The most prominent feature of his character, doubtless, was his ardent love of liberty. For this he was distinguished even among his brethren who as a group were remarkable for their love of and devotion to freedom. To other men the love of liberty was a principle; with him it was not only a principle but a passion: others may have been educated to love it; he loved it instinctively.
In a letter to one of his brethren, answering one that had laid rather hard conditions upon him, he expressed the following sentiments, in which it is difficult to determine which most appears, his love of liberty or his detestation, his utter abhorrence of slavery:
"I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not be slave to God! I'd be His servant, friend, His son. I'd go at His behest; but would not be His slave. I'd rather be extinct than be a slave. His friend I feel I am, and He is mine:—a slave! The manacles would pierce my very bones—the clanking chains would grate upon my soul—a poor, lost, servile, crawling wretch to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the thing who gave the lash! Myself—perchance my wives, my children to dig the mud, to mould and tell the tale of brick and furnish our own straw! * * * But stop! I'm God's free man: I will not, cannot be a slave! Living, I'll be free here, or free in life above—free with the Gods, for they are free: and if I'm in the way on earth, I'll ask my God to take me to my friends above!"
He never devoted himself to money getting. He never bowed at the gilded shrine of mammon. The yellow god of this world found in him no devotee. "Many men could see a sovereign or a half eagle a long way farther off than he could," remarked one who knew him. Yet the amount of property he accumulated at Nauvoo, and which he sacrificed in order to flee into the wilderness with the Church of Christ, is sufficient to prove that he was not without financial ability. But he had his eyes and heart fixed upon the better riches, those which moth and rust could not corrupt, neither mobs break through nor steal. These things filled his soul, engrossed his attention and left but a small margin of time to him in which to fall in love with the wealth of this world. His motto was—"Money is of little importance where truth is concerned."
"It is the crowns, the principalities, the powers, the thrones, the dominions, and the associations with the Gods that we are after, and we are here to prepare ourselves for these things—this is the main object of existence."
Still it must not be thought that he was indifferent to financial enterprises and the development of the resources of the country. His efforts at establishing sugar works after his return from France; building and running the first nail factory; the contracts he took and filled when the Union Pacific railroad was building; his interest in the mining industry of the Territory; his association with Z. C. M. I., all give evidence to the contrary. He merely gave financial affairs a subordinate place to the interests of the kingdom of God.
He was cautious in his business methods, and scrupulously honest. During a period that he was in straightened circumstances, a member of his family was out of fuel, and without the means to purchase any. She sent word of the situation to him; having no money, and not wishing to go in debt as long as he saw no prospect of repaying it, he sent to her his new overcoat as that was the only thing he had at hand which could be turned into money. It was accompanied with a kind note that directed one of his sons to dispose of it, and deplored the rather close circumstances in which they were placed. "I can get along very nicely with my old coat this winter," he wrote: "it is a little faded, but then I prefer a faded coat to a faded reputation; and I do not propose to ask for accommodations that I am not prepared to meet."
He was a skillful workman in his business of turner, and when not engaged in the ministry, like Paul, "his own hands administered to his necessities." We have already seen him in the saw-pit day after day manufacturing lumber with a whip saw before the erection of saw mills; building his own house, cultivating his own garden, fencing his own farm, constructing the first bridge over the river Jordan.
He had adopted in practice some most excellent maxims which would have insured him success in any business he might have chosen. What they were may be seen in this: If he plowed a field it must be done well. He was not content to skim over the ground merely. If the ground was hard or rocky in places, some one must ride on the beam and the plow made to do its work. Moreover, the furrows must be straight. If he planted trees the holes must be made large; in setting them in, the fibres of the roots must be spread out and the soil placed round them carefully, and then be well watered that they might have every chance to live.
He had some skill in drawing and was an adept at wood carving for which his patterns were of his own designing. Of this kind of work as of all other kinds he would often say: "If a thing is done well, no one will ask how long it took to do it, but who did it."