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Brigham Young’s Position
The Washington States has the following:
“It is reported that BRIGHAM YOUNG and his people have determined to resist the entrance of the United States troops into the Mormon Territory and threaten to burn the grass on the prairies, and, if necessary, to destroy their own city in order to deprive the troops of shelter during the Winter. The report accords with threats from YOUNG which were thrown out in Mormon newspapers. He even affected to doubt whether the Government would send out troops at such a season, as they might be easily deprived by the Mormons of all supplies. Not one of them, said BRIGHAM, will ever reach us without our consent. But, at the same time, he qualifies his threats by declaring his willingness to receive the United States authorities and obey United States laws, reserving to the people of the Territory all the rights which he desired for them. What the demands of the United States Government are which he now proposes to resist, it does not appear. He has had his own way so long that he will probably consider the exercise of any United States authority as an encroachment upon the rights of the Mormons. That some trouble is to be made by the Mormons, is very probable, and, in that case, the military force employed by the United States on this service will be found inadequate. Should the Mormons resist the United States laws and authority, constitutionally exercised, they will be expelled, ere long, from the Territory; for the presence of a hostile community in the central part for the continent, and on the great line of communication across it, cannot be endured. Congress will, in this event, not fail to legislate upon the subject, and may, according to Judge DOUGLAS’ suggestion, repeal the act establishing a Territorial Government, and partition the Territory between the adjacent States and Territories.
