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Forces That Shaped Utah's Dixie 123 than one would expect for American settlers. First of all, Mormons generally viewed the federal government, the military, miners and mining, and Gentiles as adversaries. Alliances of any kind with them were not easy steps. Secondly, the Indians were a force to be played off against the federal government, if such action were needed. But, finally, Mormons in Dixie between 1849 and 1889 were Americans who heard quite a different drumbeat, a beat determined primarily by Mormon church leaders. During these decades, Mormonism was theocratic rather than democratic and did not support American traditions of separation of church and state. For most Mormons, church leaders were the final authority to be heard. Mormons obeyed the law of the land but believed the law of God might, and often should, override the law of majority rule. For example, although the majority of Americans did not approve of polygamy, Mormons practiced it in defiance of the law of the land.13 Mormons believed strongly that the "earth was the Lord's and the fullness thereof" and that the Saints were His select stewards for whom God could and would temper the elements.11 Jesse W. Crosby wrote from Los Angeles, California, in 1863 during a very difficult time in Dixie (the people w7ere nearly starving) about that beautiful city with orange orchards covering the nearby hills. He declared that if the Gentiles could do that well, just think what the Mormons could have made of it. After all, look how they had made Salt Lake Valley bloom.ir' Church leaders taught that it was the Saints' mission to set up the kingdom of heaven on earth and to usher in the Second Coming and millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Even the inspired American Constitution was a means to that end. Mormons preached that Zion was being established in the tops of the mountains as an ensign unto which all nations would come for the law and the word of the Lord, a sort of Mormon version of American Manifest Destiny.10 Mormons believed also that God was perfect, that His plan for mankind was perfect, and that man himself could become perfect through faith and work and obedience. Their way to perfection included a special 43 Gustive O. Larson, The "Americanization" of Utah for Statehood (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1971), is an excellent study of these issues. 44 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958), p. 26. 45 Jesse W. Crosby to Brigham Young, November 24, 1863, LDS Archives. 40 Charles S. Peterson, "Settlement of the Little Colorado, 1873-1900: A Study of the Processes and Institutions of Mormon Expansion" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah 1967) DD ; 11-12. ' ' n"