Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 11, 1874.

I have been much interested in the remarks of the Elders this morning, as all through the Conference, and I hope the instructions we have received will be treasured up in the hearts of all, and carried home to our households and wards, and that the Elders who have attended Conference will stir up the people to diligence, teach them to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy, and instead of fooling away their time in labor or pleasure, to devote that day to the worship of God and to rest, according to the original design of heaven. We should remember our prayers at all times in our families, we should also remember to observe the word of wisdom, and be careful to continually pursue such a course as will entitle us to the blessings of the Lord, and that his Spirit may unceasingly abide in our hearts. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we should let our light shine before men, by observing the principles which we profess to have obeyed. We need not be troubled because false reports are sent abroad into the world concerning us; this has been the universal lot of Saints in all ages of the world. The Savior said—“Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name’s sake.” If we are only conscious within ourselves that these charges are false we need not fear, and we should never hesitate to lift up our voices among the children of men in bearing testimony of the truth revealed in these latter days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

We are anxious to publish the standard works of the Church to a greater extent than hitherto. Some of them have been republished, and others are in progress, and we wish to have the cooperation of the Saints, generally, throughout the Territory, in helping on this work. Our publications should be in every family of the Saints, and we wish to exercise that kind of influence in the midst of our people that will lead them to make themselves acquainted with the contents of the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and such other works as are or have been published illustrative of the principles of life and salvation made known in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they may be more gene– rally understood by those professing to be Latter-day Saints.

We expect, before the Conference closes, to call a considerable number of Elders to go and preach the Gospel in the United States. There have been but few missionaries sent to the States, and the present generation there have, to a great extent, formed their notions of us and our faith from the false reports sent through the press; and as we all know that notions so formed cannot be other than erroneous, we shall call a considerable number of Elders to go and travel through the States, representing the Gospel in its true light, and bearing testimony to the truth, that the generation that have grown up since we were driven into the wilderness, may learn and know for themselves the facts concerning us.

We are laboring, as has been referred to by some of the brethren who have addressed the Conference, to build a Temple in St. George, and one in this city. The work is moving on in both places. I feel quite gratified at the success of the workmen the present season on the Temple here. Taking the granite from the boulders in the mountains, bringing it here, cutting the blocks, placing the pillars in position, and getting everything in the mechanical style that it is, in the last two years, is perfectly wonderful to me. The erection of a Temple like this is a great work, it requires a vast amount of means, energy and skill. We have not had as much means to sustain the brethren who have been laboring upon it as we anticipated, in consequence of the change of the times, and the failure of some to come forward and pay their Tithing and thereby supply the demand. Yet we have moved the work forward gloriously. Brother Pinnock has the gates open, and I invite the Bishops and all the brethren and sisters from distant places to go and see the beautiful work we have done on that Temple; and while you are inspecting what has been done try and realize the amount of labor and means that have been required to accomplish it. Think of the millions of dollars that King Solomon expended in building the foundation of his Temple, and of the heavy tax it was upon the people; and then, if you want to compare his work with ours, think of the manner in which we are carrying this forth. I wish the Saints, also, when visiting the Temple, to raise their hearts in prayer to the Most High, that he will bless the efforts that are being made to rear a house to his holy name. We invite all the brethren and sisters to contribute their monthly offerings in money, that these workmen may have a portion of their wages in money, and such necessaries as cannot be obtained without it. For a considerable portion of the present season the Temple workmen have had to do almost entirely with home products. Some of them have stuck to it faithfully, others have been compelled to quit. In fact, for want of means, we were under the necessity at one time of dismissing fifty hands. But we have kept the work moving, and if the brethren will go and see what we have done they can but be surprised and delighted. It is a glorious work, and one that is to be dedicated to the Most High God. Then let our hearts be lifted to him in prayer that this work may continue, that we may be protected from the wrath of our enemies and from the vengeance of the wicked one, and be able to complete this Temple and dedicate it, that the glory of the Lord may rest upon it, the various quorums of the Priesthood be organ– ized within it, and that we and our children may be permitted to enter its sacred precincts, and receive the ordinances of the Priesthood and the blessings of the Gospel of peace which can be received only in a Temple of the Lord.

I wish to bear my testimony to the principles of the Gospel which have been revealed. I never wish to stand before the Saints without doing that, for when I was called as one of the first Seventies to bear testimony to the people, I lifted my hand to heaven and said—“If I ever forget to bear testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the true mission of Joseph Smith, let my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.” From that day to this I always remember to bear my testimony when I address the people, for I know that this Gospel and plan of salvation, revealed by Joseph Smith and taught by the Apostles of this Church, is true. Men may say that Brigham Young and the Elders of this Church are impostors; but I know that they were called by revelation and ordained and set apart to do this work through Joseph Smith, and they are the servants of the Most High God. They were called to proclaim the Gospel and to administer its ordinances, and with all their hearts they have labored to accomplish the work assigned them.

It is written that “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” This shows that a man of like passions to ourselves may obtain faith to perform great and good works, to give wise instructions, to proclaim the principles of the everlasting Gospel, to bear testimony to the truth, to ad– minister in the work of the Lord and bear off his kingdom. And it is our duty, as we have already been warned, to exercise faith for those in authority, that, while they contend with like passions with ourselves, they may have the Spirit of the Almighty to preserve and guide them, and to sustain their hands, and in all cases be careful never to be found speaking evil of the Lord’s anointed. A tattling tongue is a curse, and, as the Apostle James expresses it, “is set on fire of hell;” and when we are found speaking evil against the servants of God and accusing the brethren we are only following in the wake of the wicked one. Let us then avoid these things, and learn to speak those things that are good, upright and true, and bear a faithful testimony of the Gospel.

As I said before, I wish the Saints generally to remember the brethren who are laboring on the Temple at St. George. They have been working all the season, with very little to supply them, and some of them are destitute of clothing, and other necessaries. Some of the workmen there have labored on the Temple from the very beginning, and the walls are now thirty feet high, and the work is going ahead prosperously. We have invited the people in every settlement to contribute of their means to continue the work and we have also invited brethren to go down to St. George, and labor upon the Temple this winter, that the building may be prepared for the roof as soon as possible. It will be a magnificent Temple, and will contain all the conveniences of the Temples of Kirtland and Nauvoo. It will be one hundred and forty-three feet long and ninety-seven wide, and the walls will be eighty-eight feet high. It is desirable that the brethren contribute their means to supply the wants of those who are laboring on that Temple, that they may be encouraged to continue. We are anxious to push this Temple forward to completion as early as possible. It is not so large nor so elaborate in its design as the one in course of erection in this city. St. George is a place in which parties living in the northern settlements, who may desire to do so, can go and spend the winter, and attend to the ordinances of the Priesthood. When that Temple is finished we can go down there and be baptized for our dead, receive our anointings and ordinances and all the blessings pertaining to the Priesthood, and get our records made to perform that great work which is placed upon us for the salvation of all the generations from the time that the Priesthood was lost, the covenant broken, the laws trampled under foot and the ordinances forsaken, unto the present time, for the salvation of all who have died since then rests upon us as a generation. But if any of us suffer ourselves to be led into darkness by the cunning and craftiness of the wicked one or evil spirits, we lose great and glorious blessings, and a great and glorious responsibility which is laid upon us pertaining to the salvation of ourselves and our ancestors. We call upon all the brethren to consider these things, and we do not wish any to go and labor on that Temple this winter unless they desire to do so, and have got the spirit to go in order that they may assist in forwarding the work.

It is very probable that some who live in the northern settlements, who are able to do so, will make practice of spending the winter in St. George, because of the mild pleasant weather which prevails there during the winter season. Last winter the masons worked on the walls of the Temple all the winter, except seven and a half days, when they were prevented by rain. But to all who may have any intention of going there to spend the winter, I would say, never go with light shoes and thin clothing, but take good warm clothing and thick-soled shoes. Do not be deceived with the idea that you will find summer weather there in the winter season, it is more like pleasant spring weather, and when evening comes, good thick warm clothing is needed.

In speaking of the press I wish to name especially the paper published by our sisters—The Woman’s Exponent. I feel as though I hardly need suggest to the brethren that natural gallantry would require them, all through the Territory, to subscribe to this little sheet, and I believe that if the brethren would do so the paper would be much more widely circulated and would do much more good than at present. The brethren should remember that our sisters hold the ballot in this country, that they have equal influence at the polls with the men, and I certainly think that we should patronize them in their press, for I am satisfied that the prospects of any man being elected to the Legislature of Utah Territory would be very poor if the women were opposed to him, for I presume that the women compose a majority of the legal voters of the Territory, hence, under these circumstances, our natural gallantry and the national characteristic to desire office should prompt us to sustain their publication.

I hope also that the brethren, in reflecting upon the instructions which have been given during Conference, will not forget what has been said in relation to sustaining ourselves with our own material. We have mechanics here who can make good coffins, yet a great many coffins are imported from the States into this Territory, for which the money has to be paid. I say that we ought to be ashamed of this, and I here publicly request my friends, whoever may live to place me in the ground, to place me there in a coffin made of our mountain wood by our own mechanics, and I prohibit anybody who may outlive me paying a dollar for a coffin for me that is imported from the States. That is my sentiment, and I wish it was of every man and woman in the Territory. It may be said to be a small matter, but it takes thousands of dollars of our money away just to gratify pride. Says one—“I am just as good as such a one, and why not I have a coffin from Chicago or St. Louis as well as he have one?” This is a sentiment resulting purely from pride and love of display, which is unworthy of a Latter-day Saint. Carry this principle out and it leads us to reject homemade shoes and other articles which are far superior to the foreign-made imported articles.

We have been talking about the United Order, and getting up tanneries, shoe shops, &c., and initiatory steps have been taken in some of the settlements with these objects in view; but it takes time to carry out and successfully accomplish such projects. But we can produce these things within ourselves, and it is our duty to do it, and instead of manifesting a disposition to oppose anything of this kind, we should exert all the influence and energy we possess to bring it about, and to make ourselves self-sustaining. It is true that the principles of the United Order are such that a great portion of our people at the present time are not in a condition to take hold of it with all they have, for many of them have been foolish enough during the success of business for the last four years, instead of paying their debts, to launch into business of various kinds and get deeper into debt. That class of men have to get their hands untied before they can take hold to promote the great project of uniting the whole of the Latter-day Saints in all their business affairs. But this must be done as fast as possible, and the work of making Zion self-sustaining must be regarded as part of the work of the Lord; for it is an obligation devolving upon us to pro– vide within ourselves labor and the necessaries of life. We must take hold of this matter, brethren and sisters, with all our hearts, and never let ourselves rest until Zion is independent of her enemies and all the world.

May peace and the light of truth abide with you, that you may understand these things and act upon them with all the spirit and power of the gospel of peace, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 11, 1874.

This being the closing day of the Conference, and as we are administering the sacrament, we naturally call our minds up in a way of discipline for ourselves, on various subjects which pertain to our everyday life. The Apostle James tells us that “faith without works is dead, being alone,” and good works are certainly the best illustrations of that faith which prompts us.

As our brethren will soon scatter through the different wards and settlements of the Territory, and to other parts of the world, we wish them to carry forth just and wise impressions in relation to the simple principles of faith and practice which pertain to the holy Gospel, and to disseminate the instructions they have received, that all may be benefited thereby. When we come here and take bread and drink of the cup in memory of the death and sufferings of our Savior, we witness unto him that we remember him, that we love his law, that we are determined to abide by his Gos– pel and that we will do all in our power to walk in the principles of faith and patience, forbearance and long-suffering, and of truth and righteousness in which we are engaged. As a short illustration, and to draw the minds of the congregation directly to the points of instruction, I am disposed to read a portion of the rules of the United Order.

Rule one says, “We will not take the name of the Deity in vain, nor speak lightly of his character or of sacred things.” I am sorry to say that many professed Latter-day Saints are careless in the observance of this rule, which every Latter-day Saint, and every person who has respect for his own character must certainly consider most wholesome and wise, and absolutely obligatory. Let us be very careful, and never indulge in profane language or use the name of the Deity except in such a manner as becomes his high and holy position and our dependence upon him for every breath we draw; and let us also inculcate in our children a respect for that chaste, discreet, upright and pure language which is becoming Saints of the Most High.

Rule two reads—“We will pray in our families morning and evening, and also attend to secret prayer.” Now brethren and sisters, remember this. Those of you, if any, who have been careless and negligent on this subject, remember how often God has heard our prayers and how dependent we are upon him for every blessing we possess and enjoy, and for the protection which has been extended unto us. While almost all the world has been ready to destroy the Latter-day Saints from off the earth, the Lord has answered our prayers and has protected us, as it were, in the hollow of his hand. Let us not forget to call upon him morning and evening, that our families may learn, from their childhood, to observe this great and important duty. And before we lie down to rest or rise in the morning let us lift up our hearts in secret prayer to the Most High, asking his protection and blessing in all things, that by united faith we may be able to perform the great and arduous duties which are placed upon us. And in our prayers let us remember our Bishops and Teachers and those in authority—the President of the Church, his counselors and all those who act in the holy Priesthood that the Spirit of the Almighty may rest upon them as well as upon us, that with one heart and one mind we may have a knowledge of the things of God; and that by observing these duties of prayer and preserving ourselves in purity before the Lord, when teaching, instruction, or counsel is sent forth among the Saints, or revelation is proclaimed unto us, we may have enough of the Holy Ghost in our hearts to know, each for himself or herself, whether these things are true or not; and that when false spirits go forth and lead men astray into darkness, error and folly, we may know the true from the false, detect those who are liars, and expose them as may be necessary.

The third rule is—“We will observe or keep the word of wisdom, according to the spirit and meaning thereof.” Remember this, brethren and sisters. I hear occasionally of brethren indulging in intoxicating drinks, and I see many of them yet, even young men, who indulge in the use of tobacco, a habit which is very pernicious and injurious to health, and a violation of the word of wisdom. There are also other violations of this rule among us which should cease, for we are told in the word of wisdom that if we will observe it with all our hearts, keeping the commandments of God, we shall have faith, health and strength, marrow in our bones, and have wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, and the destroyer will pass by us and not slay us. Brethren, how general it is with us when persons are sick and afflicted, or when our children are sick, to say to the Elders—“Brethren, come and lay your hands upon them,” and in thousands of instances they are healed. Perhaps we are losing some of our faith. We read in the Scriptures that King Asa, whom God had healed and blessed, when he was diseased he trusted not to the Lord, but sought physicians, and King Asa died. While we recommend and approve of using every reasonable means within our power to preserve our lives and those of our children, we do depend, first of all, upon faith in the holy Gospel, the administration of its ordinances and the fulfillment of the promises of God; and inasmuch as we observe the word of wisdom and keep the commandments of God we have faith, and we have the promises of God, upon which we can rely, and by which thousands and thousands are delivered from the afflictions which prey upon them.

“We will treat our families with kindness and affection; and set before them an example worthy of imitation. In our families and in our intercourse with all persons we will refrain from being contentious and quarrelsome. We will cease to speak evil one of another, and cultivate a spirit of charity towards all. We consider it our first duty to keep from acting selfishly or from covetous motives, and we will seek the interests of each other and the salvation of all mankind.” This is rule four, and in calling your atten– tion to it I wish it to be remembered that it enters into our business transactions and everyday life. I have noticed in the course of many years that I have traveled and preached, being in hundreds of families—that some men were pleasant and agreeable, while others were crabbed, cross, ill-natured and surly in their disposition; the very tone of their voice would show it. This is all wrong. We should cultivate kindness, forbearance and patience in our families, and a spirit that will incline them unto us, and in all things set such an example before our children that we may be as shining lights unto them, that as they grow up imitating our examples they may become pillars of society, plants of renown and ornaments in the kingdom of God, and not be led by covetousness, dishonesty, idolatry or any corrupt motive whatever. Consider all these things, and remember this as one of the rules of the United Order which it is of special importance that we should observe.

