| Show another reply by S A kenner in the light of 0 practical achievement and that higher grade ot of human wisdom which can only be classed as inspiration brigham young was ono one or of the grandest figures in american history the task which he successfully carried out of piloting a band of robbed mobbed and homeless refugees wearied and despondent even before the jouney proper began from t the he margin ot of civilization into the midst ot of the unknown and forbidding wilds ol of the continent and there placing on an enduring basis the foundation of a civilization the fruition of which Is IB not yet tull full orbed but is the marvel of 0 our time is one that no other man with even a suggestion of the difficulties to be e met and steadily contended with till overcome would have undertaken this age has had but one brigham young and his name nam e and fame while the heritage of tile whole west are si ai inalienable nall enable heirloom to the state which owes its existence to him it is easy for or us who came in after years when there here were comfortable houses to live in well defined roads to travel on some of the comforts and nearly all the necessities of civilized life abundant and the commonwealth well along on its way to the shadowed foreshadowed fore greatness to show where this that or the other thing might have been better done how some of the work might have been improved how some things might have been better left out and other things that were left out brought into being etc etc but we here we do these things or any of them we are not alv given n to going to places that nobody else will go to and settling down there to the hardest kind of toil enduring all manner of privations in order that our dependencies cies and their descendants may have comfortable homes safe from assassins and incendiaries nor would or could the population and growth of the pacific coast had an gallant long suf fering virtuous band whose leader he was have accomplished these great re without him every cause must batist have a leader and upon the wisdom foresight firmness justice and capacity for control of the leader inevitably depends the outcome of the enterprise se so far as human agencies can control things this case called tor for a brigham young and the mormon people had him through their work and his leadership the peopling and build 1129 ingup ulof odthe the great expanse of desert 0 s t e wes c s t jbf 0 f the misso url it and east bast I 1 I 1 of t the e sie sierra r r a N nevadas e v ad is w was a s advanced a generation the incalculable impulse in the earlier days through the recruiting crul cr ting station and resting place in the midway of the drastic journey from frontier to coast and desolation vanished gradually throughout the entire region the man who was at the forefront of the human forces by which these miracles were accomplished was too big tor for his own generation to fully comprehend his magnitude nor has this one yet developed in its entirety a full appreciation of his consequence but we are growing up to it slowly and surely of course there are some and perhaps always will be who will at all times and on all occasions refuse to acknowledge merit where the person to whom it belongs happens to be or has been a mormon and so we have the tray blanche and sweetheart of the press and pulpit the played out politicians and the childless mothers engaged in another of their discordant but weakening choruses over the proposition to place the great pioneers image upon the silver service tor for the battleship utah it being put forth that he was a traitor to his country it Is a mighty easy thing to be a traitor in some peoples estimation george washington was traitor so were the immortal band who affixed their signatures to the most potent of 0 all human documents the declaration of independence together with all of subalterns subal terns assistants and abutters abettors abet tors traitors in the first degree recently an effort was made in the united states senate by a man whose brains undergo the greatest pressure when he is sitting down to have the statue of robert E lee excluded from the congressional hall of statuary on tile the ground that he was a traitor but coming back to brigham it is 13 true lie he caused the government some little trouble at times and raised an army of his own to prevent the federal army from entering these valleys which movement on his part was entirely successful they stayed out till he be was ready tor for them to come in then they came on the terms he prescribed and behaved real well while they were here perhaps his detractors have not yet studied up tip the laws of life natural and statutory and thereby acquired the information that a pursued man Is not required to retreat further than the wall that self preservation Is a cardinal principle in our lives affairs and that resistance to tyrants is obedience to god but taking brighams Brig hams case out ot of analogy and placing it by itself what do we find was he a traitor and II if so how much and what for A aral borsi betrays alit accepted trust who con connives hives at or actually accomplishes things detrimental to government or friend when they have a right to and do look to him tor for loyalty and devotion demotion what claims upon or rights from brigham young had the united states government had it not repeatedly peat edly refused him and his people protection against lawlessness law and illegal privation and just as often aided and abetted the authors of the inaam ies when he and his little litile band of exiles sought the remote and secure fastnesses fast nesses of tile the rocky mountains they paused not till they were beyond the reach out of the jurisdiction and safe from the assaults of the head hun and homo home destroyers beyond the frontier and owe this great and glorious government one red cent or the smallest emotion of gratitude they had hada a right to raise tile the standard of absolute independence and maintain it so long as they saw fit f it the soil on which they pitched their tents did not belong to the united states it did not so far as possession goes belong to any country under the sun although mexico had a title which existed on paper and on nothing else so that brigham young and his followers being the discoverers with immediate and continuous occupancy had the highest title to the soil known to common law or sustained by the usage of civilized nations the only question was their ability to hold it and that did not really amount to a question yes the pioneers were safe at last and upon their own soil they could establish a govera government merit of their own and claim recognition of all others it if they wished as the great leader would have done lad had he been to any exec extent nt tile the kind of man he be has lately been pictured what he be did do instead of showing resentment or being I 1 in the smallest measure antagonistic to the country which he would have been amply justified in atte utterly r iy ignoring ay in gand and trl treating abing with contempt wai er 1 to take possession ot of the new ian lands ds in its name and immediately seek to bring them within its political and legal control not much traitor there and then was there and when has there ever been an incident to found any charge of treason upon except the one previously referred to when lie he was so fully justified that the government subsequently pardoned him and his associates but I 1 shall not permit this article to run into a lengthy argument it is not needed enough has alread already y been said brigham young founder builder and first governor needs no encomiums from my feeble pen his monument is not alone tile the one over which the scree chers are making night hideous and dayt daytime me discordant he has one that will endure so long as memory remains the warder of the brain and until time fades into eternity one against which the assaults of defamers def amers and falsifiers will ever be as ineffectual as are arc the ceaseless waves which dash themselves into spray against the flinty face of Giber altar if we who were of and with him looked with favor upon the proposition to place his name upon those implements of wassail we regarded it as a condescension on our part and a nd expected the favor to be appreciated precia ted but it if those having the matter in charge prefer to be influenced by the narrow gauge tricksters trick who still chant their dreary concoctions concoct ions of 0 hatred and malice over the grave 0 of the mighty dead let them act accordingly individually I 1 have but to say keep his image off the battleship service and be damned to you put pat on C al owens or F J cannons or rev hev cliffs or some other guileless patriots whose life work is inextricably interwoven with I 1 ing rig and enjoy the transaction to your hearts content our mountain home will stand when you are dead and forgotten and we are not going to let what you do jostle from our minds the sacred figures who reared and maintained it tor for us utah independent |
