History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

DEPARTURE OF THE SAINTS. 219
whole camp of Israel." 8 He then went on to say that
as the Lord had been with them in times past, howsoever
singular had been his method of proving his
presence, so would he be with them in the future.
His empire, the empire of his people, was established,
and the powers of hell should not prevail against it. 9
After this, with comparatively light hearts, they
broke camp, and slowly wending their way westward,
disappeared at length beyond the horizon, in pursuit
once more of the ever-mocking phantom of home.
Whither they journeyed they were as yet uncertain.
They knew only that they were to search out, probably
beyond the Rocky Mountains, if not indeed
among them, some isolated spot, where, far away from
the land of boasted freedom, the soil, the skies, and
mind and manners were free. If they were offensive
to the laws, if the laws of the land were offensive to
them, they would go where they might have land and
laws of their own.
Considering their situation, and what they had been
lately called to undergo—ignominy, insult, the loss of
property, the abandonment of home—there was little
complaint. It was among their opponents, and in the
midst of a general recital of their wrongs, that the
saints were accustomed to put on a long face and strike
into a doleful strain. Among themselves there were
8 The camp of Israel was wherever the president and apostles were.
9 It has been stated that after dismissing his congregation on the 17th the
president led several of the twelve aside to a valley east of the camp, and held
a council. A letter was then read from Samuel Brannan, a Mormon elder
then in New York, together with a copy of an agreement between him and
one A. G. Benson. Brannan was at that time in charge of a company of saints
bound for the Pacific coast by way of Cape Horn, and the agreement which
he forwarded for Brigham's signature required the pioneers to transfer to A.
G. Benson and company the odd numbers of all the town lots that they might
acquire in the country where they settled. 'I shall select,' writes Brannan,
' the most suitable spot on the bay of San Francisco for the location of a commercial
city.' The council refused to take any action in the matter. In case
they refused to sign the agreement, Tullidge soberly relates, Life of Brigham.
Young, 19-23, the president, it was said, would issue a proclamation, setting
forth that it was the intention of the Mormons to take sides with either Mexico
or Great Britain against the United States, and order them to be disarmed
or dispersed! Further mention of thi3 matter is made in History of California,
vol. v. cap. xx., this series.