The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-20
THE EXODUS.


The exodus-the departure of the
followers of Joseph Smith Chen but
lately dead at the hands of the Garth
age mob from Nauvoo, the city they
had built, out into the unknown west
TO find new homes and to make a new
state, has become in the light of time
an incident of tremendous Importance
in the settlement of the trans Missis-
/ sippi country. 1t was a sorrcwful pro-
! ceSSion, the first one that moved out
of Nauvoo on that day in February,
1916, and equally sorrowful were those
! that followed. There is no perfect
parallel 10 this migration in annals o:
1 history. The exodus from Egypt was
/ from a heather land-a land of idola-
| tors-to the land of Canaan-a fertile
region selected by the Lord for his
chosen people. Perhaps a practical
/ parallel may be found in the fight OF
the Pilgrim Fathers from the persecu-
tons of the bigoted and despotic people
of England TO the new world wherein
they hoped they might enjoy liberty
| of conscience. But the flight of the
Pilgrim Fathers was from a people
who then made but few pretensions of
civil or religious liberty. Whereas the
fight of the Mormons was from a peo-
pie into whose system of government
has been primarily placed a guarantee
against prosecutions for religion s
sake. Pictures of the trains of mi
grating saints are still TO be found in
some of the prints Of the year of the
exodus, and these pictures tell the
story of the event more graphically
than any pen can tell it. The weather
was bitter cold and the waters OF the
Mississippi were frozen over. In the
haste of departure much property had
been sacrificed and the entire worldly
possessions of each family were TO be
found in the wagon driven by its
head. Within a few days from the
clared the Mormons must CO. the
last of the Latter-day Saints was
slowly vending his way westward
toward the unknown land in which mis-
future home was to be- That they
were going was certain, but where
they were going or how long or how
dangerous the journey would be, none
knew. They had an abiding conf
dence that as the Lord had been with
them in times passed, however singu-
lar had been his method of proving it.
that he would be with them in the
future. They believed that they were
his people. that his empire they had
established and that all the power of
he'll could not prevail against it.
There are those living who took part
in the exodus. They tell how their
wagons rolled out into the wilderness.
leaving the east and its allurements
every day farther behind them. How
at the head rode the man above any
other on earth, the most revered. How
night and morning they were called to
prayers at the sound of the bugle. and
how around the camp fire when each
days journey was done, they enlivened
4
story telling They tell, too. how, as
they journeyed on. their ranks were
swelled by fresh bands until there was
brought together 1900 wagons. 10000
head of cattle, a great number of
mules and horses, an immense flock of
sheep, and how they finally reached
the spot on the Mississippi river now
known as Council Bluffs, and. crossing
the river, pitched their tents at Winter
Quarters. This in brief is the story of
the exodus. The stream of humanity
thus started westward has never
ceased to flow. When it began the
trans Missouri country was but little
better known to the people of the
United States than is now the interior
of Africa. Vague accounts of its lakes,
mountains and wales had been brought
to the ears of civilization by Jim
Bridger Jim Baker and a few other
duN splits WIZ AetO pcHCtIdbCO
it, but its enormous possibilities as a
country for settlement and develop
ment were not even dreamed of in the
eastern portion of the republic. AS
result of the exodus the first trial was
made over the plains and mountains
to Utah. AS a result of the exodus
Salt Lake City was founded, American
irrigation established and the great
wealth and development of the region
now call the western pnOirP made
possible. Out of the sorrows and ira
vail Of the Mormon people in 1916 was
born the present prosperity of the
forty-fifth state. The exodus from
Nauvoo robbed a city of its inhab-
itants, but it peopled a state.