The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-03
THEIR TREAsoNABLE HOPES.

Tho armies Of our Nation will have
plenty to do without attending 10 MS: they
viii need us to help them Yes, instead
OF bringing their armies To f1ght the peo-
pie Of Utah. they will need Ctah's armies
10 help them. They are threatening war
in Kansas on the slavery question, and
the general Government has already been
called upon 10 send troops there. Well.
all have TO say on that matter is Sue
cess TO both parties. From sermon by
President Jcdcdiah NJ. Grant IN Salt Lake
tabernacle. March :. 1856; Journal OF Dis
courses. volume ,, page 235.
o, we are the most loyal people in
all the land, We are!
There was once hope in the hic-
rarchica breast that this Nation would
he destroyed. In the old days of Mis-
souri,, Ohio and Illinois it was conf
IDENTIFY expected that the kingdom to be
SET mp 10y believers in the doctrines
preached by Joseph Smith would in
crease in strength so rapidly that of
itself il would be able To overthrow
the Union III very few years. This
idea became especially strong in Nau-
VOC, after Joseph Smith had concen-
tratcd the saints rs Il political power
in the state, and after he had forti-
fed himself with a military organiZa-
tlon known as the Nauyoo Legion. Con-
sidcriug that he had so sufficiently sur.
rounded himself with the necessary po-
litical paraphcrnalia as TO impress citi-
Zcns with his Importance as political
factor in the land, Joseph announced
himself 10 be candidate for the Prcsi-
4 Al
all possible weight to his ambition he
was proclaimed as the president of the
Mormon church; a prophet, seer, and
rcvclator Of these the last days; the
agent through whom God had opened
mp the last dispensation of the fullncss
of times; the inventor of the only
original American religion; the only
mnn on earth who had communicated
in person with heavenly beings; the
vicegercnt of God Almighty-and.
finally and most important, the gen.
eral commanding the armies of Israel.
! Stupidly, but fondly, Joseph had hoped
80 hasten the purposes of the Lord in
the achievement of his own personal
] Il
with any fanatic who believed as he
said he did. imagined that he was the
| special human selection Of the Creator
J to establish "thc kingdom Of Cod on
| earth -; and he fancicd that upon his
| personal success III onslaught against
/ the institutions of men depended the
work Of establishment Of the Lord 's
| power and authority in tho earth. And
| just as could have been expected of
a zealot who counted not in his reck.
onings the opinions, rights and privi.
leges of those who did not believe in
bim--hc utterly failed.
After that there was less talk OF
the destruction Of the United States
7, by the Mormon church. For some wears
the leaders contented themselves with
railing against the prosecutors
whom they charged with having driven
them out of Missouri and Ohio and
Illinois, but who in reality had merely
defended the country against their dc
! structivencss. But when the news came
to Utah that there was liable TO b,
troub!c-cven warfare and much blood
shcd-ovcr the slavery question, the
prophets of God ''-(cven the use OF
quotation marks upon the term does