History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

GLORIOUS PERSECUTION. 135
There was no help for them; they must leave the
state or be killed; of this they were assured on all
sides, publicly and privately.
And now begins another painful march— painful in
the thought of it, painful in the telling of it. It is
midwinter; whither can they go, and how? They
have homes, but they may not enjoy them; land
which they have bought, houses which they have
built, and barns and cattle and food, but hereabout
they are hunted to death. Is it Russia or Tartary
or Hindostan, that people are thus forced to fly
for opinion's sake? True, the people of the United
States do not like such opinions; they do not like a
religious sect that votes solid, or a class of men whom
they look upon as fools and fanatics talking about
taking the country, claimed as theirs by divine right;
but in any event this was no way to settle the difficulty.
Here are men who have been stripped in a
moment of the results of years of toil—all that they
have in the world gone; here are women weighed
down with work and care, some whose husbands are
in prison, and who are thus left to bear the heavy
burden of this infliction alone; here are little children,
some comfortably clad, others obliged to encounter
the wind and frozen ground with bare heads
and bleeding feet.
Whither can they go? There is a small following
of the prophet at Quincy, Illinois; some propose to
go there, some start for other places. But what
if they are not welcome at Quincy, and what can
they do with such a multitude? There is no help
for it, however, no other spot where the outcasts
can hope for refuge at the moment. Some have
horses and cattle and wagons; some have none.
Some have tents and bedding; some have none. But
the start is made, and the march is slowly to the
eastward. In the months of February and March44 " 'On the 20th of April, 1S39, the last of the society departed from Far
West. Thus had a whole people, variously estimated at from ten to fifteen