OCR Text |
Show 75 than submit to their military rule and oppression, manifest it by raising your hands."38 The vote was unanimous in the affirmative. And it was also in the Bowery on September 13 that Brigham Young made this remark in the presence of the Captain: ...I have told you that if there is any man or woman that is not willing to destroy anything and everything of their property that would be of use to the enemy, if left, I wanted them out of the Territory; and I again say so today; for when the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down; for "judgment will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet."^" The national press quickly learned of the Mormons' plans. The New York Herald of February 23 wrote: "If war it must be, guerilla will be fashionable." 4,0 The press apparently gave little consideration to the church's claim of taking the victory without the troops getting into the settlements. The Alta California published a private letter purported to have been received in San Francisco from "a priest high in authority at Salt Lake City." "Our plans are all matured and laid," wrote the "priest." If they enter these valleys, which will be most difficult, we purpose caching, e.i., burying our grain, for we have an abundance of it, and then we'll make a Moscow of everything that will burn. Burn up the grass, and every mortal thing that will burn, and leave behind us nothing but desolation, upon which it will be impossible to subsist. We shall retreat to the dense canons and places in the mountains, surrounded by natural barriers which render the interior impervious to all ingress, and which alone are accessible through narrow and almost impassable defiles, that can be successfully guarded by a few to the exclusion of thousands. It |