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Show 155 inite for most of them, but many believe that their ultimate destination is Sonora."^ It appears that the public did not, for tbe most part, understand the implications of Brigham Young's "Sebastopol" speech on March 21, when it was proclaimed that the new gathering would be "in this Territory." Even before the evacuation of Salt Lake had been determined upon by the prophet, when desolation and scorched earth was simply a contingency plan, the Eastern press had often predicted the Mormon's removal, proclaiming Sonora to be the objective point. "I find that the probability of Brigham Young leading his followers from Salt Lake to the Mexican province of Sonora has attracted the attention of our government, " wrote a Washington correspondent in the St. Louis Intelligencer of November 23. "President Buchanan," the article disclosed, "is anxious to acquire the province of Sonora from Mexico"; therefore, the Intelligencer urged that the government should "prevent a Mormon hegira to Sonora, if possible." For "if the Mormons were once to get settled there...public sentiment in the United States would never consent to the acquisition of any foreign territory however valuable on which the Mormons had taken up their quarters. To further cloud the issue of the ultimate destination of the Mormons, Brigham Young himself purposefully misled his listeners in a Sunday afternoon labernacle speech on April 25, making strong allusions to the Sonora country. "I have a good mind to tell a secret right here;" the prophet disclosed. "I believe I will tell it anyhow. They say there is a fine country down there; Sonora is it, is that the name for it? Do not speak of this out of doors, if you please."5 It appears that President Young was still trying to mask his true intentions in hopes of throwing the enemy off balance, thereby gaining a little time to get the people away to the interior desert. Other press reports had the Mormons heading for Central or South America, |
