Mormon History, Dec 28, 1848

[Brigham Young Sermon] There is considerable dust in the valley - melted 500. no crucibles to make it - machinery all ready - the brethren want some currency - they may deposit dust and issue notes - and they be redeemed when the gold is coined - you can issue your notes - when the Council House is built - I have some long stories for you - men who have been in this church and kicked from pillar to post ought to have common sense - a word is enough - I tell you the spirit of these men and-hand? then a piece of bogus and they swallow it - but hand them pure gold and they kick at it - they are afraid of it. they are bogus me - but may the Lord God grant that the saints may not have much of it - select your own men and make your deposits, let them issue notes until the gold is made and then redeem notes'- I'll say this much - when we come into the valley I gave the brethren a lecture of government and social order - we don't care how rich a man gets nor how much business he does - but no man shall live here to hoard up his gold and let the poor beg his bread - I'll serve them same as Cromwell did the hoarder up of the grain - so help me God - I'll string him between the heavens and the earth - there's men here blowing at every thing - and they are hoarding up all the money they can. I'll search after them - men want to run to the states and would do more for the gentiles than to this people - I would talk to you if we had a place to meet in - we are here withdrawn from the gentile world and to say we cherish and count and nourish every wickedness I'll ward this people before the hand of the Lord reaches them if we are not disposed to do right - it would be right to issue notes without one cent of specie in the bank - that would be right - this people ought to say let gentiles and [-] sin alone - I'll bring every man to the line - and if he wont do right we shall treat him as an heathen - I am ready to weigh back every man his dust or to issue paper'- I ask all the saints individually have you seen a dishonest trick in me since you have know me (no no) have not my hands been all the time open to the poor yet there is a fear I am living on the church property there is a fear on this people - the prophets Joseph's hands were all the time tied by the people - when the Lord took Joseph to himself the people were sorry they did not do all as he said - there are men here who I would sooner have the dust lie in their houses than in my own - if that trouble is put on me I wont do it unless I have my pay for it - since leaving Nauvoo I have eat up my own bread and not living on tithing - and have paid up the debts of money borrowed to pay for the building of that temple - I am just a going? to see if this people hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other - we are not now bound, we are perfectly safe here - as for reaching to the gentiles it leads us into the bondage'- I want to say here's Brother Richardson has weighed and has not weighed it correctly - I took a paper with 10 - another 11.50 in it - I put them in the scale and the 10 weighed down the 11.50 - another man I weighed out at 98 when there was to be either 3 or 5 more the man slipped the dust into his pocket and would not have it weighed - I want this people to be instructed in all things and I want this people to know what I know as fast as I do - the US passed a law that they should have 10 percent for coining gold and silver - they reclaim at 32. carats fine - reduce it to 24. call it fine - then add 3 1/2 carats and call it pure - they have 1/3rd bogus any how - you would suck down that money, cut a piece of pure gold they wont have it they tend downward they are bogus and there are bogus spirits here - I want the Lord to keep me from bowing down to gentilism - we made 10.00 piece to weigh 900 - that what it weighs correctly - and a man who says other is either a damned rascal or don't know how to weigh - if men blow upon the gold here - they blow upon the principles of the eternal and holy priesthood that is calculated to save us - in the days of Joseph there was a municipal council of 50 men - it was never known in public before - Joseph trained them of [-] purposes that the banner might be hoisted the flag unfurled that every religionist may worship according to the dictates of their own consciences - that council is here - the greater portion a man who takes the name of God in vain will be snatched up before they know it by and by a line will be drawn to distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous - another text - a great many received the truth and but few that receive love the truth - those are the men we want - you recollect Sidney - a dream I have about cutting off the limbs - the dream was cut off every one of those limbs as near the trunk as you can and then you save the tree - that is what I mean to do now - If I see a thief and have a rifle as God live I will stop their breath'- By next Tuesday I will have the dollar notes. I'll defy all the men in this valley to counterfeit - we can get paper - I will hand you the dollar - 2 dollars and five dollars notes - I say to all keep the little change in the valley - I brought in 87.00 in ten cents and quarters - I shall be at the recorders office on Tuesday next - I did not think the people were such fools as to send out their small change by Captain Grant. You are dismissed. -- SLC Bowery [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.) 9-13-3, 27-29; General Church Minutes. Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints DVD 1 (2002); Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah..; Journal History of the Church, Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints DVD 2 (2002)]

[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]

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