Show THE celebration OF THE TH TWENTY FOURTH THE celebration yesterday was an oc cation that will not be soon forgotten forgot teno being one of the most moat joyous hear hearty y and general that has ever taken place among the people of this city the weather was very fine and everything seemed to combine to mike make the occasion pleasurable at sunrise a pioneer salute of awen ty four guns was fired by a detachment of artillery which was waa followed by the raising of flags on public buildings throughout the city the day and sabbath schools met at their respective ward halls at am and organized under the ithe direction of their superintendents and teachers and proceeded to the new tabernacle the pioneers twelve bishops territorial rit orial county and city officers met at the city hall at a m and from there proceeded escorted by capt cro crox 12 xa alls band and the committee to the tabernacle proceedings AT THE tabernacle during D the seating of the audience about ten thousand in number the tenth T th ward brass band played placed popular airs MUSIC Tabe tabernacle macle macie choir PRA YERby by the chaplain elder dWoodruff music capt Crox alls band ELDER elden ELDER ORSON PRATT in accordance with the tho pro gramme of the celebration delivered an oration he dwelt on the difficulties difficult fes which had to be encountered by the pioneers to and the first settlers in these valleys he also spoke at some lenth on the divine nature of the principles which have been embraced by the latter day saints elder pratt not having been notified soon enough was unable to prepare an oration for the occasion and his remarks being extemporaneous he requested that they should not be published as delivered but in the reporter reporters s language owing to lack of time we haye been unable to prepare them and have been compelled very reluctantly to omit their insertion SONG J D T mcallister hurrah hurrah the cormons mormons have a name y was encored the following speech was made by HON GEO A SMITH the of july 1847 if I 1 recollect aright was the sabbath the pioneer company had spent one day after their arrival fairly in the valley A water ditch had been constructed and a dam put in the creek a little plowing had been done several plows were broken in the first hour owing to the dry state of the soil trying to plow without irrigating A few seeds were planted but the work was very difficult the sabbath was a day of rest the party consisting of one hundred and forty three pioneers a few women and two or three children got together to a meeting within the th circle of our corral there being no other more convenient pulpit discourses were delivered from a gun carriage and this was our first days worship the sacrament was administered bread and water being distributed to the congregation the laud was dedi bated ed and hearty thanks returned to the most ost u 1 high god lor the privilege of kneeling down wn in peace uninterrupted by enemies or the howl of mobs and out of the reach of their violence worshiping god in the way he had appointed the country wass waff barren naked and uninhabited except by a few nearly nude indians there was no provisions to be obtained except that which we had brought from beyond the missouri river it was under these circumstances that our first days worship in the valleys of the mountains was celebrated when we look back at the history of our puritan fathers who landed on the shores of new england el they being nonconformists non conformists and compelled to leave their home and country we find them generally very zealous men very de vou tand jealous of their religious rights and privileges they settled in a wilderness country but enjoyed many faaili ties that we did not enjoy in this desert the heavens condescended descended con to water their lands with rains the bays rivers inlets and seas beas around them abounded with fish the ocean formed a highway by which they could send bend the timber fish and other produce to market and bring them supplies from other countries these circumstances were in their favor and as if god had prepared the way before them just previous to the landing of the pilgrim fathers a pestilence swept through the indian tribes of new england and destroyed great numbers of them reducing whole nations of indians to a few scattered families this no doubt prevented serious wars and diffIcult difficulties ies les which would have otherwise taken place our pilgrim fathers undertook to establish a most rigid religious community they were brought in contact with with the mother country in consequence of their conformity nonconformity non to the established faith of the english church and for generations were compelled to submit to indignities insults abuse and annoyances on that account they were however in their way rather tyrannical for whenever any persons among them were disposed to criticise criticism critic ise their faith introduce new kinds of doctrine and make inno innovations vatious in manners or language they were treated with rigor and were whipped imprisoned bani banished or put to death with all the strict discipline of these puritans their children degenerated to a great extent running into a great variety of excesses after the latter day saints had been sifted five or six times the prophet tarred