170 years ago today - Sep 17, 1845

Lieutenant General Brigham Young went into the square and addressed the officers and soldiers as follows: It is my wish that every man from the age of 16 to 100 be enlisted in these companies ... I want this hollowings, beating of drums and firing of guns should cease. The police have their orders from this time to arrest every man or boy in our street found guilty of these acts or anyone walking our street after night, detain them till daylight and stripping off their clothes, show whether they are male or female. I am going to propose to Jacob B. Backenstos that he make every man a deputy then we may sally forth with our writs in our pockets in any number and arrest these mobbers. When you shoot, be sure and shoot right. If you die, die like Miner R. Deming in the defense of your country's rights. When we meet Demings in another world he will be happy in the death he died. God grant you may all live and die in the defense of your country's rights. Keep your guns to yourselves. Trust no one and when you shoot, take a good aim. -- Nauvoo, Illinois

[Source: On the Mormon Frontier, the Diaries of Hosea Stout. Juanita Brooks, ed. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1964. 1:65, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]

No comments:

Post a Comment