Rule five teaches—“We will observe personal cleanliness, preserve ourselves in all chastity, refrain from adultery, whoredom and lust, and discountenance and refrain from all vulgar and obscene language and conduct.” In regard to this rule, I am sorry to say that the influx of so-called civilization and Christianity in our midst has shown its effects upon some portions of our community, and that strict and firm adherence to the principles of chastity, for which the Latter-day Saints have been remarkable ever since the organization of the Church and the gathering of the people, seems, in some instances, to be wanting. We call upon all such persons to repent and humble themselves before the Lord; and we exhort all Lat– ter-day Saints to maintain such a high position before God that every act of their lives may be approved of him. Never let us be guilty of any word or deed that we will be ashamed of before our father, mother, brother, or sister, or before our heavenly Father. This is a principle that we should cultivate, maintain and abide by in all things; and wherever any have been foolish enough to fall or go astray, through the toils or snares that have been set for them, let them repent and humble themselves before the Lord, and let a spirit of unity, harmony, peace, stern integrity, purity and chastity abide in every heart, for if we ever inherit blessings and glory, if we ever are made partakers of the thrones, dominions, principalities, powers and endless lives which pertain to the exaltation of the kingdom of God, we shall do so by maintaining a purity like that of Joseph who was sold into Egypt.

The sixth rule is—“We will observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” I regret to say that I have noticed a great many instances of laxity in the observance of this rule, and I wish the Elders and teachers in all the Branches and settlements to preach and practice the observance of the Sabbath. Brethren, work six days, and on the seventh rest and observe the Sabbath according to the revelation; and impress this principle upon the Saints everywhere by practice. I remember once I was in a hurry to come to Salt Lake City. Fillmore was then the only settlement between my place in Parowan, Iron County, and the settlements in Utah County. The Sunday was very fine; we had attended meeting and, having been a long time away from the brethren in Salt Lake City, we wanted to hurry on. I certainly thought we could travel twenty miles on Sunday evening, as well as not, so we started. I was a little conscience-stricken; I said to myself—“This is not exactly right, and I am afraid we shall not get along as well as we would to have stayed until Monday morning.” We drove about twenty or twenty-two miles that evening. I told the brethren to tie up the horses, but some of them got loose and went clear back, and in the morning the brethren had to go the whole distance after them. That is what we gained at the start by breaking the Sabbath; but it did not end there. The next day we broke a wagon, and then we got into a storm, and we were six days in reaching Fillmore, and it took us some twelve days to reach this city. Now, I do not believe that, as a general thing, anything is gained in property or in time by working on the Sabbath; and I advise and exhort all men professing to belong to the United Order, or to be Latter-day Saints, to observe the Sabbath; keep it holy, devote it to worship, to the study of good books, to rest, to imparting instruction, to attending meeting, and do not, under any circumstances, lapse into a habit of thinking that you can do as you please on the Sabbath, and that so doing is clear gain. We have, someday, to meet our Father in heaven, and that day is not very far off with many of us. I meet here at this Conference quite a number with whom, forty years ago this summer, or last spring, I marched on the Zion’s Camp journey—a thousand miles. That does not seem long, but we are marching steadily to our last account, and we should not let our love for self, our desire for gain, or our anxiety for pleasure so mar our path that when we come into the presence of our Father in heaven we shall be smitten with the reflection that, instead of observing the Sabbath, according to the command, we went off spreeing, or hunting, or we went looking after cattle, or getting wood, or dashing around and breaking the Sabbath time and again, for if our conscience reprove us, God is greater than our consciences, and he surely will condemn us.

Rule seven—“That which is not committed to our care we will not appropriate to our own use.” That is a very modest way of agreeing or promising that we will not steal or take that which does not belong to us. One of the ten commandments teaches—“Thou shalt not steal;” and in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants we are informed that he that steals shall be cast out and delivered to the law of the land. These things should never be forgotten by those professing to be Latter-day Saints. I have noticed, in the course of my life, a great many men professing a great deal of piety, who have been very dishonest. In the neighborhood where I was raised there were men who would charge a good round price for a bushel of wheat, and then use a false measure. In that way they reared children to be dishonest. If there are fathers or teachers in Israel who indulge in this covetous practice, or who take that which does not belong to them, they set examples before their children which cause them to grow up a generation of thieves. I was once conversant with an incident illustrative of this principle. A young man was cut off from the Church for stealing. When he came home his mother upbraided him for it, “but,” said he, “mother, you have yourself to thank for it. My father always told me not to steal; he commanded me not to touch a thing that did not belong to me, but you used to send me to the neighbors to steal eggs; you taught me to steal, and you are measurably responsible for my disgrace.” This was rather a bitter pill for the mother, but it contains an important lesson, if we will consider it.

“That which we borrow we will return according to promise, and that which we find we will not appropriate to our own use, but will seek to return it to the proper owner.” There is too much of a want of confidence in the midst of the Saints. When some promise they too often fail to keep their word; and those who are in business do not feel as free to trust their brethren as outsiders do. I have had brethren come to me and say—“They are not as accommodating to me as outsiders are,” and I sometimes answer them by saying—“Perhaps you are not as punctual to pay your brethren as you would be to pay an outsider.” Many of our brethren are not, and this is all wrong. Confidence should be established in each other by fulfilling what we undertake. What we borrow we should return; what we agree to do we should fulfill. We should be careful to make our agreements so that we can fulfill them, and then do so, and if through some unforeseen circumstances we are unable to do so, we should immediately make known the facts of the case, and be honest. I hope these cases are by no means common, but I am satisfied they are more numerous than they ought to be.

The ninth rule requires us, as soon as possible, to cancel all indebtedness, and thereafter to avoid getting into debt. For the last few years, owing to the opening of mines, the construction of railroads, and the good crops that have been raised, the prosperity of the people has been very great, and as a wise and prudent community we should have taken a course to have had the benefits of all this means without being involved in debt, for, notwithstanding we have been put to vast expense in consequence of persecution and oppression from our enemies, we have been in a condition to have saved a great deal. But many of our brethren are in debt notwithstanding all this prosperity. Now this rule requires that we take measures to pay, or cancel, our debts as soon as possible, and then avoid getting into debt by living within our means. Ambition to push forward and make wealth should not induce us to involve ourselves in debt, but we should, with economy and prudence, live within our means.

The residue of these rules I will not read, but commend them to the consideration of all the brethren, as being of the utmost importance. There is one, however, to which I will just call your attention. It refers to our manner of dress and living, and requires us to use proper economy and prudence in the management of all things entrusted to our care. I exceedingly regret to see the disposition to extravagance which exits among us, as also a disposition to purchase from abroad a variety of articles that are not of the first necessity. I do think that it is right and proper that we should take the utmost pains in our power, as a United Order and a united people, to provide everything that we can produce within ourselves, and not be sending away all the money we can get to buy things that we can make ourselves. Our brooms, for instance, and a great deal of our clothing, and most of our shoes can be made here. With all the ridicule that has been expended in relation to wooden-soled boots and shoes, I sincerely advise every man who is afflicted with a cough, or who is subject to colds or rheumatism, asthma, or any ailment of that kind, to put wooden soles under his feet this Fall. They will preserve health a great deal better than rubber; and if they happen to be paid for it will be much better than to owe a trader for them, or to wear leather that is like a sponge, through which the damp will penetrate, striking directly to and promoting cough or rheumatism. I am of the belief that wooden-soled shoes worn in winter will cure nine cases out of ten of rheumatism and will save the lives of many of our children, by keeping their feet dry and warm. I feel like preaching up wooden shoes as a medical prescription, if you please, as well as on the score of economy.

I wish you brethren when you return to the settlements to look after the schools, see that they are established in all the settlements for the winter, that no child be left without a chance to acquire a knowledge of the common branches of education. See that all the poor are provided with the means of sending their children to school, that no child be deprived of the privilege of attending school through the poverty of its parents. Make your schoolhouses comfortable and pleasant. Make the seats of the proper height and comfortable, so that the children may not become humpbacked or round shouldered, nor contract spinal complaints, or anything of that kind through their seats being awkwardly constructed. There is plenty of lumber in the mountains, and plenty of workmen; let them make good comfortable seats for the children. See that your schoolrooms are pro– perly warmed, and be careful as to the characters of the men you employ for school teachers. Do not hire a scoundrel, a seducer, or blackleg for the position, for if you employ as teachers of your schools those who are foul, wicked, and corrupt in their habits, you assume a terrible responsibility, for the impressions made upon and the lessons taught to the children while attending school have a great influence for good or for evil, upon their future lives and welfare. I believe I have preached upon this subject almost every Conference since I can remember, or since I began to speak at Conferences, and I shall continue to do so. Let parents be stirred up in regard to the education of their children, and provide for their welfare. In the early days of the Territory the first house built in every settlement, as a general rule, was a schoolhouse. Let this rule still be followed, and let our children receive their education directly within ourselves; and if we want them to study the advanced branches, fill up our home universities, instead of sending them abroad to be educated in foreign schools, uphold your own university and sustain your own schools.

After the close of this Conference, meetings in this building will be discontinued during the winter and will be held, under the direction of the Bishops, in the ward assembly rooms every Sunday afternoon and evening. The forenoons will be devoted to Sunday Schools, and I exhort the brethren and sisters to have their children ready, so that they can be at school in time. And I invite the young men, and especially the young sisters, to attend Sunday schools; I want to stir up the young men to go there and form Bible classes. And I exhort the Elders to be present as teachers, that there may be no lack of teachers. I want to express my admiration of brother Goddard and a number of other school superintendents and teachers, with whom I am acquainted, because of their efforts to spread among the young throughout the Territory a knowledge of the principles of the Gospel, as taught in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in the standard works of the Church. And I say to the young men, that if they will attend the Bible classes and study the catechism in use in our schools, and make themselves familiar with it, they will become so thoroughly informed in the principles of the Gospel and the evidences of it, that when called upon to go abroad to defend the doctrines of Zion they will be well prepared to do so. I invite the Elders to see that these classes are formed in all the settlements.

I will again repeat the idea that has already been presented, to sustain our own literary institutions and publications—the Juvenile Instructor, the Woman’s Exponent, the Deseret News, which contains discourses by the First Presidency and Twelve, and also the publications in the several counties. They are conducted by men who take pains to disseminate the truth, as well as the general news of the world, and they ought to be sustained, that their influence may be extended and increased. Do not spend your money in buying lies, nor your time in reading yellow-covered literature, or in studying such things as are calculated in their nature to degenerate the human mind and degrade the soul. One of the best books you can read on the earth is the Bible. It is the finest history ever published in Great Britain. Study its history and its precepts. It is the foundation of the sciences of the world, and the basis of the laws of all the Christian nations; and although men in every direction have departed from it, we can read and understand it for ourselves. See that it is on every table, in every household, in every pulpit, and that it is the school book of every family throughout the Territory.

I want to say, with regard to the Temple at St. George, that the walls are between twenty-five and thirty feet high. Some of the brethren remained at work upon it all summer, some of them without shoes and poorly supplied with clothing. About 309 persons have reported, I believe, as going there this winter to aid in pushing forward the work on this Temple, as volunteers from the different settlements of the Territory. We hope, by means of this help and the contributions that may be sent there, to have the roof on early next spring, and very soon a baptismal font in the basement, in which we can begin the administration of the principle of baptism for the dead and the ordinances of the Gospel in connection with our fathers. The climate in St. George is well suited to those in feeble health, and such of that class of persons as desire to do so can, after the Temple is completed, go there and spend the winter, and attend to the ordinances for their dead.

I have invited the brethren, during the Conference, to go and look at the Temple foundation in this city. It is a very beautiful foundation, and the design of the building is grand. The labor of taking the granite from the mountains, bringing it on to this ground and cutting it and putting it in position is immense. You saw a great many prepared stones that are not laid: I will explain how that has happened. We had a good many beginners who could shape a rough stone, but not so many stonecutters who could do a finished job, and all the stones for the outside had to be done by skillful workman. A great number of those that you see lying round, numbered up as high as thirteen or fourteen courses, were cut by men who were not skilled workmen. That is the reason why so many are not yet laid in the building. We found it necessary during the harvest to dismiss fifty workmen of this kind from the block, that they might go and aid in gathering in the harvest, because we could not supply them with work so far in advance of the laying. Brother Truman O. Angell has been exceedingly zealous in attending to this work: he has been so fearful lest a stone should be laid wrong that he has been on the walls early and late to see that every stone has been set in its proper place, to a hair’s breadth. His zeal has been such that I have almost feared that, in spite of the faith of the Saints and the energy of the man’s soul, he would work himself into the ground. I want the brethren to pray for him that he may be sustained in his arduous labors.

One great difficulty in getting along on this Temple, has been the want of money to supply the workmen with actual necessaries. We have been accustomed, during the prosperous times of the past year or two, to pay them one-fourth in cash or merchandise; this season we were unable to do that, hence an invitation was given by the First Presidency and the Bishops, to all the Saints, far and near, to make a donation of fifty cents a month to aid in the prosecution of the work on the Temple. The names of all who respond are to be entered in the “Book of the Law of the Lord.” Quite a number have responded, and some means has come in from this source. I now invite the brethren, sisters, strangers, and all who feel an interest in the Temple, and wish to have their names enrolled in the “Book of the Law of the Lord,” to make this monthly contribution, that the hearts of the workmen may be gladdened and that the hands of those who are called to conduct this business may not be tied. We have been compelled to borrow money and to pay interest to carry on this work; the resources that have come in have been insufficient, and the kind that has come in has not been such that we could make it available in carrying on the work as vigorously as we desired to do on this Temple and upon that at St. George. I appeal to the brethren also to remember the Temple in their prayers. Let us pray that God will give us power to erect and dedicate it, and that he will preserve the life of our President to organize the Priesthood in all its beauty and order in that Temple, and fulfill to the uttermost the duties of those keys, which were delivered to him by Joseph Smith, pertaining to the twelve and to the church, and to the bearing off of this work in the last days. Let us lift our hearts to God that he will preserve his servants for the accomplishment of this work. And while we raise our hearts in prayer for this object, let our souls be filled with benevolence and liberality to pay our tithes and offerings. I fully believe that, if one-half of the brethren had honestly paid tithing as we understand it, our hands would not have been tied. Think of these things and act upon them.

Most of the emigration the present season has been through their own means and the aid of relatives and friends, and a goodly number have thus been gathered. We now again invite all those who owe the Perpetual Emigration Fund, or whose relatives or friends are indebted to it, to remember their obligations, that those in the old countries who desire may be gathered here as fast as possible. We also invite the brethren to send for their friends from abroad; but before expending your money for that purpose, find out whether those whom you wish to gather still remain Saints, or whether they have corrupted their ways before the Lord. It would be a very good idea to learn this before expending money to help them, though it is an act of charity to bring anybody from the old world and place them on the broad plains of America, where they may be enabled to obtain homes of their own.

I want to say, in relation to the missionary labors of President Brigham Young in going to Europe and founding and starting the system of emigration, and gathering thousands upon thousands of people from the old world and placing them in positions to get homes of their own, that he is the most distinguished and extensive benefactor of his race of any living man within my knowledge. We regret that he has been unable to speak to us during this Conference. We feel confident, however, that had the gospel which he has preached for the last forty-three years to the inhabitants of the world, been received as honestly by those who heard it as it has been declared by him and his brethren, all the human family would have had a knowledge of the gospel today, and the Millennium would have been brought it. This, however has not been the case; but the formal preaching of President Young, and the acts of his life in teaching and being a father to the people will be had in everlasting remembrance; and we will exercise our faith that God will restore his health, that his voice may again be heard amongst us, though that is not possible at this time. We are gratified to know that he is able to be in our midst, to hear our testimonies, see our countenances, and know that within us there is a portion of that Holy Spirit which God has revealed for our salvation.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Tuesday Morning, October 6, 1874.