and feathered in hyrum portage county driven from kirtland ohio by persecution driven from jackson and clay counties mo expelled from the state of missouri from illinois and eastern iowa deprived of all their property in these several dr ivings they had become do to a considerable extent sifted so that those who came here were generally zealous and faithful in their hearts to the glorious cause in which they had enlisted they were brought however in contact with new trials almost immediately many were hungry others who had had but a scanty share of food were compelled to divide their morsel mor of bread with their brethren and for years no person in the territory scarcely dare eat a full fall meal of food but they were healthy and god blessed them smiled upon and prospered theland them and modified the climate there were very few who believed it possible to raise peaches or any delicate kind of fruit seeds were planted however by the advice of president young and they came forth after a contention or two with the crickets which destroyed the first nurseries and so rigorous was the climate that the tops of the trees were killed generally from one to three feet every season with the frost and it was several years before the climate became such that the peach tree would escape injury from the frost the same was the case with other fruits fruit which have spread abroad from this place into all the valleys in the territory and are now raised in many localities cali ties where formerly severe frosts could be expected every month in the year the lord having blessed and tempered the elements for our good has a right to clai cial claim matour at our hands adue a due obedience to the holy principles of salvation which he has hug revealed unto us he brought us here poor robbed of our inheritances by intolerant men who deprived us of all that we possessed we were almost naked and barefoot we wore the skins of beasts and rawhide soles thus we struggled in the midst of difficulties but the lord blessed and fed us in the midst of the desert he sent supplies to us and enabled us to extend protection shelter and food and the necessaries of life to thousands of our countrymen thousands and thousands would ave perished on a dil vil grimage pilgrimage to the west for gold the lord gave us the power to preserve the lives of our fellow countrymen and aid them on their journey to california with all these blessings shall shail we be forgetful of our great and glorious duties detles the smile of heaven has been upon us hero here we have enjoyed religious liberty the privileges of the he constitution guarantee guaranteed and made sacred to us by the blood of our forefathers shed in the revolutionary cause to extend protection and liberty of conscience which we now enjoy though denied to us in the states from winch we were driven we have here had bad the privilege of enjoying them and under all circumstance sit sid la its our duty to extend liberty of conscience to every person perron whoever he may be who may reside under the dominion of our influence and we must ever remember that the holy principles of our religion which have been revealed to us for cur salva tica ti must be respected and observed that we must live diligently in the discharge of those great duties and abide in the faith wherein christ ha us free set before our children an example of temperance patience forbearance industry and obedience to the commandments of god in all things that life intelligence and the blessings of eternal life may be continued through our children to all future generations while we consider these things we have every reason to rejoice although the settlements have met with many obstacles some difficulties with the indians have been entailed upon us which we could not control emigrants passing through the country would occasionally casio nally shoot down an indian rob some bome squaw or commit some other outrage and pass on their way and the friends of the indians who lad had bad been killed or injured would seek redress at the hands of the settlers many difficulties of this kind have had to be met yet an amount of peace and harmony with the natives has been preserved which far exceeds what I 1 believe can be found on the record of any other state or territory and is a record of which we have every reason to be proud we have had to contend several times with the devouring insects when mr morrill in conversation with me in 1856 told me it was his intention to put through congress an act to punish and prevent polygamy I 1 remarked that if congress passed an act to prevent water from running out of our canons caf cai lons ions and enforced it it would break up our settlements fin fir we could not live without water to irrigate our lands god has given us the water he ile has blessed it and we rejoice in it and we have only to continue in the observance of faith and obedience to the principles of the gospel of jesus christ that we may enjoy life everlasting alid and that we may enjoy peace fislid harmony and the privileges of the constitution of our country and do what has hs been predicted of us by our great prophet and martyred marty red founder of our church I 1 joseph smith namely that when the th principles of the constitution should should be torn in pieces and trampled