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Show BRIGHAM YOUNG. . 147 confidence, esteem, and veneration, . and held an unrivalled place in tjtair. hearts. Upon the establishment of the provisional, government, he had been unanimously ghosen as their highest civil magistrate, and ' eyen before his appointment by the President, tie - combined in his, own person the triple character of confidential adviser, temporal ruler, and prophet of God. Intimately acquainted with their character, capacities, wants, and weaknesses; identified now with their prosperity j a$ he had formerly shared to the' full in their adversity and sorrows; honoiired, trusted, the whole wealth of th$ community placed . id hi& hands, for the advancement both of the spiritual and temporal interests, of the infant* settlement, he was, surely, of all others, the man best fitted to preside, under the auspices of the General Government, over a colony of which he may justly be said to hive been the founder.. No other man could ' . have so'entirely secured the confidence of the- people; and this selection by the Executive of the man of their choice, besides being highly gratifying to them, is recognised as an assurance that they shall hereafter receive at the hands of the General Government that justice' $ nd consideration to which they are entitled. Their confident hope now is that, no longer fugitives, and outlaws, but dwelling . beneath the broad shadow of the national aegis, they will be subject no more to the violence and outrage which drove them * to* seek a secure habitation in this far distwit wilderness. As to the imputations that have been made against the personal character, of the governor,! feel confident they are without foundation. Whatever opinion may be entertained of his pretensions, to the character of an inspired prophet, or of his " views and practice on. the subject of polygamy, his personal reputation X believe tp be above reproach. Certain it is that the most entire confidence is felt in his integrity, personal, official, and pecuniary, on the part of those to whom a long and intimate association, and in the most trying emergencies,, have afforded eyery possible opportunity of forming a just and accurate judgment of hid true character.. * From all I saw and heard, I am firmly of opinion that the appointment of any other man to> the office of gover& or would have. been regarded by the whole people, not only as a sanction, but as in some sort a renewal, on the part of the General Government, of that series of persecutions to which they bad already been subjected, and would have operate^ to create distrust and suspicion in minds prepared to hail with joy the admission of the new Terri* tory to the protection of tie^ supreme government. |