The present occasion, a Semi-annual Conference, is one which, in the history that we are making, is marked with more than ordinary importance. I always feel thankful to be permitted to meet the faces and greet the countenances of the brethren and sisters from the different parts of the Territory and elsewhere, who assemble at these Conferences; and I feel it important that, in doing so, we should lay aside the ordinary business transactions of life, and try and compare notes with ourselves as to our actual progress in the things of the kingdom. We have received the first principles of the Gospel, and we have started in their observance; and in doing so we have become obligated by our personal agreements, and covenants in the waters of baptism, and in the ordinances which pertain to the Gospel, to live in accordance with those principles which are revealed. In pursuing our daily avocations we become mixed up, more or less, with the world; we are called to battle with the world, and we have exhibitions from time to time of the weaknesses of human nature. I remember very well in the days of Kirtland, hearing men testify that they knew this was the work of God, and that they had seen visions of the armies of heaven and the horsemen thereof, as did Gehazi, the servant of the Prophet, and then, in consequence of the failure of a bank, or because some business transaction did not come out in accordance with their expectations or desires, they would apostatize and come to the conclusion that they never knew anything about it, and become infidels. This shows the weakness to which some individuals have been subject. I also remember, in the great apostasy which took place in Kirtland, that those who apostatized considered that all the talent of the Church had left it, and yet the work rolled right along, and, so far as they were concerned, they were never missed, and were soon forgotten, and nobody could tell where they went to. I have occasionally met them twenty or thirty years afterwards, and could hardly tell where they dropped out, their disappearance made no ripple. The facts are, brethren, that the work of the Lord does not depend upon us. If we go into darkness, if we let our hearts be filled with covetousness or corruption, or give way to licentiousness, drunkenness, Sabbath breaking, unbelief, or any crime that corrodes our system or organization, so that our tabernacles become unfit for the holy Spirit to dwell in, it will withdraw from us, and the light that is in us becomes darkened, and that darkness is so great that we grope as a blind man and wander hither and thither, and those who suffer themselves to be led by these blind men fall into the ditch with them, but the work rolls right along.

Now, we assemble here, and we want to review our conduct and our characters before the Lord. It is one of the weaknesses of human nature to sit in judgment on others, but on the present occasion we should bring ourselves to account, one and all, and determine whether we are living in accordance with the principles of the holy Gospel that we have received. I recollect hearing once that Satan had invented for men a certain kind of leather spectacles which, when a man looked at his own sins, made them look very small, and when he looked at his own righteous acts, made them look very large; when he looked at his neighbor’s sins they seemed very large, and when he looked at his neighbor’s righteous acts they appeared very small. Spectacles of this kind should be avoided, and we should be very careful when we are examining ourselves that we do not get them on, as well as when we examine our neighbors.

The first step, then, in relation to the business of this Conference, is to preach the principles of repentance and reformation. We should question ourselves, and determine whether we have suffered ourselves, with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desire of gain, or from any other cause, to become darkened in our minds. There are many false spirits gone out into the world, and when Joseph Smith communicated the keys of the Priesthood to the servants of the Lord, he gave them the power to try these spirits, and this power was given to the Church, and no man need be led astray only as he suffers himself to lose the Holy Spirit, which is the result of sin, wickedness, neglect or transgression.

In addition to this general reformation which we wish to impress upon the minds of our brethren and sisters at the opening of the Conference, we want to take such steps as will be for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Saints. The changes which have transpired in the world show us how uncertain a tenure our business arrangements are placed upon. From the time that the revelation was given to the Saints, commanding them to let the beauty of their gar– ments be the workmanship of their own hands, to the present time, that doctrine has been preached, and yet, it now seems more necessary than ever that, in all our settlements and associations, we should organize and take such measures as will enable us to provide, within ourselves as far as possible, the articles which we need. It is our duty to ourselves and to our God to unite our interests in such a manner that we can produce what we need within ourselves, without being hewers of wood and drawers of water to strangers. We have made a good deal of progress in this direction, as we can see by the numbers of people who come here clothed in the manufacture of their own factories or looms. Still there is room for further progress in this direction, and during the Conference instructions will be given as may be considered necessary to aid us in facilitating the work of manufacturing our own wool, leather, shoes, hats and every other article of domestic necessity, just as far as our country will admit.

We are always commanded, so says the revelation contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, given on the 19th of January, 1844, to build Temples to the holy name of our Father in heaven. We are now engaged in this work; we are building a Temple in this city and one in St. George; and if any of you ever cast an eye at the beautiful foundation that is now raised up here by the Tithes and offerings of the brethren, you can but rejoice in the idea that we are building, to the name of our Father, an edifice creditable to the work for which it is designed. We wish our brethren and sisters to remember this. It has been counseled and advised by our President, and by those in authority, that it would be a wise thing for every person in the Church to contribute a monthly donation of a half dollar in money for the Temple, that their names may be put in the book of the law of the Lord, that old and young among the Latter-day Saints may feel an interest in this matter, that on their fast days they may make this contribution to aid in supplying the necessary means to the workmen that cannot be procured without money, and the necessary materials to facilitate the work. If anybody will go and examine that foundation, and the granite blocks that are lying around, and consider the expense of quarrying them and bringing them here, and of cutting them and fitting them in that foundation, they will realize that the brethren have been very industrious, and that a great work has been done, for such edifices are not erected without great labor, time and expense. We therefore desire the brethren to take into consideration, during the Conference, such subjects as pertain to the advancement of these Temples. We also wish, during the Conference, to call the attention of the brethren to the propriety of some two or three hundred hands from different parts of the northern settlements volunteering to go to St. George this winter to work on the Temple, making a donation of their labor. During last winter quite a number of the brethren went down from Sanpete and some of the neighboring counties, and put in about three months work, and during the entire winter there were only seven and a half days they could not lay stone on the Temple, and they were mostly rainy days. Those of us who have not got anything to employ us to advantage during the winter, can go down there and put in three or four months’ work on that Temple, in getting lumber, and hauling it, in quarrying rock, and in cutting and setting it; in making mortar, providing lime and hauling it, and in aiding in all the various departments of labor necessary. We can have the walls put up and get the timber ready for the roof during the winter, while we should be doing comparatively little at home. This is one item that I wish to have considered through the Conference.

There will be some missionaries called during Conference, whose duty it will be to preach the Gospel and defend the interests of Zion in the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world.

We would invite our brethren and sisters living in this neighborhood, as long as there are vacant seats here, to come and occupy them while the Elders shall give them instruction; and we ask every man and woman who fears the Lord to lift their hearts to him in prayer, that his blessing may rest upon the Elders, that President Young may be healed of his afflictions, and have health and strength to perform the duties of his calling, and that all the Elders who rise to speak may be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, that we may be instructed, not from the mere natural wisdom of the individual, but by the inspiration of the Spirit of the Almighty, that our testimony, our knowledge of the Gospel, the principles of salvation as revealed unto us, may be inspired unto us by the power of the Almighty, that we may know for ourselves and not for another that we have received the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These are some of the items that will be spoken of during the Conference as the Spirit may direct, as well as other matters pertaining to Zion. You remember the revelation in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, given June 22, 1834, on Fishing River, Clay County, Mo. It says:

7. “And let all my people who dwell in the regions round about be very faithful, and prayerful, and humble before me, and reveal not the things which I have revealed unto them, until it is wisdom in me that they should be revealed. Talk not of judgments, neither boast of faith nor of mighty works, but carefully gather together, as much in one region as can be, consistently with the feelings of the people; And behold, I will give unto you favor and grace in their eyes, that you may rest in peace and safety, while you are saying unto the people: Execute judgment and justice for us according to law, and redress us of our wrongs.

8. “Now, behold, I say unto you, my friends, in this way you may find favor in the eyes of the people, until the army of Israel becomes very great. And I will soften the hearts of the people, as I did the heart of Pharaoh, from time to time, until my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and mine elders, whom I have appointed, shall have time to gather up the strength of my house, And to have sent wise men, to fulfill that which I have commanded concerning the purchasing of all the lands in Jackson county that can be purchased, and in the adjoining counties round about. For it is my will that these lands should be purchased; and after they are purchased that my Saints should possess them according to the laws of consecration which I have given. And after these lands are purchased, I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously purchased with their moneys, and of throwing down the towers of mine enemies that may be upon them, and scattering their watchmen, and avenging me of mine enemies unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

9. “But first let my army become very great, and let it be sanctified before me, that it may become fair as the sun, and clear as the moon, and that her banners may be terrible unto all nations; That the kingdoms of this world may be constrained to acknowledge that the kingdom of Zion is in very deed the kingdom of our God and his Christ: therefore, let us become subject unto her laws.

10. “Verily I say unto you, it is expedient in me that the first elders of my church should receive their endowment from on high in my house, which I have commanded to be built unto my name in the land of Kirtland. And let those commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her law be executed and fulfilled, after her redemption. There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy. And it shall be manifest unto my servant, by the voice of the Spirit, those that are chosen; and they shall be sanctified; And inasmuch as they follow the counsel which they receive, they shall have power after many days to accomplish all things pertaining to Zion.

11. “And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only the people that have smitten you, but also to all people; And lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation for peace unto the ends of the earth; And make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good. Therefore, be faithful; and behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end. Even so. Amen.”

Let us consider these things and sanctify ourselves in all humility. God has preserved us from all our enemies for over forty years since this revelation was given, and we occupy many cities, towns and settlements, and should improve in all the goodly graces of the Gospel preparatory to the great work still before us, for the promises of God are true and will not fail.

Oliver Cowdery, previous to his apostasy said to President Joseph Smith: “If I should leave the Church it would break up.” Joseph said to Oliver—“What, who are you? The Lord is not dependent upon you, the work will roll forth do what you will.” Oliver left the Church, and was gone about ten years; then he came back again, to a branch of the Church in meeting on Mosquito Creek, in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. The body of the Church had come off here to the west, but there was still remaining there a branch of about fifteen hundred or two thousand people, and when he came there he bore his testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the divine mission of the Twelve Apostles, and asked to be received into the Church again, and said that he had never seen in all his life so large a congregation of Saints as the one then assembled. We loved to hear brother Oliver testify, we were pleased with his witness, but when he passed off and went among our enemies he was forgotten, and the work rolled steadily along step by step, so that, ten years after, when he came back to an outside branch, he expressed his astonishment at seeing such a vast body of Saints. Some men in their hours of darkness may feel—I have heard of men feeling so—that the work is about done, that the enemies of the Saints have become so powerful, and bring such vast wealth and energy to bear against them that we are all going to be crushed out pretty soon. I will say to such brethren, it is very bad policy for you, because you think the old ship Zion is going to sink, to jump overboard, for if you jump overboard you are gone anyhow, and the old ship Zion will ride triumphantly through all the storms, and everybody who proves unworthy to remain on board of her and jumps overboard will repent of it when it is too late, as many have done already.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and the Lord has revealed this work. It has been said—“Oh what vast, what wonderful ability Brigham Young has possessed to do what has been done!” The fact in the case is, it is the Lord who has done it. He has guided and directed and has done the work, and his servants who have labored in it, have only been instruments in his hands, he has given them all the ability, wisdom and knowledge which have been manifested; and the same God has the power to still guide, control, instruct and uphold, and he will do so. Those who fall into darkness, error, folly and wickedness simply lose their position; but they who endure to the end the same will be saved. The great work which has been commenced in these last days will continue until, by and by, when the Lord sees fit, he will come to his Temple and will receive his Saints as his own.

Let us then devote our time and attention for a few days to receiving instruction and counsel, that we may have our hearts comforted and renew our testimony, for I can assure you, as the Lord God of hosts lives, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and all of us who fall into darkness and go astray will be the losers. Zion will ride triumphant, which may God grant for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 24, 1874.

About two days since the daily papers announced the arrival, in this city, of General A. W. Doniphan, of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. This circumstance brought to my mind incidents thirty-six years passed by, to which I shall briefly refer on the present occasion. There are few men whose names have been identified with the history of our Church, with more pleasant feelings to its members, than General Doniphan. During a long career of persecution, abuse and oppression characters occasionally present themselves like stars of the first magnitude in defense of right, who are willing, notwithstanding the unpopularity that may attach to it, to stand up and protest against mob violence, murder, abuse, or the destruction of property and constitutional rights, even if the parties who are being thus abused, robbed, murdered or trampled under foot have the unpopular name of “Mormons.” The incident of General Doniphan exercising his influence by which means he prevented the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and some other Elders, who had had a mock trial by court-martial, in the State of Missouri, some thirty-six years ago, is familiar to the minds of all the Latter-day Saints who are acquainted with the history of that period, and there is one man in the Territory who was present on the occasion, that is Timothy B. Foote, of Nephi, who witnessed the court-martial. It was represented to Joseph Smith, by a man known among our people as Colonel Hinkle, that Major General Lucas and certain other parties wished to have an interview with him. In the vicinity of the town of Far West there was at that time a large body of armed men, under the orders of the Governor of Missouri, but temporarily under the command of General Lucas, of Jackson County, Mo., who was the ranking officer. It is understood by us that Hinkle had deceived Joseph Smith and the brethren with the idea that the interview was to be of a peaceful and consultory character; but when they came, as they supposed, to hold the interview, they were taken prisoners, tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be shot; the execution, however, was prevented by the protest of General Doniphan, who, at that time, was commander of a brigade, composed, I believe, of the militia of the County of Clay, and who declared that the execution of that sentence would be cold blooded murder.

It was not long after this that General Clark, who had been appointed by the Governor to this command, arrived and took command of this militia. General Atchison was the ranking officer, being the general of a division on the north side of the river, commanding a division containing, I think, six counties, but he was superseded by the appointment of Clark. If I remember right there were as many as thirteen thousand men ordered out, and there were probably five or six thousand collected together on the ground, their object being to expel the Latter-day Saints from the State of Missouri.

The number of Latter-day Saints at that period is not accurately known, but there were, I suppose, in the neighborhood of ten or twelve thousand. The settlements had been rapidly formed. They had occupied the County of Caldwell when there were only seven families in it. A party of Elders visited Caldwell County to look for a location. On their arrival they fell in with these seven families, who were living in log cabins and had made very little improvements. They said the country was a worthless, naked prairie, there was very little timber in it, and, their business being bee hunting, they had hunted all the bees out of the woods, and they wanted to go somewhere else, as they learned there was better bee hunting and more honey to be ob– tained up Grand River; and within an hour after the arrival of the first of these Elders, every one of the seven men had sold their places and received their pay, congratulating themselves on their good fortune in leaving a country where the taking of wild honey had ceased to be a paying business, and there was not a family, other than Latter-day Saints, residing in the county. A good many of our people were settled in Ray County, a few in Clay, and some in Livingstone, Davies, Clinton and Carroll. I understand that three hundred and eighteen thousand dollars had been paid to the United States for lands in the State of Missouri, the titles of which were held by Latter-day Saints. The Order of Governor Boggs exterminated these people from the State. To be sure they owned their lands, and they were industrious and law-abiding. They were increasing rapidly and making vast improvements. The city of Far West had several hundred houses, and other towns and villages were springing up. United firms were being organized, which were putting into cultivation very extensive tracts of land in addition to the large amount already brought under improvement.

