"It was a spectacle of true courage to see these federal officers, clothed with important duties, stand up and assert their rights, when they knew but too well that this 'request' upon the part of the meeting and the Committee had a far more grave significance, if that request were not complied with.
"They have been called on by a number of citizens and gentlemen since the visit of the Committee, and have received but one expression of opinion as to what has passed; and that is, that the proceedings throughout were an outrage, and only intended to get rid of men who cannot be used against the interest of the General Government, and whose fidelity to duty makes them alike hated and feared by the Mormon leaders."
The following, from the same correspondence, will show the conduct of Young during this emergency:—
"While the objects of all this wrath pursue the even tenor of their way, and sleep soundly, with scarce a casement barred, unmindful of the threatened storm without, yet not so with him, 'the Lord's Anointed,' who appears to dream dreams and see visions, that to his distempered fancy seem to foreshadow the 'handwriting on the wall,' at the great day of his judgment which is to come. Like unto the great magician, the famous Fakir, who upon a time, by his incantation, raised a demon which he could not control, which would not 'lay' at the conqueror's command, and from which he fled in dismay; so, in the present instance, the 'Lion of the Lord' is sorely affrighted at the hideous aspect of the devil ('of a muss') he has raised, which, he has the sagacity to see, may not 'down' at his bidding, but may return to plague the inventor.
"There is abundant evidence to show that he is alarmed at his own creation, and foreseeing that he has provoked justice, incensed mercy, seeks to guard against the retribution which he knows the offended majesty of loyalty and law should visit upon him.
"The night succeeding the action of the mass meeting, some fifty armed sentinels or guards were on duty, in and about Brigham's premises, which number has since been augmented to several hundreds, a portion of whom serve as pickets, or night-patrol, on the different streets leading toward Camp Douglas. It has been currently reported that orders have been issued to arrest Brigham and his counsellors, and hence these precautionary measures to guard against any sudden inroad of troops from Col. Connor's command. . . .
"On the 8th inst., the Sabbath succeeding the date of the mass meeting, Brigham delivered a very treasonable and violent harangue in the Tabernacle, to an immense audience, which filled almost to suffocation that capacious structure. . . . 'We have always,' he said, 'done everything in our power to show our loyalty. Is there anything that could be asked that we would not do? Yes; let the present Administration ask us for a thousand men, or even five hundred, and I'd see them damned first, and then they couldn't have them! What do you think of that?
[Loud cries of "Good, good!" and great applause.] We have liars, murderers, and thieves among us, who are watching us, to report something against our loyalty. Their object is to send another army here to "wipe us out"; but let me tell them that cannot be done; "they can't come it,"—putting his thumb to his nose, and making the peculiar gyrating movement with the fingers, so very expressive among rowdies and shoulder-hitters. At this antic, a long, and loud, and universal shout and laughter went up from all parts of the house, joined with clapping of hands, and stamping of the feet, in one general din and uproar.
"'It was said that we were disloyal because we burned some seventy government wagons, at the time Johnston's army came here. Well, let me ask, what the devil were they doing out here? Coming here to destroy, and wipe us from the face of the earth; and we only took and destroyed some of their good things, so that they had to gnaw mules' bones, and eat cattle which had frozen to death; that's what they did.
"'I swear some, my brethren and sisters; but it is always in the pulpit,—never anywhere else.'