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Show 69 when "two shall put their tens of thousands to_flight"23 To one w h o d o e s nQt understand the Mormon millennial context of the Utah War, the claims of the Saints would seem absurd: "We could go out and use them up," declared the prophet on September 13, "and it would not require fifty men to do it."21* On October 18 he boasted, "I know that ten men, such as I could name and select, could stop them before they got to Laramie."25 And on July 26 Heber C. Kimball exclaimed, "Good God! I have wives enough to whip out the 26 United States." It was only with the help of God that these extravagant claims could be realized. The Mormons were not without a few believers in the government. Senator Sam Houston, of Texas, had seen what a handful of die-hards had accomplished in Texas, and he was particularly wary of the 1 fanatic Mormons. Houston put forth his views on the floor of the Senate J and perhaps not without justification: Whoever goes there will meet the fate of Napolean's army when he went to Moscow. Just as sure as we are now standing in the senate, these people, if they fight at all, will fight desperately. They are defending their homes. They are fighting to prevent the execution of threats that have been made, which touch their hearths and their families; and depend upon it,they will fight until every man perishes before he surrenders.... I say your men will never return, but their bones will whiten the valley of Salt Lake. If war begins, the very moment one single drop of blood is drawn, it will be the signal of extermination.... so sure as the troops advance, so sure they will be annihilated. You may treble them, and you will only add to the catastrophe, not diminish human suffering. These people expect nothing but extermination or abuse more intolerable than 27 even extermination would be, from your troops, and they will opose them. Not only were the Mormon leaders rallying the Saints in Salt Lake, but |