In consequence of the influence exerted by General Doniphan, General Lucas hesitated to execute the sentence of his court-martial, and he delivered Joseph Smith and his associates into the charge of General Moses Wilson, who was instructed to take them to Jackson County and there put them to death. I heard General Wilson, some years after, speaking of this circumstance. He was telling some gentlemen about having Joseph Smith a prisoner in chains in his possession, and said he—“He was a very remarkable man. I carried him into my house, a prisoner in chains and in less than two hours my wife loved him better than she did me.” At any rate Mrs. Wilson became deeply interested in preserving the life of Joseph Smith and the other prisoners, and this interest on her part, which probably arose from a spirit of humanity, did not end with that circumstance, for, a number of years afterwards, after the family had moved to Texas, General Wilson became interested in raising a mob to do violence to some of the Latter-day Saint Elders who were going to preach in the neighborhood, and this coming to the ears of Mrs. Wilson, although then an aged lady, she mounted her horse and rode thirty miles to give the Elders the information. Year before last when I was in California, attending the State Fair, I met with a son of Mr. Wilson: he was president of an agricultural society, and was attending the fair, and I named this circumstance to him. He told me that his mother deeply deprecated the difficulties with the Mormons, and did all she could to prevent them.

You can readily see from what I have said that our community, at that time, was very handsomely situated. The poorest man in it, apparently, owned his forty acres of land, while some of the richer had several sections. Farms had been opened, and prosperity seemed to smile upon the people everywhere. Mills were built, machinery was being constructed, and everything seemed to be going on that could be desired to make a community prosperous, wealthy and happy, when suddenly, in consequence of the exterminating order issued by Lilburn W. Boggs, and executed by General Clark, and those under his command, the people were driven from the State. If we would renounce our faith we could have the privilege of remaining, but we were told pointedly that we must hold no prayer meetings, no prayer circles, no conferences, and that we must have neither Bishops nor Presidents, and that if we indulged in any of these forbidden luxuries the citizens would be upon us and destroy us. A very few accepted the conditions and remained, and I believe that, to this day, one or two families occupy their inheritances who then renounced their faith.

This people landed in Illinois destitute. Most of their animals had been plundered from them during the difficulties, and, to use a comparative expression, they arrived in that State almost naked and barefoot. They were, however, a very industrious people, and they immediately went to work; anywhere and everywhere that they could find anything to do their hands laid hold upon it, and prosperity very soon began to smile upon them. Joseph Smith was kept in prison during the winter, but in the spring he and several of his fellow prisoners, among them Bishop Alexander McRae of the 11th Ward, escaped and made their way to the State of Illinois.

Our people had a very singular idea of justice and right; they supposed, having paid their money to the United States for their lands, having actually purchased and received titles for them, that it was the business of the United States to protect them thereon; having little acquaintance with law they entertained the somewhat wild idea that that was no more than justice on the part of the Government. Of course, the government could only be expected to protect them against any adverse titles that might arise; but so far as protecting them from mobs or from illegal violence from the State in which they lived, from oppression from those in authority, or from marauders who might burn their houses, or murder them and ravish their wives, this was no part of the business of the United States; but in their lack of knowledge on these subjects they fancied that the United States should protect them on their lands, hence Joseph Smith and several of his brethren went directly to Washington, carrying the applications of some ten thousand persons, and asked the Government to protect them in the possession of their lands and in their rights, and to restore them to their homes. They had an interview on the subject with Mr. Van Buren, at that time President of the United States, and the answer that he gave has become almost a household word. Said he—“Gentlemen, your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you.” Joseph accordingly returned to his friends in the western border of Illinois, and they commenced purchasing lands in the vicinity of Nauvoo, and they laid out and built a city and remained there.

This occurred in the Spring of 1839, and Joseph remained there until the Summer of 1844, during which time he had several very grievous lawsuits, which arose out of attempts on the part of the authorities of Missouri to carry him back to that State. He was arrested several times, and had one trial, and was discharged on habeas corpus in the circuit court, before Judge Stephen A. Douglas; one trial, and discharged on habeas corpus before Judge Pope, United States judge in the district of Illinois; and one trial before the municipal court of Nauvoo. These several trials cost a great deal of money and a great deal of time, and were a very discouraging feature in the progress of the settlements in that vicinity, though the industry and enterprise of the people were such that they purchased a large portion of the lands in that county and in adjoining counties. They laid out and built the city of Nauvoo, containing some twelve thousand inhabitants, and they were building a Temple and making other improvements, when Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered, which took place on the twenty-seventh of June, 1844.

I will say in relation to the progress of the work, that missionaries, among them the Twelve Apostles, had been sent abroad to preach, and a great many people had received the Gospel. The Apostles took their departure directly from the recommencing of the foundation of the Temple in the city of Far West, on the 26th of April, 1839. They went on a mission to Europe for about two years, baptizing some seven thousand persons, and laying a foundation for the gathering from the old world, which has continued up to the present time. The circumstances connected with the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were such as to impress upon their enemies even, the disgrace inflicted upon the State by their murder, and upon the world the importance, of their mission. The governor of the State pledged himself, when they gave themselves up, that they should be protected and have a fair trial, but he placed them in the hands of men, who, he was assured by many, were their enemies, and who would murder them if they had the power. Joseph Smith had been brought before legal tribunals forty-seven times, and had in every instance been acquitted. Everything in the shape of a vexatious lawsuit that could be trumped up against him had been, and in this instance he was arrested on the affidavit of a man, whose word would not have been taken at a saloon in Carthage for a glass of grog, who swore that he was guilty of treason, and he was thrown into prison, and murdered while being detained waiting for an examination. The governor, in a communication to the Elders in Nauvoo, said that the people felt that it was very wrong that he should be murdered in that way, but the great mass of them was very glad that he was dead; and I have reason to believe that this feeling was caused by religious prejudice, which arose from the fact that he came preaching what was considered a new doctrine, which attacked all the hireling priests and religious crafts, and offered free, to all people, a religion, plain and simple and in accordance with the Bible, and which, if accepted, would have a tendency to throw a large portion of the hireling clergy of the age out of employment, or compel them to do as the Apostles did in the days of Jesus—preach the Gospel without purse and scrip. Vexatious lawsuits, mob violence, tar and feathers, and finally, bloodshed were successively adopted in hopes of stopping this religion, and it was believed by those who regarded “Mormonism” as a wild theory, that the death of Joseph would scatter the people and destroy their faith in the work. They did not realize that he had laid the foundation of a living, truthful organization, which would be likely to increase the faster the more it was persecuted. But so it was, for the people continued to gather, and the public buildings—Temple and Nauvoo House—were being pushed forward more rapidly than ever, and when this was ascertained, there was an organization formed which expelled the people from the State.

The authorities of the Church at Nauvoo being aware of this combination, petitions were sent to the government of the United States, and also to the governor of every State in the Union, asking each one to give us an asylum in his State. The governor of Arkansas gave us a respectful answer, all the rest treated our petition with silent contempt.

In September, 1845, the mob commenced burning houses, and they continued burning in different parts of the settlements, mostly in Hancock County, until they burned one hundred and seventy-five houses. The governor and authorities of the State were notified, and finally the sheriff of the County took a posse, mostly Latter-day Saints, and stopped the house burning. The instant this was done the people of the nine adjoining counties rose up and said—“You ‘Mormons’ must leave the county or you ‘Mormons’ must die.” They then made an agreement that we should have time to move away and dispose of our property, and that vexatious lawsuits and mob violence should cease. This we kept most faithfully, but so far as they were concerned the agreement was never observed, mob violence continued, house burnings and murders occurred occasionally, vexatious lawsuits were renewed; and before the remnant of the people were permitted to get out of the county they were surrounded by armed mobs, as many as eighteen hundred in a single body, and cannonaded out of their houses.

The people thus driven commenced a journey to seek the home where we now reside. The white settlements extended sixty or seventy miles west of the Missouri River, Keosauqua was the most western one. From that place we made the roads, and bridged the streams, some thirty in number, across Iowa, to Council Bluffs, arriving there in June, 1846. The people who started on this journey started under the most forlorn circumstances. They left their houses, lands, crops, and everything they had if they could get a yoke of cattle, wagons without iron tires, carts, or anything of which they could make an outfit, and commenced a journey to hunt a home somewhere where so-called Christians would not be able to deprive them of the right to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, a right which is actually more dear than life itself.

I think between thirteen and fourteen hundred miles of road were made, though we occasionally followed trappers’ trails, and on the 24th of July, 1847, President Young led the pioneer party—numbering one hundred and forty three men—on to this ground, then a portion of Mexican Territory and one of the most desolate, barren looking spots in the world, and dedicated it to the Most High, that we might once more find an asylum where liberty could be enjoyed. We should most probably have reached this place before we did, but the United States, the year before, invited our camps to send five hundred men to aid them in the war with Mexico, which they did, and they were mustered into service on the 16th of July, 1846, and made the route through from New Mexico to the Pacific coast.

It is a remarkable fact in history, that while these five hundred Latter-day Saints, mustered into service at Council Bluffs, were bearing the American flag across the desert, from New Mexico to the Pacific Coast, a march of infantry characterized by General Cook as unparalleled in military annals, the remnant of their families in Nauvoo were surrounded by eighteen hundred armed men and cannonaded, and driven across the river into the wilderness, without shelter, food or protection, in consequence of which very many of them lost their lives.

Our friends pass through here and they say—“What a beautiful city you have got! What beautiful shade trees! What magnificent fruit trees, what grand orchards and wheat fields! What a splendid place you have got!” When the pioneers came here there was nothing of the kind, and a more dry and barren spot of ground than this was then could hardly be found. Still the little streams were running from the mountains to the Lake. We knew nothing, then, about irrigation, but the streams were soon diverted from their course, to irrigate the soil. For the first three years we had but little to eat. We brought what provisions we could with us, and we eked them out as well as we could by hunting over the hills for wild segoes and thistle roots. There was very little game in the mountains, and but few fish in the streams, and hence we had but a short allowance of food, and for three years after our arrival there was scarcely a family which dared to eat a full meal. This was the condition in which this settlement was commenced. There was no intercourse except with Western Missouri, and it was ten hundred and thirty-four miles to the Missouri River, if we struck it at the mouth of the Platte, where Omaha is now; and our supplies, which were generally brought, by way of that place, were all purchased in Western Missouri.

In 1850 a sufficient crop was raised here to supply the inhabitants with food, but previous to that time we had divided our scanty supplies with hundreds and thousands of emigrants, who drifted in here in a state of starvation while on their way to California, for the discovery of the gold mines there had set the world almost crazy. Many people started on the Plains without knowing how to outfit or what to do to preserve their supplies, and by the time they reached here their outfits would be completely exhausted. We saved the lives of thousands who arrived here in that condition, many of them our bitter enemies, and we aided them on their way in the best possible manner that we could.

There are several incidents which occurred here in early times which, to us, were miraculous. The first year after our arrival the crickets in immense numbers came down from the mountains and destroyed much of the crops. The people undertook to destroy them, and after having done everything they could to accomplish this object, they gave it up for a bad job; then the gulls came in immense numbers from the lakes and devoured the crickets, until they were all destroyed, and thus, by the direct and miraculous intervention of Providence, the colony was saved from destruction.

While crossing the Plains we had to form in companies of sufficient size to protect ourselves against the Indians, there being from fifty to a hundred men in each company. In these companies existed our religious organization, and we also had a civil organization, by which all the difficulties that arose in the companies were settled; and then a militia organization, composed of ablebodied men, whose duty it was to guard the camps from attacks by Indians, and from accidents. We had our meetings every Sabbath, at which the Sacrament was administered; we had days also set apart for washing, and occasionally we had a dance, and our travels were so regulated that the cultivation, enjoyment and associations of society were experienced almost as much as when living together in a settled and well regulated community.

When we started on our journey we knew very little about Indians, but we exercised towards them such a spirit of justice, and such vigilant watchfulness, that we lost very little, and suffered very little on account of difficulties with them during the many years that we were crossing these plains.

Before we left Nauvoo we had covenanted, within the walls of our Temple, that we would, with one heart and one mind, abide by each other, and aid one another to escape from the oppressions with which we were surrounded, to the extent of our influence and property, and just as soon as the brethren were able they formed a perpetual emigration fund in Salt Lake City, and in 1849 Bishop Hunter, with five thousand dollars in gold, was sent back with instructions to use that and what other means he could gather in helping those to come here who were not able to come before; and from year to year this work has continued, being a grand system of brotherly love and united cooperation. In a few years after reaching here we sent a hundred teams back to the frontiers, each team being a wagon and four yoke of oxen or six mules or horses; and as we increased in strength, we sent annually two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, and finally six hundred, to bring home those who wished to settle in these valleys; and even at the present time, our system of emigration has been extended across the sea, to gather all who wish to gather with the Saints. There are many thousands of people in these valleys who, had it not been for the organization of the Latter-day Saints and the kind and fatherly care of President Brigham Young, would never have owned a foot of land, or any other property, but they would have been dependent all their lives upon the will of a master for very precarious subsistence.

Our plan of settlement here was entirely different from that we had adopted in any other country in which we had ever lived. The first thing, in locating a town, was to build a dam and make a water ditch; the next thing to build a schoolhouse, and these schoolhouses generally answered the purpose of meetinghouses. You may pass through all the settlements, from north to south, and you will find the history of them to be just about the same—the dam, the water ditch, then the schoolhouse and the meetinghouse. Crops were put in, trees were planted, cabins were built, mills were erected, fields were enclosed, and improvements were made step by step. This Territory is so thoroughly a desert that unless men irrigate their land by artificial means they would raise comparatively nothing. The settlements at the present time stretch some five or six hundred miles, extending into Arizona on the south and into Idaho on the north.

We have had some difficulty with the Indians, resulting principally from the interference of outsiders. Those of you who have read the history of John C. Fremont’s journey through Western Arizona, may remember that he gives an account of some of his party killing several of the native Piute Indians. From that time the war seems to have commenced between the Indians and the whites. Some of you may also remember the declaration, in regard to the Indians, made by Mr. Calhoun, one of the early governors of New Mexico. He informed the government that the true policy in regard to the Digger and Piute tribes, in the western part of the Territory, which then embraced Arizona and portions of Utah, was to exterminate them, that it was utterly useless ever to attempt to civilize them, or to do anything else but exterminate them. This was the policy adopted by a great many travelers who passed through, and when they saw an Indian, the feeling was to shoot him. This was especially the case in the district of country now comprised in the southern portions of this Territory and the western part of Arizona.

When we came into the country our motive was to promote peace with the Indians, to deal justly with them and to act towards them as though they were human beings, and so long as we were permitted to carry out our own policy with them we were enabled to maintain peace, and there were but few instances in which difficulties occurred. A band of men, rowdies, from Western Missouri, on the way to the mines, shot some Snake squaws and took their horses, up here on the Malad. This aroused the spirit of vengeance in the Indians, and they fell upon and killed the first whites they found, and they happened to be “Mormons” who were engaged in building a mill on the northern frontier, just above Ogden. This difficulty, of course, had to be arranged, and a good many circumstances of this kind, at various times, have made it difficult to get along without having a muss with the Indians.

