their own door - I say go or stay just as they please. Don't distress yourselves - every man know whether he can go or not - if we were in the middle of the ocean ship sinking or a little boat with a few in it - it would not be wise for them to pick up the sinkers until the little boat sinks - I want to strengthen the place over the mountains - if I had not a fit out and I was asked to go a preaching I would say thank you sir, I am now sure of my fit out. -- Winter Quarters,
Nebraska [Thomas Bullock Minutes, LJA; Thomas Bullock—LDS Church Reporter, 1844-56.C, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.; GCM, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah..; Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan.. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.) 9-12-3, 103-106]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
No comments:
Post a Comment