President Young said if an army comes to help them [U.S. troops approaching Utah] in the spring we will use up [IE destroy] this army first & then we will use up the others before they get to the South Pass. In the spring we must ask Allexander what He intends to do. Inform him He must not stay there untill He gets reinforcements in the spring and if they will not leave in the spring we will use them up first the best we Can. In 10 days we can put 2,000 men around them which would soon use them up. I do not believe that they will have 500 fighting men in the spring. They are in a vary Critical situation. They say they have no other way to get a living for their families but to war. I think it is better to let the Army alone this winter. They will die many of them and others desert & many be weakened with the scurvey & in the spring we will wipe them out if necessary if they do not go away.
We do all of our Business in the name of Israel God and they in their own way.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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