Again, we had people among us who were reckless in their feelings, and who were not willing always to be controlled and to act wisely and prudently. All these things considered, when we realize that we always had four frontiers, and that we were about a thousand miles from any white settlement in any direction, that the Indians were on every side of us, and many of them very wild and savage, it is perfectly wonderful that we have had as little diffi– culty with them as we have. But the United States, in sending agents here, have frequently been not altogether fortunate in their selection, and in some instances have not sent very good men. Some who have been sent have been very good men, but they were totally ignorant of the business of dealing with, controlling or promoting peace with the Indians. This, of course, has been more or less detrimental to the settlements, and it has cost them a great deal to supply the natives with food and to aid them in getting along, for it is much cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them. But the general feeling among the Indians is, that as far as the “Mormons” are concerned, they desire to deal with them in a spirit of justice and friendship. There is now little difficulty except from distant Indians, and we sometimes think that white men, perhaps, have employed Indians to plunder ranches and drive off cattle four or five hundred miles and sell them. Some instances of this kind may have occurred, but we have got along wonderfully well.

The people here have shown a vast amount of enterprise in the construction of the roads through the Territory. Strangers who come here run down to this city, go down to Provo and up to Logan, and to various other places on the little branches of our railroad system; but if they were to travel through these mountains and extend their investigations into the valleys, which are well worthy the attention of any traveler for their beauty, they would find that in many places they are so rugged that it is almost a wonder there were ever men enough in the country to make the roads. Then the telegraph wires have been extended some twelve hundred miles through a number of the settlements, north and south; these wires have sometimes been used to prevent the plunder of the ranches by the Indians. From year to year we are extending our railroad system. We have had no encouragement from the General Government in relation to railroads; we have never been permitted even to have the right of way, by act of Congress, over a foot of ground, until we have occupied it with a railroad for a year or two, and sometimes not then; and we are extending our railroad system without any aid from Congress or any other source, but our own ingenuity and means, and that of our friends.

We are doing all we can to unite our brethren to cooperate in the building of factories, in the construction and establishment of machinery of various kinds, in commercial operations, in the building of railroads, the enclosing of farms, and in every branch of business possible we are endeavoring to unite the people in order to save labor, economize, and produce within ourselves as many articles as we possibly can that we need to consume, and some to sell, for our history for the past few years has proved that we have traded too much—we have bought more merchandise than the products of the country would justify, and a system of manufacturing is very important, and our people have constructed some very fine mills for the manufacture of woolen and other goods.

While we are tracing, for the consideration of our friends, our progress, we here say that we have had very little encouragement from the outside. Our mines were worthless in this country until the railroad was built. In 1852, we presented to Congress, by our Delegate, Dr. Bernhisel, a petition for a railroad across the continent. Members of Congress then ridiculed the idea as being a hundred years ahead of the age. Our Delegate invited his friends to come and see him when the road was constructed, and some of them have done so. The memorial was presented six or eight times, being repeated session after session, before any steps were taken by Congress towards the construction of the road, and it was finally completed much earlier than it would have been had it not been for the cooperation of the people of this Territory, who made the roadbed for four hundred miles over the worst part of the route, and, also furnished a good deal of business for the road to do when it was finished.

As soon as the railroad was completed mines here, containing lead, with a small percent of silver, became valuable. They were not worked before. Of course we worked them a little when we wanted a little lead, but the silver mines, as they are termed now, were not worth a dollar then. But as soon as the great railroad and our branch lines were completed the mining property of the country became valuable. It would have seemed that a wise government would have encouraged such enterprises, but this has not been the policy of the General Government towards Utah. They have seemed to think that all that was necessary was to send governors and judges, and to pick the most bigoted men they could find to fill these positions; though I must say that, during the twenty-four years that we have been a Territory, we have had many very excellent men sent here, including very good governors, and very good judges, and some who, I think, would have been better employed in other callings. It is really an unfortunate circumstance to pick up men and send them to any country, to occupy important offices, who are totally unacquainted with the country and who have no interest in it, and whose prejudices are against the people. The better policy is the one announced in the Declaration of Independence, that, in relation to these United States, the consent of the governed should be had. This would be a better policy, more republican and more agreeable, but we seem to be a special people, and, of course, acts have to be performed for our special case.

There is one ground of complaint that is alleged against us here, and that is, we believe in a plurality of wives. A great many men and women have practiced this principle rigidly, in all good faith; and until we can find some man who can show us a single passage in either the Old or New Testament, that actually prohibits it, we feel justified in following the examples of Prophets, Patriarchs, and holy men, fathers of the faithful, believing that if it were right in their case it cannot be wrong in ours. We are told that the Old Testament sets forth such an example, but that the New Testament condemns it, for that the Savior did it away. The only question I would ask in reference to this subject is—If the Savior did away with plural marriage, why didn’t he say so? If the Apostles put it down why did they not tell us of it? In the last two chapters of the Bible we have an account of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the gates of which we are told are to be named after the twelve sons of four wives by one father; and if we enter the gates of that city we face this polygamy, and if we cannot face this polygamy we cannot enter the gates into the city. So we understand the New Testament. On account of our belief in and practice of this Scriptural doctrine, extraordinary legislation has been asked against us, that our lives, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness may be at the control of four or five individuals. This is the extreme of folly.

In considering this subject, let us ask where, in all the world, has a Territory been settled under as many disadvantages as this? Where have a hundred and fifty thousand people been collected together and exhibited more order, and given proof of more industry and prosperity under the circumstances than we have? Nowhere. Brigham Young, as President of the Church and leader of the people, from the death of Joseph Smith to the present time, through the influence that he has exercised with his brethren and friends throughout the world, has been able to bring thousands of people from America and other nations, and to locate them in these valleys and put them in possession of happy homes, and to make thriving, flourishing and prosperous communities. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Then, the true policy is to leave men to the enjoyment of their religion, to the enjoyment of the holy Gospel as they may receive it, extending liberty, peace, good order and happiness to all. I believe today there is no Territory so lightly taxed and, with all the drawbacks, none so well governed as this. It is true that since the railroad has come here there has drifted in a population in favor of sustaining grog shops. I notice that in the last week a petition has been signed by four thousand ladies, asking the City Council to shut up the drinking hells. These institutions are a portion of civilization that has followed the railroad, and that would have caused astonishment here a few years ago. I wish the City Council would grant the petition of the ladies; I suppose they may be restrained by a decision of a court which claims to question their jurisdiction; but I have no doubt the City Council will shut up these hells if it is in their power, consistent with the relations that exist between the Territorial authorities and those of the United States. But I am ashamed of our Congressmen, I am ashamed of our judges, I am ashamed of our federal authorities for fastening upon a people such a system of drunkenness, licentiousness and debauchery, while they are making such a terrible howl over a man who may have two wives, and who labors hard for their support, and for the education of their children, and acknowledges them honorably before the world. Everybody to his taste.

When Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, the author of what is termed the anti-polygamy bill of 1862, told me that he would not care anything about plurality of wives if it were not in the United States, and he was afraid that Vermont was partly responsible for it, I told him that they had a system of licensing prostitution in Vermont. I, however, should raise no objection to that, but I felt myself disgraced and ashamed because I was associated with a State that licensed such a system as that; and that if I could put up with Vermont, he could put up with Utah, that was no more than fair, it was shake for shake.

I heard it stated, or read, not long since, that a hundred thousand infanticides annually occur on Manhattan Island. That is a most horrible state of affairs if it is half true, or quarter true. Can nothing be done to change this system? I will refer my friends to the pamphlet published by a very learned minister, Rev. Doctor Tood, of Pittsfield, Mass., showing the spirit of death, corruption, licentiousness, and mur– der that exists, even in the churches among professing Christians in Massachusetts and other parts of New England. I felt not a little surprised to go back into the neighborhood where I was raised, where they used to have fifty scholars annually, to find that they were borrowing one or two from another neighborhood to make out fifteen, so that they could draw the public money. There were as many houses in the neighborhood as formerly, and a few more, new ones, had been built; there were also more families in the neighborhood, but they had stopped having children. I, as an American citizen, feel myself disgraced to be associated with any community who have adopted these expedients, at the same time I do not expect, under any circumstances, ever to undertake to interfere with their local regulations, and I simply ask my fellow men to give us the same opportunity.

The Lord has blessed us with many children, and there is no Latter-day Saint, who has an abiding faith in the Gospel and in the great command which God first gave to the children of men, to multiply and replenish the earth, but what rejoices in them, and regards them as a blessing from on high; and nobody in the mountains that I know of has ever complained of the number of children, except some of our friends up here in Idaho. When they ran the southern line of Idaho, it was found that several settlements and parts of three counties, before then supposed to be in Utah, were in that Territory. The people of Idaho have a school law and a school fund, and the most that had been done before with this fund was to give it to the officers; but with the addition of the “Mormon” settlements to the Territory, there was an addition of several thousand “Mormon” children, and they were included in the school report. The officers said—“This cannot be, this must be a humbug, there cannot be anything like this number of children;” but when they came to investigate and count noses they found it verily true, and there were “Mormon” people raising hearty, hale little fellows to walk over these mountains and make them blossom like the rose.

I remember once, in traveling through the State of Indiana, encountering a gentleman who called himself Professor Jones, connected with a university there. He asked me a great many questions about our system in the mountains, and wanted to know how we did this and how we did that. I explained it to him as correctly as I could. I traveled with him a day or two, and he kept asking questions and making notes. When we parted he said he was very much surprised, he had supposed that our system was one of immorality, but he had learned to the contrary. He did not pretend to say anything about its justness and correctness; of course he did not sympathize with it, but one thing was sure, said he, “If you continue the course you are now pursuing, you will produce a set of men in those mountains who will be able to walk the rest of mankind under their feet.” I suppose, like enough, he may be one of the men who would like to proscribe us now. I know this, if the reports of learned men are true, the course now being pursued by a great many of our Christian friends in the East, will, in a few generations, wipe out the race of ’76 and give the country into the hands of strangers. It is time that somebody was fulfilling the great command of God, to multiply and replenish the earth, and put away licentiousness, and labor for the upbuilding and welfare of the human race.

Men take up “Mormonism,” and they say it is a humbug. There is where they make a mistake. My friends, the Gospel, as preached by the Latter-day Saints, is true. “Mormonism” is no humbug. Joseph Smith was a true Prophet; he revealed a true religion, and all attempts to destroy it will prove vain. I bear this testimony, I know this to be true, and I warn my fellow men to receive this faith, and to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and be baptized for their remission, and receive the laying on of hands, that you may enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost, for that Spirit will rest upon you if you receive and obey this Gospel with full purpose of heart. Then add to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge temperance, to your temperance patience, to your patience godliness, to your godliness brotherly kindness, to your brotherly kindness charity, and if these things be and abound in you, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. You will know these things for yourselves, and you will testify, as I testify, that you know this work is the work of God.

May God enable us to do so, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 10, 1874.

I rise on the present occasion, desiring the faith and prayers of the brethren and sisters that I may be able to address them by the majesty of the Spirit of the Almighty. When we come before the Lord to partake of the Sacrament, in memory of his death and suffering, we witness unto him that we do remember him, that we love one another, and that we are willing to endeavor to do all in our power to fulfill our several duties on the earth.

One of the first and most responsible duties that rest upon us is the education, training and cultivation of the minds of our children. A child learns from us by our examples, the actions or examples of the parents being ever remembered by the children. A pious old deacon who may, by the way, have been a hypocrite, and had two half bushel measures, one to buy, and the other to sell with, may be very sure that his children will be dishonest. So it may be with our children if we do not act before them as becometh Saints; our precepts may be very good, but their effect will not be very powerful unless our examples correspond.

We are more or less careless as to the observance of the Sabbath; and, in consequence of the neglect of the Latter-day Saints in this respect, I feel anxious to stir them up to diligence in attending meetings on the Sabbath and on fast days, and in having their children do the same. I have visited a number of Sunday schools, and I have found that there was a good deal of interest manifested in them, and that much benefit to the rising generation is resulting from spending a couple of hours on the Sabbath in giving them religious or such other instruction as may be necessary to cultivate their minds; and, I wish the Bishops and presiding Elders, on their return to their several Branches, to stir up the minds of the brethren and sisters to the necessity of encouraging the Sunday schools, that they may be interesting and agreeable as well as instructive. Stir up the parents, too, that they may be alive and awake in getting the children ready for school in season, and that punctuality in attendance be encouraged. Endeavor also to induce parents and other elder members of families who can do so, to attend the Sunday schools, that there may be no lack of teachers, for one of the most useful callings for persons who can possibly or reasonably attend to it, is to teach the youth in Sunday schools.

I also advise that the “Juvenile Instructor” be circulated extensively among our children. It is a work calculated to inform their minds on the principles of the Gospel; from its pages they may also gain a knowledge of the history of the Church, as well as a variety of other useful and entertaining information. It is a very useful publication, and the benefits it is capable of conferring upon our young people are numerous and great. While speaking on this subject, I will refer to other papers published by our brethren in these valleys—the “Deseret News,” the “Salt Lake Herald,” “Ogden Junction,” “Provo Times,” and the “Beaver” and “St. George Enterprise,” all of which contain a good deal of information about our home affairs specially, and of events in the world generally. I hope that, in all the Stakes of Zion, the people will manifest a spirit and determination to support papers which are published for their benefit. The “Deseret News,” daily, semi-weekly, and weekly, besides the general news of the world, also contains many of the sermons of President Young and others of the Church authorities, and it should be widely circulated in all the settlements of the Saints. The mails now run to all parts of the Territory, and though we cannot boast a great deal about the punctuality of some of them, yet in nearly every settlement a mail comes along once in a while bringing the “Deseret News,” and a man is pretty safe on the main thoroughfares in taking the weekly, and in many localities the semi-weekly or daily may be ventured upon.

We must do something more in relation to printing. The Women’s Relief Society are publishing a paper called the “Woman’s Exponent,” which is a very ably edited sheet, and one containing a great deal of information. I am surprised that all the gentlemen in the Territory do not take it. I invite all the Elders, Bishops and presiding officers in the Stakes of Zion, on their return home, setting the example themselves, to solicit all their brethren, and especially the sisters, to become subscribers to this little sheet, for I am sure that they will be interested in the instruction and information it contains. I will say that we expect in a short time, through the patronage of the brethren and sisters, that the ladies will be able to enlarge this paper, and to extend its influence far and wide.

It has been my privilege to make visits to, and to become acquainted with the Ladies’ Relief Societies in many of the settlements in the Territory, and I am convinced that great good results from the labors of these organizations; and I feel certain that unless the ladies take hold of any movement designed to forward the work of the Lord in the last days, its progress will be tardy. In all parts of the world, when nations are at war, unless the women take an interest in the matter, the war goes on very heavily. I am of the opinion that in the next war between France and Germany, the French will get the best of it. Not but what I have a great opinion of German skill, energy and pluck, but I am satisfied, from traveling and personal observation, that the women of France are thoroughly aroused, and that in the next war between those two nations, the Prussians will have to fight the women of France, and then France will be likely to win.

I say to our sisters of the Relief Societies, be encouraged, meet together and discuss all questions that are calculated to interest or benefit the community, as you have the ability; and as no man can be elected to office in this Territory without the vote of the ladies, make yourselves thoroughly acquainted, not only with the politics of the country, but with every principle of local government that may be advanced, and then, whatever is calculated to benefit the people in their private or domestic circles, you will be enabled to vote intelligently, and to carry it through without difficulty.

We spend a great deal of money in following vain fashions, and in purchasing a great many articles that are useless. These societies, if they choose, can make their own fashions and they can make them according to wisdom, and so as to promote health; a great many of the fashions of the world are calculated to destroy health. A hundred questions connected with domestic economy—housekeeping, cooking, making bread and kindred subjects, that are of importance to the stomach, health and longevity of every man and woman in the Terri– tory may be properly discussed in these Relief Societies, and useful information disseminated. A great many of the women in these valleys have not had good opportunities to become acquainted with the art of cooking, and that is an art which has something to do with every person’s happiness. The example of the ladies, and the influence which they exercise, have a tendency, above all things else, to maintain, create, and preserve good morals. Men are apt to behave themselves in the society of women, and if women act wisely and prudently in guiding and controlling the course and conduct of each other, they will be able, to a great extent, to guide, control, and regulate the morals and the conduct of men. We think, however, that the policy of the Christian world, in throwing the responsibility, so far as morality is concerned, entirely upon the heads of women, is a blunder; the men should be held responsible for their own acts, and when they are guilty of that which is corrupt, low or degrading, they should be looked upon as transgressors and cast aside until, by repentance and uprightness, they prove that they are worthy of confidence.

