Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1900-12-15

this to be their promised land Of rest
until they should become a mighty peO-
pie, and this message had been received
without doubt or hesitation.
A MOMENTOUS MEETING.
This was on the evening OF July 2Sth.
II was a mOmentOus meeting. The as
sembage had voted upon the location
and a plan of the first city In the new
land, and In the solemn grandeur OF
their position as installing a new dis
pensatiOn vi civilization amid the ever
lasting hills, had spoken one yOice-nOt
a dissent or murmur, and under
the inspiration of that hour they list
ened to the declaration that what they
had done was in obedience to the in
struCtion OF their beloved martyr
Prophet, and they responded thereto
with a hearty amen, for they realized
the truth Of what had been said. They
also gave assent to the further remark
OF their leader recorded In the journal
OF President MILFORD Woodruff on july
-. 1877. Joseph would still have been
alive II the Twelve had been in NauyoO
when he reCrOssed the river from Mont
rose
Inc statement Of President Young
was the relteration Of a fact well known
% his hearers. The location of the
Mormon people on the western slope
OF the Rocky Mountains had been in
diCated to them by the first President
and Prophet of the Church Of Jesus
Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Joseph
Smith, whose unsullied life, with that
Of his faithful brother Hyrum, was
sacrificed to the hatred Of a ruthless
mob at Carthage, Illinois, at the very
time when the Prophet was cOntem-
plating leading the Saints to the West,
there to become a great people, as he
had declared years before they should
be. In these valleys.
FORESEEN BY JOSEPH SMITH.
To Joseph Smith belongs the response
bility aud honor as much as may BE- ac-
corded to man, for the Latter-day
saints locating in Utah, The great
man on whom devolyed the actual task
of leading the Camp Of Israel over a
trackless desert to these wales did not
fail to give prominence TO that fact.
Further. he felt in the depths of his
soul that II the Church quorum over
which he presided had not been scat
tered at distant points from Nauyoo
when Joseph and Hyrum Smith re-
turned from the western pioneer Jour
ney they had started on already, the
tragedy Of Carthage would have been
ayerted and those who knew the vigor
and determination OF Brigham Young.
and his intense love for the great
Prophet OF the latterday dlspensauon,
had no reason to doubt his assertion
But Is was not TO be, the Twelve were
not In Nauyoo, Joseph and Hyrui"
we're martyred, and the Pioneer com
Journey TO the West three years latel
than the Prophet had intended.
THE WESTWARD MIGRATION.
The westward migration Of the body
OF members OF the Church OF Jesus
Christ OF Latter-day Saints to the
Rocky Mountain region, was a theme
frequently considered by the Prophet
and others before the formers dealh'
He named IL to intimate associates IN
the days OF Kirkland, and In the later
years OF his life, Ii received his partic-
ular attention, for by his inspiration as
a Prophet he knew II must Come-that
the house Of the Lord must be estaD-
ushed in the tops OF the mountains,
and all nations should flow unto II, as
part of the work OF the Gospel dispen'
sation committed to him by the LORD
The subject OF western removal was re-
ferred TO frequently in NauNoo' Con
gress had been memorialized for lesls-
lation regarding H. the removal OF the
Mormons was discussed between the
Prophet Joseph and Senator stephen A.
Douglas. The latter thought they should
locate in oregon, heard Of as being az
the extreme western limit OF the contl-
nent But the Prophet said no; the
Rocky Mountains was the place where
the Saints should assemble ana be-
come powerful That district was then
known as Upper California, and as q
result OF Joseph's teachings, five years
before the death OF the Prophet and
Patriarch, the late President John Tay-
Tor celebrated IN Mormon verse the
hymn beginning:
In Upper California oh, that's the land
for me,
II lies between the mountains and the
great Pacific sea,
The recrossing from Montrose, referred