under foot by the people that the latter day saints would step forward and in a manner becoming their high and holy calling bear off triumphantly those glorious principles for which our fathers bled and preserve them intact transmitting them as a priceless inheritance to future generations which may god grant for christs sake amen music by martial band next followed an address by PRESIDENT YOUNG while I 1 am making my remarks I 1 sincerely request the attention of the congregation I 1 desire them to keep silence let there be no whispering nor talking to each other nor moving of feet and if the babies can out noise me why it will be because my lungs have grown weak I 1 am disposed to refer to a little if J the history of this people called LK laj ter day saints in their journey to these valley valleys of the mountains in the first place making this statement ome some five times the first members of this church have suffered the loss of all things for their religion this has been my case I 1 have been for fortunate dunate enough to accumulate around me the comforts of life from the time that I 1 first started in business five times I 1 have forsaken all my gordly goods for christs Christ lq sake last of all we had to pull up stakes and pack up whatever we could and leave the state of illinois for vers island or some other piao niao though it wa wab wag our design to come to the valleys of the great basin in the interior of america this was the understanding of the few but the masses knew nothing about where we were wera going three members of congress visited us in the fall of 1845 joseph joaeph was killed in 1844 these members of congress visited us making a request on behalf of the congress and people of the united states that we the jhb latter day saints should leave the confines of their territory upon this we sat flown down in council and directed letters to every governor in every state and territory in the union asking them and their legislatures if they would grant us an asylum within their domains two of tense gentlemen deigned to answer our letters but the residue held us in respect by their silence or in disgrace whichever we have a mind to call eail it but there was no place for the latter day saints now this is the history of this thia people irmay be painful for us to speak or to hear of it nevertheless these are the facts when we had completed complete dour our work and were ready to take up the line of march from nauvoo we crossed the river in the dead of winter A few crossed in january the most part in the first days of february and soon so on i into march and april making our camps on the west of the mississippi biver river facing to the west we marched from time to time as we could in consequence of storms bad roads and being entirely destitute of provisions gehad to rosend men down into the settlements to work to get us a little provisions so that we could travel another hundred miles we journeyed thus till we came to a place where we stopped and built a little town called garden grove here we tarried for a few weeks plowed up considerable ground put in u good deal of seed made many hundred rods of fence built perhaps one hundred or one hundred aud fifty log cabins and the poor that we could take no furth further erwe twe swe left in those cabins we e then took the line of af march f r the west while on burway our way to the missouri river riv er home some kind of a it blint whether it lt was intuitive knowledge prescience or promptness of intellect no matter something told mo me that the government of the United states would make a demand on the camp of israel for troops to go into the mexican war vit kit the god of heaven did not reveal aitto it to me I 1 should like to know who did we marched on and built another town called mount pisgah stopped and built houses put in our beed seed grain left the poor that we could take no farther and took up the line of march for the missouri river when we were about eight miles off the missouri river with perhaps fifteen hundred wagons a gentleman named alien allen who was a captain in the army from fort leavenworth made his appearance in our camp we called a council of the first men of the camp we assembled ourselves together he read a few documents from the government the war department required us to furnish five hundred men to go to the mexican war my first thought was yes as it had been before then when I 1 realized and saw men women and children destitute of provisions and three hundred miles from where we could obtain any I 1 said in my heart I 1 would see eee k ee them in a warm place first I 1 did not say it aloud as I 1 do now on mature reflection I 1 said to my brethren we will beat them at their own game we will furnish the men we furnished them five nive hundred and three men and we selected our best maa men for officers they were enrolled aud and took their line ot march with a few members of their families to fort leavenworth this caused a serious break in our camps by the time all this was accomplished shed many of us were across the missouri river bo so we made winter quarters and stopped there through thie the winter in the month of march before we started for the west a government agent came to our camps he was a superintendent of indian affairs and talked |