I have been, from the commencement of the formation of this Territory, more or less identified with its politics. I was a member of the Legislature of Deseret, before Utah Territory was organized, and while it was a provisional government. I was a member of the first Legislature of the Territory, and served twenty years. During that period I was brought in contact with five different sets of federal officers, and I had a pretty good knowledge of some forty-eight or forty-nine judges. They were men sent here, from different parts of the country, to administer the law. They had a general know– ledge of politics, and of the law as administered in their own immediate localities. But few of them were of high minds and noble sentiments, and many of them were incapable of occupying, with honor, the high positions they were selected to fill. Our people here in these mountains did not take much pains to acquaint themselves with the politics of the country. We had been five times robbed of all we possessed. Our leaders had been murdered and we had been expatriated and driven from the United States into these valleys, then a portion of the republic of Mexico, but afterwards acquired by the United States. We were a great way from any other settlement. It took a month, generally, to get a mail, and for about twelve years we had about seven mails a year; and in the latter part of October or about the first of November, portions of the mails for the winter before would be brought in here with ox teams. This was our condition in early days. We did not pay a great deal of attention to politics; we were not very much divided and hence we cared very little about our elections, and did not pay much attention to them; and a good many who came from abroad were so careless that they did not obtain their naturalization papers, although, from time to time, we advised them to attend to this matter; and I now call upon the Bishops and presiding Elders, when they return home, to recommend the foreign brethren who are not naturalized to see to this; and in all localities or districts which are favored with judges who have more respect for the law than for religious bigotry, let the brethren take all pains to get naturalized, that they may have the benefits of the laws of our country, and be permitted to perform any duty required thereby, and be faithful to do so in all cases; and never let an election go by, or any other occasion in which it is important for us to take part, without paying attention to it. This advice is for the ladies as well as for the gentlemen, for every lady of twenty-one years of age, who is a citizen of the United States, or whose husband or father is a citizen of the United States, has a right, under the laws of Utah to vote; and no one need hope to hold office in Utah if the ladies say no.

I wish to call your attention to the Saint George Temple. We have got the foundation of that Temple up to the water table, about eighteen feet from the ground, and a very nice foundation it is. The building is about one hundred and forty-one feet long and about ninety-three feet wide, and when the walls are up they will be about ninety feet high. We have a very fine draught and design. The building is in a nice locality and in a very fine climate, where, all winter, and in fact the whole year, there is almost perpetual spring and summer weather; and when the Temple is completed there will be an opportunity to go there and spend the winter and attend to religious ordinances or enjoy yourselves; and if you want to go there through the summer you can eat as delicious fruits as ever grew out of the earth in any country I believe. As far as I have traveled I have never seen anything in the way of fruit that I thought was superior to that which is produced in St. George. We invite a hundred and fifty of the brethren to volunteer to go down there this summer to put up this building, and to find themselves while they are doing it. We shall call upon the Bishops, presiding Elders, teachers and others from the various stakes of Zion to take this matter in hand when they reach home, and find brethren, if they can, who are willing to go and do this work, so that by Christmas the building may be ready for the roof, that we may, in a very short time, have the font dedicated and the ordinances of the holy Priesthood performed in that place. We appeal to our brethren and sisters in behalf of this St. George Temple. Our brethren in that vicinity are doing all they can to push forward the work, but five or six months’ help from a hundred or a hundred and fifty men is very desirable.

I will invite all the brethren and sisters from the settlements who may visit Salt Lake City this summer to step on to the Temple Block and see what we are doing for the Temple here. See the beautiful stones that have been quarried in the Cottonwood and brought here, every one cut and numbered for its place. And it is the duty of the brethren to call upon the Lord for his blessing upon the work and upon the workmen. I also call upon the Bishops and teachers in all the stakes of Zion, to be on hand and to see that, in the building of this Temple, in the Center Stake of Zion in the mountains, we are not under the necessity of involving ourselves in disagreeable liabilities in order to move the work forward. For the last year we have had from sixty to ninety men engaged in cutting stone on this block, and a number of other mechanics to supply them with tools and other necessaries; last summer we had a considerable force of men laying these stones on the walls. In Little Cottonwood Canyon we have continually at work a force of from twenty-five to sixty men quarrying granite, and every day, Sundays excepted, two or three carloads of this granite, from ten to twelve tons each load, are brought from the quarry to the Temple Block. It is really a delightful thing, to a person who has never seen it, to go on to the block and see the skillful manner in which our architects and workmen pick up these big stones and pass them all over the building, and lay them in their place to a hair’s breadth. It shows what can be done with a little management, skill and ingenuity.

We earnestly appeal to all Saints, tithe payers, to donate liberally and punctually for the prosecution of this work. While we employ so many skilled mechanics and other laborers, their families constantly require a supply of not only home products, but of money, and merchandise which costs money, and unless the brethren furnish the means to supply these necessities, we shall be obliged to dismiss many of the workmen. We have already incurred liabilities which press upon us, and we call upon the brethren to supply the means necessary to enable us to maintain our credit and continue the work.

It is the design of the teachers and superintendents of Sunday schools, to get up a children’s musical jubilee. Some songs have been composed, and they are being learned and practiced, and they calculate to assemble some eight or ten thousand children in this building and have a general time of grand musical song. The enterprise is a very laudable one. We do not know when the festival will take place but brother Goddard, the Assistant Superintendent, and a number of others who are interested in Sunday schools are doing all they can, and we ask the cooperation of the Bishops, presidents, teachers and brethren and sisters in the several Stakes of Zion to take a part in it, and make it one of the finest festivals of the kind ever held. The progress of our Sabbath schools will be encouraged, and the elevating ten– dency of music may be appreciated by all who participate therein. We ask our brethren to act wisely and prudently in carrying this matter out, that it may be done in such a manner as shall be satisfactory; and if a little means is necessary on the part of parents or friends let it not be wanting. In the course of my year’s travel I visited schools in various parts of the world, but I found none superior to our own. I think that ours compare favorably with them, and in many respects they are superior to most that I visited, and I hope that a spirit to encourage them will be developed.

I wish to see the common school system encouraged as far as possible. The brethren in many settlements are forming Branches of the United Order, and as soon as they get fairly to work they will be able to introduce improved systems of teaching. I notice, in visiting our settlements, more or less carelessness in relation to schools. Very little pains will make a schoolroom quite comfortable, and I wish to stir up parents to the importance of visiting the schools and seeing what their children are doing, and what the teachers are doing, find out whether the little fellows are sitting on comfortable seats; whether they put a tall boy on a low seat, or a boy with short legs on a high seat, making him humpbacked. The happiness and prosperity of the whole life of a child may be a good deal impaired while attending school through a blockhead of a teacher not knowing enough to get a saw and sawing the legs of the seats his pupils sit upon, so as to make them comfortable. It is the duty of the people to look after the comfort of their children while at school, and also to procure proper books for them; and to see that the schools are provided with fuel, that in the cold weather they may be warm and comfortable. In a new country I know there are a good many disadvantages to contend with, but I feel anxious that nothing, within our power to promote the welfare of our children, should be neglected. There is no need, however, to send to the States to buy school benches. There is plenty of timber in these mountains, and a few days’ work properly applied will seat any school room perfectly comfortable, for we can make just as good benches in this country as anywhere else, it is only a question of time and attention. Of course if we can do no better, send and buy; but in order that we may have means to buy what we are forced to buy, it is necessary that we exercise prudence and economy and supply our own wants as far as possible. The wholesale Cooperative Store here imports probably five million dollars’ worth of goods per annum. One-half of these goods could be produced at home with our own labor; it is only a question of time and management to do it. If we were to produce one-half of these goods we should be in easy circumstances all the time, and should have plenty to buy everything we wanted to buy. We could also produce many things to sell; but by purchasing, in such immense quantities, articles that we can make ourselves, we impoverish ourselves all the time, hence we advise our brethren and sisters, in all their councils, meetings, orders, associations, and relief and retrenchment societies, to take into account every question where economy can be exercised and prudence observed, and where we can save a dollar instead of spending one let us do it, for by taking this course we can lay a foundation for permanent comfort at home, and this will prevent us from being dependent upon abroad. This is a part of my religion and this I shall continue to preach.

In relation to this United Order, I will say to those who are entering it, if questions arise that trouble you and that you wish to have explained; or if anything should arise upon which you wish for advice or counsel, if you will write your queries and send them along here to the President’s office, we will answer them, and show you that the whole affair can be carried out with perfect ease. Only let this people act with one heart and one mind, as the Nephites did, and success is certain; and in a short time a great many will wonder, as some in the southern settlements have already expressed it, “Why did we not unite before?” I feel satisfied that the spirit which has been manifested here and elsewhere on this subject, is the same spirit which bore testimony to you, when you went down into the waters of baptism, that this was the work of God; and when we have this spirit in our hearts we can move forward with joy and thanksgiving, and can accomplish that which is required of us.

I wish to return my thanks to our musicians—those who direct and all who have participated in the musical exercises of our Conference. I have enjoyed them. I have visited many parts of the world, and have been to see their organs and to hear their music; but I have heard none with which I am so well pleased as with our own. There is something sweet and lovely here, and I feel that the Spirit of the Lord has warmed the hearts and inspired the souls of those who have made melody for us during the Conference. I pray that God may bless them, that he may enlighten their minds, enliven their souls, and make their songs songs of glory forever. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, May 9, 1874.

The principles which we have presented before us in the plan of salvation require of us an effort, for we are told that if we would have the blessings of exaltation, we must continue unto the end; and, in the Lectures on Faith, contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, we are informed that if we would attain to the blessings of eternal life, we do it at a sacrifice of all things. The principles connected with this law call upon us to study our acts, designs and intentions in life.

We came into the Church in different parts of the world, under the influence of the Spirit of the Almighty, and we gathered here by the aid of our brethren, or by our own efforts. We came to this land to learn the ways of the Lord and to walk in his paths; but we fail to understand or appreciate, altogether, the importance of a strict attention to our faith, and we become negligent and thoughtless, we are anxious to obtain wealth, and there arises among us a scramble, a kind of emulation one with the other, to obtain a greater amount of this world’s goods than our neighbors. On this account many of us neglect to pay our Tithing, notwithstanding we are very anxious to receive the ordinances which are administered in a Temple. The real time to pay Tithing is when we have the means. When we receive money, merchandise or property, if we, in the first instance, go to Bishop Hunter and pay the tenth, making our record square with our faith, we can then use the remainder with a conscience void of offense, and we shall be blessed therein.

Men may commence reasoning on this subject, and say, “We will figure all the year, and if at the end of it we find that we have saved anything, we will pay some Tithing; but if we do not save anything, we think the Bishops ought to pay us something.” The spirit which prompts this feeling is entirely wrong, and those who come to this conclusion will, in the end, feel that if they lose a crop any year they ought to keep back their Tithing for several years after to make up that loss; but the fact is that a Tithing of what we receive from the Lord is due to him, and the residue we are entitled to use according to our best wisdom. The Prophet Malachi says—“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Jesus said, he that gives a cup of cold water, in the name of a disciple, to one of these little ones, shall in no wise lose his reward; but in order to have the blessing of faith connected with the payment of Tithing, it is necessary to realize the importance of the commandment of God concerning it, for no man can attain to the faith necessary to salvation and eternal life without a sacrifice of all things. Now, if we prefer the things of this world and the pleasures of life to the things of the kingdom of God, we can have our own choice, but, so far as the comparison is concerned, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive,” the glory that is in store for those who keep the commandments of God, and live in accordance with his requirements. If we are to adopt the order of Zion now, it should become in our hearts a cherished desire, an earnest and determined purpose that, in all our actions, we will seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we will labor for the good of Zion, and put away selfishness, corruption and false principles.

We have been instructed upon the necessity of economy, of living within ourselves, and of sustaining ourselves by the production of our own hands, yet we carelessly drift in another direction. How often we have been counseled to avoid getting into debt. When the Order of Enoch was organized in Kirtland the brethren were commanded, in the laws, not to get into debt to their enemies, and on a certain occasion it was commanded that we should make it our object to pay all our debts and liabilities, and that we should take measures to avoid the necessity of incurring more. One of the earliest things I can remember in my boyhood was an answer to the question—How to get rich? The answer was—“Live on half your income, and live a great while.” We know how easy it is to live beyond our income, and to go on the credit system. Credit is a shadow, and debt is bondage, and I advise the brethren to realize that the balloon system of credit so general in our country and among ourselves is dangerous in its nature, and it is our duty, at the earliest time in our power, to close up all our liabilities, pay all our debts, and commence living as we go. I would rather walk the streets in a pair of wooden soles that I own and owe no man for, than in the finest morocco that some merchant was presenting a bill to me to pay for; I should, in my estimation, be more of a gentleman and more of an independent man with the wooden soles than with the fine boots, and I would advise our brethren, if necessity requires, to adopt the wooden sole leather in preference to being in debt.

I visited the land where my ancestors lived in America, the graves of three or four generations of them, and I saw on the old farm, still occupied by some distant kinsmen, a shoe shop. Said I—“What are you doing here?” Said they—“Here is where we make our money, we work the farm in the summer, and in the winter we sit down here and earn three or four hundred dollars making shoes.” “Where do you sell them?” “We make them for some houses in Salem and Lynn, that send them to California and the western Territories and sell them there.” Now, brethren, think of this, a man can learn to make a shoe very quick if he has any ingenuity, and many of us spend our time in partial idleness through the winter, and we buy our shoes from manufacturers in the East, when we could just as well make them ourselves. Another bad feature connected with imported shoes is, that when we put them on and walk into the streets, if the weather is wet, our feet are damp very quick, and I believe, as a matter of health as well as economy, that if, in wet weather, we were to adopt the wooden sole, it would save our children from much sickness, and a great many of us from rheumatism, sore throats and coughs, for much of the imported sole leather is spongy, and that holds the water and makes the feet damp and cold, producing sickness; and I am inclined to believe the statement made by the agricultural societies of Europe, that the use of wooden soles for shoes has a tendency to prevent a great many diseases which are incident to the use of leather. But if we are determined to wear leather, if we set ourselves to the work with a will, we can produce as fine leather of every variety, and as fine shoes and almost every other necessary within ourselves as we import, and a great deal better. But we must stop sending away our hides by the car load and must tan them ourselves. We have plenty of workmen who understand the business, and more can be trained, and we shall then not be compelled to ship carloads of hair from the States for the use of our plasterers, in mixing the lime to finish our walls. This is true political economy.

