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Show 91 California mail came in tonight Brought a paper with Pres Buchannans message in it I learned that he recommends a large force to be sent to Utah and that would frighten the Mormons so they would give up without fighting. The news is that California has 10,000 men on hand to come against the saints and that 500 would fit themselves out- when I hear thease things I feel like saying 0 ye fools! how little do you know that your days are numbered, for Zions sons shall increase.38 The day after the news arrived in Salt Lake City, Woodruff met the mail carrier in Captain Hooper's store. The Apostle questioned him about conditions in the South and the possibility of an invasion from that quarter. There were but ten men who knew the new southern route from the Colorado, the mail agent informed him, and eight of them were Mormons. He also told Woodruff that Lyman was on his way to the Colorado. The carrier had apparently met Lyman on the road between January 17 and the end of the month, but was unaware that Lyman had decided to come straight to Salt Lake after speaking with Major Blake. Woodruff was then informed that the last steamer to leave California had been given orders to "send 4000 men immediately on the southern route & 4000 men from Oregon and 2000 would start soon from the Missouri River and 2000 now at Fort Bridger would make 12,000 men. "39 It would seem that the mail carrier may have also fallen into the trap of believing the gossip which ran wild up and down the California coast. Brigham Young now became aroused. While almost the entire Utah militia was concentrated on the eastern front, the Territory was being flanked on every side. Although he had not yet been informed of the latest intelligence received by Woodruff, nor had he received Lyman's letter of January 20, Brigham Young fired off a letter to Amasa Lyman: "Our enemies are still anxious to do us all the harm they can," wrote Young, I |