| Show t wah J a AIPA YOU 4 jan toas 4 AID rolt roil AND FRO FROM it GOI the practical statesmanship 01 0 brigham rose to great heights at winter quarters as he planned fot for the exodus of his church end and peo P cje e twenty strong ot of course a profound faith in their martyred marty red prophet and their own destiny as shadowed foreshadowed fore by him was waa the motive that unified all plans and purposes brigham young u was as the farsighted far sighted kader and practical executive of dision in addition to the magnificent organization he perfected he spared no pains in acquiring information concerning the projected home of if his people father de the catholic who had traveled thousands of miles in the northwest met him at winter quarters and writes thus of the incident 1 I met brigham young at the missouri river and disc discussed lus with him the exodus of his people ile he did not then know where they were going but he asked me R thousand nd questions about the country I 1 told him the bear river valley wms was a rich and fertile field for settlement and would sup support a million people then concluded rather father de smet 1 I dont don t know whether my description of the country induced the move to utah but the mormons cormons are there building tp lp a great empire tills this abridgement abridge ment Is essentially the story father de DC smet gives in one of his letters there are two large v volumes of father de smet barnets a leters edited by richardson all available am assistance istance was sought too late in january 1840 1846 brigham wrote to elder jesse 0 little who was then in new hampshire to go on a mission to washington ulilah ali ch should have hane for its object aid from the government for the great move to the I 1 western coast I 1 when little reached wak wah ington ing ton the mexican war was the general conversation topic meeting amos kendall a former postmaster general little urged upon him the need of help for his mormon constituents kendall ed the enlistment of a thousand men to be armed and join the ex ped tion scat against rist mexico find and in ci dentally to promote the emigration to california this seems to be the initial move moie in the call of the now famous mormon battalion apparently then alth littles approval ken dall presented the matter to president polk who favored the plan as a means of them and attaching them to our coun conn try the sequel Is well known instead of one tho thousand the call wa mim for five hundred to many this invitation imitation to join the army d d not look like encouraging help in the migration when however con sid aeration la Is glen given to the fact that tha t five hundred men would be taken to california at goern government ment expense and their advance pay would be aud to assist their families in the move moe it will be sten men to be R real service brigham young understood itoW the value of the assistance arid and in a letter dated mount pisgah july 7 1840 such phrases occur beloved rr grethren ethren us ue send bend ou another leaf of the gospel and then after peaking of the five fhe hundred 01 vol ol he writes but this time you will probably la Is this gospel we answer yea ye and abill funcher on this occurs this Is the first time the government hu haa stretched forth its arm to our assistance si and we received its proffers with joy and thankfulness in another letter addressed to president samuel bi ant nt and council and the saints at garden grove the following follow in occurs the united states wants our friendship the president w wants ants to do us good and secure our confidence the outfit of these five hundred men costs us nothing and their pay will ill be sufficient to take their families over the mountains the thing la is from above for our good has long been understood between us and the U 8 government but the first blow was struck earlier than we w e anticipated 11 |