When I went to St. George last fall, I had a very good pair of boots, made of nice States sole leather, under my feet. The soil of St. George has a cold mineral in it, and although it may be dry and pleasant to walk about, a man wants a thick sole under his feet. I have bled a great many years from a rupture of the left lung which I got while preaching in the streets of London in 1840, and I have suffered a great deal from it, and the moment I would go out to walk on the streets of St. George, a shock, almost like electricity, would strike, through the spongy leather of my boot, from the hollow of my foot to this lung and cause a pain there. I went and got an extra sole put on and a thickness of wax cloth put between the soles, and in this way I wore, all winter, a boot just as stiff in the sole as a clog, and had no rheumatism and escaped cold. This set me to reflecting why I should pay two dollars for those soles, brought from the States, when a piece of cottonwood was just as good, and would answer my purpose just as well. Says one—“Why not wear overshoes?” Who wants the air kept from their feet by wearing a coat of india-rubber, which sweats them and makes them tender? They keep the feet dry, it is true, but for my own part it is not convenient to wear overshoes, and never has been, and on this account I have been compelled to go without. I also observe that some of those who do wear them, if they are not very careful, or if they should happen to forget and step out into the wet without them are almost sure to take cold, and have an attack of rheumatism, especially if they have delicate health. But with us throughout the Territory, I believe it has become almost a financial necessity that we economize our shoe bills. Think of these things and remember that it is within our power to manufacture just as good leather and as much of it, and as good and handsome shoes here as anywhere else, only let us take the time neces– sary to do it.

The same thing may be said in relation to hats and clothing, and in fact about nine out of every ten articles that we import. One carload of black walnut brought here from the States, and paid for as a lower class of freight, will probably make half a dozen car loads of furniture, and we have the mechanics who know how to make it up; and if we lack the necessary machinery we can procure it. If we please we can also bring lumber for every variety of furniture that we want, that our mountain lumber will not make. The same rule will also apply to wagons, carriages and agricultural implements. This course will be much better than wasting ourselves by being slaves to others, and paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars for furniture of a not very durable quality, and other articles that we can manufacture ourselves.

With me this is a very important item of religion, and it is time for us to cease importing shoes, clothing, wagons and so many other things, and that we manufacture them at home. This will reduce instead of increasing our expenses. When a man buys imported articles for the use of his family he helps to create difficulties for himself, for by and by the bills begin to come, and bonds and mortgages and all this sort of thing have to be met, and then he begins to worry and stew; but if he used homemade products the means is kept in the Territory, and he has a chance of working at some branch of trade which will in a short time bring it back to him again; whereas if it is sent out of the Territory it helps to impoverish all. Why not retrench? Says one—“I want to wear as good clothes and as fine shoes as anybody else, and I think I should be laughed at if I were to put clogs on.” Well, if they did laugh they could not do a more foolish thing. Why not feel proud and independent of our own high character, that what we have is our own, and we are slaves to nobody? That is my feeling about it. By continually importing we run into debt and cast our ways to strangers, when it is perfectly in our power, if we will do it, to be independent, comfortable and happy, and owe no man anything.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered at the Adjourned General Conference, held in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, May 7, 1874.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” This passage will be found in the 5th and 6th verses of the 4th chapter of the Prophet Malachi.

The Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes in Jackson County, Missouri, about forty-one years ago. A portion of the mob commenced the outbreak in June or July, and among their first deeds of violence was the destruction of the printing office, plundering the storehouse, and the tarring and feathering of Edward Partridge, the Bishop. This was followed by whipping and killing the people and burning their houses, and finally culminated, on the 13th of October, in driving some fifteen hundred persons from their homes, on the public lands which they had purchased and received titles for from the United States. The people thus driven went into different parts of the State, the great body of them, however, taking shelter in the County of Clay.

The settlements in Jackson County were commenced on the principle of the law of consecration. If you read the revelations that were given, and the manner in which they were acted upon, you will find that the brethren brought, before the Bishop and his counselors, their property and consecrated it, and with the money and means thus consecrated lands were purchased, and inheritances and stewardships distributed among the people, all of whom regarded their property as the property of the Lord. There were, however, at that period, professed Latter-day Saints, who did not see proper to abide by this law of consecration; they thought it was their privilege to look after “number one,” and some of them, believing that Zion was to become a very great city, and that being the Center Stake of it, they purchased tracts of land in the vicinity with the intention of keeping them until Zion became the beauty and joy of the whole earth, when they thought they could sell their lands and make themselves very rich. It was probably owing to this, in part, that the Lord suffered the enemies of Zion to rise against her.

The members of the Church at that period were very industrious, frugal, and law-abiding, and there was no possibility of framing any charges or claims against them by legal means, and the published manifesto, upon which the mob was collected, boldly asserted that the civil law did not afford a guarantee against this people, consequently they formed themselves into a combination, a lawless mob, pledging to each other “their lives, their property and their sacred honors” to drive the “Mormons” from their midst. From that hour the heart of every Latter-day Saint has been occasionally warmed with the feeling—may I be permitted to live until the day when the Saints shall again go to Jackson County, when they shall build the Temple, the ground for which was dedicated, and when the Order of Zion, as it was then revealed, shall be carried out! And it has been generally understood among us that the redemption of Zion would not occur upon any other principle than upon that of the law of consecration.

Forty years and more have passed away since these events took place. We have been driven five times from our homes; five times we have been robbed of our inheritances. Our leaders and presiding officers have been killed, and not in a single instance, in any State or Territory where we have lived, has the law been magnified in the protection of the Latter-day Saints, until we were driven into these mountains. In 1834, Daniel Dunklin, the Governor of Missouri, said the laws were ample, and the Constitution was ample, but the prejudices of the people were so great that he and the other authorities of the State were powerless to execute the law for the protection of the Mormons. We have had one protector—our Father in heaven, to depend upon; but governors, judges, rulers, officers of any kind, high or low, have utterly failed to extend protection to the Latter-day Saints. God alone has been our protector, and we acknowledge his hand in every deliverance we have hitherto experienced.

Several times the Church has made advances to organize the Order of Enoch as it was revealed in the Book of Covenants in part, and in the ancient history of the Zion of Enoch; these advances, however, the Saints did not seem prepared to receive. We have been gathered from many nations, and we have brought many notions and traditions with us, and it has seemed that with these notions and traditions we could not dispense. In 1838, an attempt was made in Caldwell County, Mo., the Latter-day Saints owning all the lands in the county, or all that were considered of any value. They organized Big Field United Firms, by which they intended to consolidate their property and to regard it as the property of the Lord, and themselves only as stewards; but they had not advanced so far in this matter as to perfect their system before they were broken up and driven from the State. I understand that three hundred and eighteen thousand dollars in money was paid by the Saints to the United States for lands in the State of Missouri, not one acre of which anyone of us has been permitted to enjoy or to live upon since the year 1838, or the Spring of 1839; though at the time of the expulsion, the Commanding General, John W. Clarke, informed the people that if they would re– nounce their religious faith they could remain on their lands. He said that they were skillful mechanics, industrious and orderly, and had made more improvements in three years than the other inhabitants had in fifteen, and if they would renounce their faith they could remain. But they must hold no more meetings, prayer meetings, prayer circles or councils, and they must have no more Bishops or Presidents; and in view of their refusal to comply with these conditions, the edict of banishment, issued by the Governor of the State, was executed by this general with an army at his heels, and the Latter-day Saints were driven from their happy homes, and thousands of them scattered to the four winds of heaven.

Since our arrival in these valleys, sermons have been preached from year to year, to illustrate to us the principles of oneness. We find that we are one, generally, in faith. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; we believe in the first principles of the Gospel—the doctrines of repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost and the resurrection of the dead; we readily receive, by the power of the Holy Spirit, manifested to us through the Prophets, the doctrine of baptism for the dead, the holy anointing and the law of celestial marriage. This principle came in opposition to all our prejudices, yet when God revealed it, his Spirit bore testimony of its truth, and the Latter-day Saints received it almost en masse. In order to make a step in the right direction, and to prepare the people to return to Jackson County, the principles of cooperation were taught and their practice entered into; and for the purpose of instructing and encouraging the minds of the people upon the benefits of united action, from the earliest settlement of this Territory to the present time, the presiding Elders of the Church have, every Conference, endeavored to impress upon their minds the necessity of making themselves self-supporting. We have looked forward to the day when Babylon would fall, when we could not draw our supplies from her midst, and when our own ingenuity, talent, and skill must supply our wants. The effect of all this instruction is, that we have made some progress in many directions, but not so much as could have been desired.

The cultivation of cotton was introduced in the South. Sheep breeding has been extensively adopted, numerous factories have been erected to manufacture both the wool and the cotton produced. Several extensive tanneries have also been established for the manufacture of hides into leather, and various other kinds of business have been introduced with a view to making ourselves self-supporting.

Within a few years the railroad has been constructed through our Territory, and the expense of freighting has been greatly reduced. Mines which, before the railroad was built, were perfectly worthless, have been developed and made to pay, and the minds of many of the people seem to have been impressed with the idea that we may expect some regular, general business to grow out of the production of the mines, and a great many have been led to neglect home manufactures, and to depend upon purchasing from abroad. Some settlements have, however, exerted themselves considerably to produce clothing, and many articles within themselves. These circumstances are all clear before us. You go through Utah County, today, and say to a farmer, “Have you got any sorghum to sell?” “No, haven’t raised any for two or three years; sugar got so cheap, we could not sell it.” “I suppose you have plenty of sugar?” “No, we are out of sugar, we haven’t any money to buy it with.” This is the position which our course of life has led us to, and which we already begin to feel.

There is another principle connected with this matter which we should consider, and that is, when we as a community, in the valleys of the mountains, provide for our own wants, we are not subject to the fluctuations and difficulties that result from a money panic, or an interruption in the currency. When we came to this Conference a great many of us came with the determination to take such measures as should place us as a people on an independent footing, and hence we propose through our brethren, to go to work and organize a united order. There is at present a deficiency in our organization so far as our business relations are concerned. Of course, in every settlement, there are many industrious men, then there’s some who are schemers; and as each man looks out for himself, that good principle which the Savior taught so strongly, that a man should love the Lord his God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself, is in a great measure forgotten, and a few gather up the property, while many of the laboring men, who do most of the work, come out at the end of the year behind, without a full supply of the necessaries of life. To avoid this, a United Order would organize a community so that all the ingenuity, talent, skill, and energy it possessed would inure to the good of the whole. This is the object and design in the establishment of these organizations. It is perfectly certain that there is in every community a sufficient amount of skill and energy and labor to supply its wants, and put all its members in possession of every necessary and comfort of life, if all this skill and energy be rightly directed. We propose to take measures to direct aright the labor that we have in our possession, and lay a foundation for comfort, happiness, plenty and the blessings of life within ourselves.

We, further, do not believe that Latter-day Saints, in the service of the Most High, can enjoy that high degree of respect in the presence of the Almighty to which they are entitled, when they are biting, devouring, shaving, skinning, and maneuvering, and outmaneuvering and getting the advantage of each other in little petty deals. We want to see these things cease entirely, for we know that we can never be prepared for the coming of the Savior only by uniting and becoming one, in temporal as well as in spiritual things, and being prepared to enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

The principles of life, which we now present for the consideration of the Latter-day Saints were carried out in times past, as we read in the Book of Mormon, among the Nephites and Lamanites, who each enjoyed over a hundred years of unity, peace, happiness and plenty, as the result of adopting this system of unity; and if we will unite in one, acting in good faith, every man esteeming his brother as himself, regarding not what he possesses as his own, but the Lord’s, all carrying out these principles, the result is certain—it is the enjoyment of the Spirit of the Lord, it is the light of eternity, it is the abundance of the things of this earth; it is an oppor– tunity to provide education for our children, amusement and interest for ourselves, a knowledge of the things of the kingdom of God, and all sciences which are embraced therein, and an advance in the work of the last days, preparatory to the redemption of the Center Stake of Zion.

Brethren and sisters, think of these things, and as the spirit of the Almighty was in your hearts when you received the laying on of hands and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, bearing testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was true, seek with all your hearts, and know, by the same spirit, that the establishment of the United Order, is another step towards the triumph of that great and glorious work for which we are continually laboring, namely the dawning of the Millennium and the commencement of the reign of Christ on the earth.

This is the work of the Almighty. These principles are from God; they are for our salvation, and unless we remember and abide in them our progress will be slow. If we are slow to learn and progress, but try to carry out the purposes of God, He will not cast us off. He has been very patient with us these forty years, and he may continue to be so. But understand that the hearts of the fathers must be turned to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. A unity must exist, the Latter-day Saints must love one another, they must cease to worship this world’s goods, they must lay a foundation to build up Zion and to be one, in order that they may be prepared for the great day that shall burn as an oven.

I bear my testimony to you of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the Book of Mormon, of the ministry of Joseph Smith and of his servants the Elders that were called of the Lord by him, Brigham Young and the Apostles and Elders who have borne these testimonies to the nations of the earth, and I say, brethren, give diligent heed to these things, lest by any means we should let them slip and come short of entering into rest.

May the blessings of Israel’s God be upon you forever. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 8, 1873.

Before the brethren and sisters disperse, we wish to say a few words to them in relation to building the Temples that are in progress. I think it was in 1852 that we broke the ground for this Temple. We have met with a great many obstacles in the way of its progress. After the foundation was level with the ground, we commenced to use granite, which had to be hauled some eighteen miles, and we hauled it with oxen and mules. Whenever oppression from our enemies or other causes did not prevent, we progressed with this great work. The building is nearly 200 feet long and about 120 feet wide. The foundation of the side walls is sixteen feet wide, while that of the towers at each end has a proportionately broad footing. When completed, the pinnacles will be 112 feet high, while the main tower will be 225 feet high. The building will be a majestic one, and will creditably compare with any large building in the world. We have now gained an advantage that we never had before—that is, railway communication directly with the granite quarry. It is true that we have to change from narrow to broad gauge, causing a little trouble; we bring from two to four carloads a day of this granite on to the Temple Block. There are some eighty men cutting these stones, and there is a party of men now engaged in laying them. I invite all the brethren from a distance to go on to the ground when the men are at work, and see how beautifully they handle these large stones, and how accurately they place them in their position, for I hope that every Latter-day Saint feels enough interest in the building of the Temple to lift his heart in prayer to the Most High that he will enable us to build the Temples which we have commenced, that we may continue the work of salvation for ourselves and our dead.

We are employing a considerable force of men in the stone quarry, and have been increasing the number of late. Our hope in doing so is to get a quantity of stone quarried before the winter sets in, that we may continue the work of stone cutting through the winter. As it is now, when only two car loads a day arrive, some of the stone cutters on the block will be idle, for it requires nearly three car loads a day to supply them. We are very glad that we are able to move the Temple forward, but you must be aware that all this takes means. The mining companies in the mountains pay, or promise to pay, high wages; and we have to pay a pretty liberal price in order to satisfy the brethren who work on the Temple. A portion of this is paid in the staple products of the country, and the residue in money, or merchandise, which is the same thing as money to us, for we have to pay money for it. We accordingly appeal to the brethren, both here and throughout the world, to remember their duties and their offerings for the Temple. Remember that the ordinances by which we gain exaltation for ourselves and our relatives, who have gone before us, are only administered in a holy house, which has been built in the name of, and dedicated to, the Most High God, according to his laws and commandments.

It would seem that in Salt Lake City and vicinity, there should be abundance of Tithes and offerings to carry on the work on the Temple; yet we are suffered to go behind, get into debt and incur responsibilities. It is the duty of our brethren and sisters, Bishops, teachers and all, to wake up to this subject, and remembering what is required of them by the law of the Lord, to contribute of their mites and of their abundance, that when this great building shall be dedicated, they can come forward knowing it is their offering to the Most High; that their tenths have been expended upon it, and that they have the right to the privilege of entering its basement and receiving the ordinances of baptism for their dead, to pass through the various ordi– nances of the Priesthood, and have the necessary sealings duly recorded, for themselves and their ancestors, and bequeath to their posterity the blessings which are there sealed upon them for ever. I exhort the brethren to consider these things.

It is said that in judging the conduct of others we should be merciful. This is a kind of proverb or select sentence. But it goes on further to say, that in criticising ourselves we should be exact and severe. Now when we come to judge our Tithing, and the interests we invest in the Temples of the Lord, let us do it conscientiously, each one for himself or herself.

I spoke here, the other day, a little in relation to the Word of Wisdom, and I again appeal to my brethren and my sisters to observe it, for I know that if they neglect to do so, before they pass behind the veil they will mourn, wail and weep in their hearts, for it will have a tendency to shorten their days, decrease their strength and lessen their glory. To those brethren who indulge in intoxicating drinks I say, Cease this folly. Brethren, I appeal to you in the name of humanity, in mercy to your wives and children, in the name of my Father in heaven and in the name of his Son, and say, Waste not your strength and your life with folly of this kind. Let intoxicating drinks alone, entirely alone.

We are looking forward to the day when we shall return to Jackson County. The time will come when the Latter-day Saints will build, in Independence, Mo., a holy city. That will one day be the Center Stake of Zion, the center spot of the New Jerusalem which God is to build on this land. We can only be prepared for that work by being united. Can we not unite a little in building a Temple, in contributing a tenth of all our substance to that work? Can we not unite a little in erecting a factory, in establishing a store? Can we not learn, step by step, the principles of unity, which will enable us to be the people of God, like the Zion of Enoch, and prepare us for a dwelling with the blest? Let us consider these things, and sustain with all our powers all the efforts that are made to bring about a unity among the Saints. Every step we take of this kind is in the right direction. Sustain our Cooperative stores, and cease to sustain those who do not build up Zion. The Elders of Israel have traversed the earth and gathered you from distant nations, and you have come here to serve the Lord; but if you expend your energies and means in sustaining those who would destroy the Saints, you are only laying the foundation of your own degradation, for as the Lord God lives, the man who will not sustain Zion will be cut off.

Remember these things, brethren and sisters, and sustain the servant of God and the institutions of heaven. Pray for those who are in authority, sustain the organizations that are established for the welfare of Zion, and cease to sustain her enemies. Circulate among the people our publications. Let the sermons of the Presidency and of the Apostles, that are published in the Deseret News, be read in every habitation. Circulate the publications of the Church wherever you can, and supply your families with Bibles and Testaments. Sustain and maintain Sabbath schools, and encourage all the children, and as many grown people as may be necessary, to attend, that these schools may prosper, and be useful.

I thought, in the start, of a great many subjects that I wished to talk about. In the Sunday School Union, which met last evening, eighteen thousand children were represented, who were regular attendants at the Sabbath schools in this Territory. This is not what it should be. It is very extensive I will admit, but at the same time there is a school population in this Territory of about thirty-five thousand. The State of Nevada has for years received very large means in various ways from the United States for sustaining schools; but the whole population of that State is probably not equal to the number of school children in this Territory, and yet they have had all the resources usually given by the national government to States to sustain schools. The State of Nebraska was admitted into the Union when it had but a small population, but it received the same liberal school bequest, and it is reported that the Governor stole the outfit, and was impeached and dismissed from office for so doing. Whether they recovered the money or not I do not know. At any rate they disgraced him. The idea among many of these public officers is that if they can only steal skillfully enough not to be caught and brought to justice, it is all right. But the Governor of Nebraska was a little clumsy, and consequently they impeached him. There is said to be a great deal of swindling among these public officers, and in Nebraska it was the school fund that was assailed.

We have never had in this Territory national aid for schools to the amount of a dollar, or from any other source than our own pockets, and I am proud of the achievements of the Territory with regard to schools. We should not relax our efforts. Our Sunday School Union should be able to bring out more Sunday school scholars than now attend.

I want to say to my brethren that our journeyings in the Holy Land had a tendency to inform us with regard to many things we did not understand, and we now know much better than before our visit how to establish missions in those countries, which will be done at a proper time as the Lord opens the way. They are, however, fearfully tied up with ignorance, superstition and oppressive laws, &c. But we found more bigotry, narrow-mindedness and disposition to proscribe each other among those professing Christianity than among any other class of people in the Turkish Empire.

In Jerusalem there was an attempt made by certain men of science to search for the old foundations of the city. They sank down some hundred and seventy feet, and they found that the old foundation was built among the mountains, and little valleys running between them. Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, Mount Calvary, the Mount of Olives and others are all in the neighborhood, and there were anciently deep ravines between, and the city was originally built with terraces, one street rising above another. It is said that some of the Christians feared that this investigation would result in proving that the holy places, which are so much worshiped and adored, were not the true holy places, so they, I was told by some respectable Jews who were anxious to have the investigation go on, exercised an influence with the Turkish government to stop it, on the ground that the excavation were likely to undermine Jerusalem. At any rate the investigation was stopped. The Greek, Latin, Coptic and Armenian sects were said to have been principally interested in this matter.

The American minister to the Turkish empire assured me that he had greater difficulty in promoting peace among the different Christian sects toward each other than he had among the Muhammadans and Christians, and in most cases the Christians were far less tolerant towards each other than the Muhammadans were towards them. When we find Elders who have the spirit of such a mission and wish to labor in the work of the Lord, and to go into those countries and learn the languages, we shall send some of them there to make an attempt to introduce the Gospel. President Joseph Smith laid us under obligations to preach the Gospel or send it to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and wherever the way has opened we have exerted ourselves to the utmost to do this. We have a Territory here hundreds of miles in extent, occupied by a thriving population. Where did they come from? They have been gathered from the nations wherever the Elders of Israel have been permitted to preach. A great many of the Christian nations are locked up. A man could now preach in Italy, but the traditions of the people are so strong that it would be a dangerous experiment probably to undertake it. While conversing with some Greek members of parliament they said to us—“We are Christians already, why not go among the heathens and teach them Christ? We know something about Christ now, and that is enough.” The constitution of Greece provides that all sects may be tolerated, but proselytism is prohibited from the Oriental Greek church, so you may think as you have a mind to, but if you get any of the people to believe in the Gospel and they are baptized you are subject to a penalty.

I wish to bear my testimony to the truths of the Gospel, to express my gratitude to the Conference for the attendance and attention, and to return my heartfelt thanks to our brethren and sisters who have made us music. I am gratified at the attendance of the singers from the various settlements. I feel that the blessing of Israel’s God will be upon them. I hope the brethren and sisters will treasure up what they have heard and profit by it. Every man who has spoken has seemed to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. At the opening of the Conference I requested that the prayer of faith should ascend on high that the Spirit of the Almighty might dictate and control those who spoke, that we might be edified by the power of the Almighty. Our prayer has been heard, and we can now go away from this Conference to the different parts of the Territory, or to our several missions abroad, wherever we are called, with a united faith and confidence that we shall be better men, and that we shall more truly and faithfully perform our duties than we have done before.

The blessings of Israel’s God be upon you all, and may we all be faithful in the performance of our several duties, exercising faith before God to deliver us from our enemies, and cause that the Lamanites may be peaceable in our midst; for I will assure you, brethren, that if you want the Lamanites to be peaceable towards you, you must cultivate peaceable feelings in your hearts towards them, and never desire to shed their blood.

The peace of God be upon you all, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 7, 1873.

I feel a deep interest in the subjects which have been brought before us this morning by the Elders who have spoken, as well as in every discourse that has been uttered since the commencement of the Conference, and I hope that the impressions which have been made will be lasting. In relation to intemperance, we, all of us, as Latter-day Saints, should observe the Word of Wisdom; and if we do not observe it, we lay a foundation to weaken ourselves. You will see young persons come to the table in the morning, and they want some tea, or coffee, or a cup of good, strong, warm drink. A habit of this kind has, perhaps, already been acquired by them, and it is likely to continue until they become slaves to it. In a little while it affects the complexion, it weakens the mind and the body throughout, and lays the foundation for a weaker generation to follow. Of course it is no use to talk to men about tobacco. It takes a man of energy to quit chewing tobacco, a man who has a mind and independence; boys who undertake it seldom accomplish it, though they are very foolish ever to indulge in the habit.

I feel like exhorting my brethren and sisters to abstain from everything prohibited in the Word of Wisdom, and to live in accordance with its principles as near as our climate and the productions of our country will permit. So far as intoxicating drinks are concerned, it is worse than madness and folly for men to indulge in them. There is something comparatively innocent in tea, coffee or tobacco when compared with intoxicating drinks. Of course a man who uses tobacco freely for years gets an appetite for liquor; he lays a foundation for an appetite for liquor, and after a while he craves it and must have it. He should let tobacco alone in the start; but yet tobacco does not make a man insane in a minute. Some of our most promising business men, who have come to Salt Lake City at different periods, have carried themselves to untimely graves by indulging in intoxicating drink. Men whose voices have been heard in the Tabernacle, men who have rendered service in the offices, and who have been honored, have died like a dog in a ditch, or in a most degraded manner, in consequence of indulging in intoxicating drinks. A man says to another—“Come, take a drink.” “No, I don’t wish any.” “Oh, don’t be so pious, come and take a drink with us, don’t be a coward;” and so, for fear of being a coward, he takes the drink. Shame on such a man! Why not quietly say—“No, I do not need it;” and if the invitation is repeated, say—“No more of that, gentlemen,” and be man enough to let it alone, rather than yield and let a habit creep upon him that will destroy him. I have heard men say—“I can drink, or let it alone;” then let it alone; but some of those who can “drink or let it alone” will get drunk every day. They have sold themselves to the cursed alcohol. Let the Elders of Israel cease this habit and learn wisdom. When you come to meet the presence of your Father in heaven, when you wish for the rewards of your Priesthood, you who have not obeyed the Word of Wisdom will wail at the loss you have sustained in consequence of your folly. Think of these things, continue to think of them, pray over them, and set an example before your children that is worthy of imitation. If an old lady of seventy comes to my house at Conference, and I get her a cup of tea, if there is a girl there of fifteen, she will want to drink with grandma, and she will think she must have it because grandma does. This has been my experience in times past. I do not have it now; I do not get tea for people, unless they pretend to be sick, then I tell my folks to make them a tin cup full of good, strong catnip tea. That is a rule I have prescribed. I do not know how my folks keep it. I certainly do not intend to place any restrictions on them any further than their own wisdom dictates. But if they use these things they do it in violation of my advice and run their own risks, and so do all others.

I say, brethren and sisters, let us observe the Word of Wisdom. We are doing a great business in the tea, coffee and tobacco in the Cooperative Store. When we first esta– blished it we thought we would not sell tobacco at all; but pretty soon the Superintendent asked the Directors if he might not bring in some poor kind of tobacco to kill the ticks on the sheep. It was very soon discovered that unless they sold tobacco, so many Latter-day Saints used it, that a successful opposition could be run against them on the tobacco trade alone, and they had to commence it, I believe, under the plea that it was brought on to kill the ticks on sheep. Shame on such Latter-day Saints, so far as tobacco is concerned.

I will say a word in relation to the colleges which brother Jesse N. Smith spoke about. As he said, we have struggled against many difficulties as far as education is concerned, and our university and our colleges, so far, have simply been schools for the education of teachers in the primary branches. We have sometimes employed professors and taught many different branches. But a great effort has been made to educate teachers for primary schools, and some of them have taken great pains to inform themselves. They have held associations and got up a normal and training class, have given lectures, and this summer they spent six weeks voluntarily to instruct each other.

It has been the uniform custom of the General Government to give the different States public lands and money to a liberal extent for educational purposes. None of this has ever been made available for Utah; we have had to carry everything by our own individual effort. Now that there are many young men and women among us who wish to study more advanced branches than we have, as yet, been able to organize, they would like to go to famous seats of learning in distant parts of the country for that purpose. A cooperative effort is now required on the part of the people, as a matter of domestic economy, to establish schools of a higher order, and to provide the professors and apparatus necessary to impart instruction in the higher branches of learning, that our young people may be able to obtain the education they desire at home; for while they would go away and spend five or six hundred dollars a year each, the same amount expended here would establish schools for the higher branches, and cut off a large proportion of the expense in all time to come. We would like to have all the Wards and settlements consider these questions, and make it a matter of real interest to bring about an organization and to supply the means necessary for this object.

In the foundation of a country it is necessary, of course, to look well to its primary schools; we have tried to do this, we are still doing it, and, I believe considering their circumstances, the people of Utah have done more for education than the people of any other Territory.

May the blessing of Israel’s God be upon us in all our efforts to guide our children, in all our efforts to maintain the principles of temperance, to observe the Word of Wisdom and keep the commandments of God, and to establish such schools and colleges as shall enable us to advance in all branches that are useful, for our religion includes every good and true principle. There is no principle on the face of the earth or in heaven that is true, but what belongs to “Mormonism.” May God enable us to do these things as we should, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, at the Semi-Annual Conference, October 6, 1873.

Last October Conference I asked permission to take a journey to visit the land of Palestine, and some other portions of the old world, expecting that I should be absent, probably, about eleven months. I was accompanied on that journey by President Lorenzo Snow and several others; the party including eight. We visited Palestine and many other countries, a portion of us calling at the Fair in Vienna. But in consequence of my selection, by the Conference last April, to do the duties of Trustee-in-Trust, I returned home a little sooner than I anticipated, though we were all well satisfied with our journey and visit, and with every interview we had on the entire journey, and were very thankful to our heavenly Father that we had the means given us, through his mercy, and I, individually, through the kindness of my friends, to make such a journey. We feel that the results will be felt and realized hereafter, as having done much good. I feel, individually, to return my thanks and blessings to all those who contributed to aid me on that journey, and to all those who desired to, but had not the means. I feel that the blessing of the Lord, which we invoked on the Mount of Olives, will rest upon his people, and that the time is not very far distant when God will fulfill his promises concerning Israel; though, so far as we saw of the remnants of Judah, their hearts are very hard, and it will require the exercise of great power on his part to soften them. But as his word will not fail, and his promises are sure, we look forward to their fulfillment with regard to Israel. In the meantime we, with all our hearts, might, mind and strength, should take warning by the example of Israel, and not fall into the same snares. They neglected their Tithes and offerings, violated the Sabbath, forgot their prayers and worshiped other gods, and for these things God cursed them and scattered them to the four winds of heaven, and the curses rest on the land, and, as was predicted by the Prophet, the rain has been turned into dust.

We, as Latter-day Saints, having had revelation from the Lord, and the fullness of the Priesthood revealed unto us, should be exceeding careful that we do not neglect the Gospel, turn from our duties, neglect our Tithes and offerings, Sabbaths and prayers, forsake the Lord and go astray after other gods, lest peradventure the curse of the Almighty fall upon us, and the kingdom be rent from us and given to another people. I feel that the de– solation, waste and barrenness of Palestine, and the degradation of its people should be a lasting and permanent lesson to us in all things, to keep the faith and obey the commandments, to remember our Tithes and offerings, to be friends to the poor, to remember our prayers, to remember the faith which God has revealed unto us, and to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints, that we may have and enjoy all its blessings.

We have had a glorious season, an abundant harvest and a good time to gather it. The weather has been fine and agreeable, and now, brethren and sisters, let us gather together a few days to talk with and strengthen each other upon the principles of the Gospel of peace. The Elders can bear testimony, for I know that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that God has revealed it to us for our salvation; and our covetousness, and disposition to make a display in the world should not interfere in any way whatever, with us in devoting our time, talents, energies and our all to the upbuilding of his kingdom, for that is the greatest interest and glory, and the grandest speculation there is on the face of the earth.

These are my sentiments and views. I wish all persons in the congregation, when they see a man rise to speak, to lift up their hearts to the Lord in prayer that the Lord will have mercy upon us and fill that man with the power of the Spirit, that he may speak to us directly by revelation from heaven, that every voice that is elevated may be elevated by the power of the Almighty.