Having journeyed two hundred miles, they encamped and made a temporary settlement, called Garden Grove; forty miles in advance of this they made another, called Mount Pisgah; one hundred and fifty miles beyond this, they made a third settlement at Council Bluffs. While here resting from the fatigue of journeying, many were overtaken with sickness, which was the result of former severe privations. In the midst of their troubles, at a time when every man was required more than ever to watch over and protect his helpless wife and family from the hordes of savage Indians and wild beasts of the forest, with which they were surrounded, a message was received from the President of the United States, requesting five hundred men to enter the army and march against the Mexicans. This demand, though strange and heartrending, was complied with; five hundred men were thus taken from the camps of the Saints, leaving behind them fathers, mothers, wives and children in the midst of afflictions, many of whom were dwelling in miserable log huts, tents, and wagons, with scarcely the common necessaries of life.
A few months after their departure, their enemies still burning with rage, and finding the body of the Saints beyond their reach, made an attack on those remaining in Nauvoo, an account of which we extract from a general epistle of the Twelve, December 23, 1847:
In September, 1846, an infuriated mob, clad in all the horrors of war, fell on the Saints who had still remained in Nauvoo for want of means to remove; murdered some, and drove the remainder across the Mississippi into Iowa, where, destitute of houses, tents, food, clothing or money, they received temporary assistance from some benevolent souls in Quincy, St. Louis, and other places, whose names will ever be remembered with gratitude. But at that period the Saints were obliged to scatter to the north, south, east and west, wherever they could find shelter and procure employment. And, hard as it is to write it, it must ever remain a truth on the page of history, that while the flower of Israel's camp was sustaining the wings of the American eagle, by their influence and arms, in a foreign country, their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children were driven by mob violence from a free and independent State, of the same national republic, and were compelled to flee from the fire, the sword, the musket and the cannon's mouth as from the demon of death. * * * Their property in Hancock County, Illinois, was little or no better than confiscated; many of their houses were burned by the mob, and they were obliged to leave most of those that remained without sale; and those who bargained sold almost for a song; for the influence of their enemies was to cause such a diminution in the value of property, that from a handsome estate was seldom realized enough to remove the family comfortably away; and thousands have since been wandering to and fro, destitute, afflicted and distressed for the common necessaries of life, or unable to endure have sickened and died by hundreds; while the Temple of the Lord is left solitary in the midst of our enemies; an enduring monument of the diligence and integrity of the Saints.
While the Saints were passing through those scenes of persecutions, sufferings and deep affliction, many glorious manifestations of divine approbation were given them, which we should have been happy here to record, did our limits and the nature of the work admit.
The Saints in the wilderness continued their journeying as circumstances would allow; having to cut their way through woods and valleys, over rivers and mountains, a distance of fourteen hundred miles. At length, on the 21st of July, 1847, the pioneers discovered a beautiful valley beyond the "Pass" of the great Rocky Mountains, being a portion of the Great Basin of Upper California, near the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake. On the 24th the President and first company entered this their present home; other companies, year after year, continue their emigration to this point. Here Israel will remain till the indignation of an offended God is poured out upon the nations. Here will peace and happiness dwell, while nation is at war with nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and here the people of "many nations shall come and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Micah iv: 2.
Though persecution, poverty, sickness and trials of every description have come upon this people, they have stood the fiery trial, and given evidence to all men, to angels and to God, of their faith, virtue and fidelity. Now the Church of the living God, far beyond the reach of mobs and strife, in her hiding place, shall grow like a tree planted by rivers of waters, till "she looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Cant. vi: 10.
As we have had to describe scenes of sorrow and suffering, harrowing to the feelings of the virtuous, we feel happy, indeed, that we can now direct the reader to the present favorable situation of the Saints. The following extract we take from the same general epistle:
We are at peace with all nations, with all kingdoms, with all powers, with all governments, with all authorities under the whole heavens, except the kingdom and power of darkness, which are from beneath, and are ready to stretch forth our arms to the four quarters of the globe, extending salvation to every honest soul; for our mission in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth; and the blessing of the Lord is upon us; and when every other arm shall fail, the power of the Almighty will be manifest in our behalf; for we ask nothing but what is right, we want nothing but what is right, and God has said that our strength shall be equal to our day; and we invite all presidents, and emperors, and kings, and princes, and nobles, and governors, and rulers, and judges, and all nations, kindreds, tongues and people under the whole heaven, to come and help us to build a house to the name of the God of Jacob, a place of peace, a city of rest, a habitation for the oppressed of every clime, even for those that love their neighbor as they do themselves, and who are willing to do as they would be done unto; and this we are determined to do, and we will do, God being our helper; and we will help every one that will help to sustain good and wholesome laws for the protection of virtue, and the punishment of vice.
The kingdom which we are establishing, is not of this world; but it is the kingdom of the great God. It is the fruit of righteousness, of peace, of salvation to every soul that will receive it, from Adam down to his latest posterity. Our good will is towards all men, and we desire their salvation in time and in eternity; and we will do them good so far as God will give us the power and men will permit us the privilege, and we will harm no man; but if men will rise up against the power of the Almighty to overthrow His cause, let them know assuredly that they are running on the bosses of Jehovah's buckler, and as God lives they will be overthrown.
Come, then, ye Saints; come, then, ye honorable men of the earth; come, then, ye wise, ye learned, ye rich, ye noble, according to the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of the great Jehovah, from all nations, and kindreds, and kingdoms, and tongues, and people, and dialects, on the face of the whole earth, and join the standard of Emanuel, and help us to build up the Kingdom of God, and establish the principles of truth, life and salvation, and you shall receive your reward among the sanctified, when the Lord Jesus Christ cometh to make up His jewels; and no power on earth or in hell can prevail against you. * * *
Come, then, ye Saints of Latter-day, and all ye great and small, wise and foolish, rich and poor, noble and ignoble, exalted and persecuted, rulers and ruled of the earth, who love virtue and hate vice, and help us to do this work, which the Lord hath required at our hands, and inasmuch as the glory of the latter house shall exceed that of the former, your reward shall be an hundredfold, and your rest shall be glorious. Our universal motto is, "Peace with God, and good will to all men."
The following we extract from a private letter written in the Valley respecting their peace and prosperity:
All is stillness. No elections, no police reports, no murders, no wars in our little world. How quiet, how still, how peaceful, how happy, how free from excitement we live. Our old firelocks have not been rubbed up, or our swords unsheathed because of any alarm. No policeman, or watchmen of any kind have been on duty to guard us from external or internal danger. The drum has beat, to be sure, but it was mingled with merry-making, or its martial sound was rather to remind us that war had once been known among the nations, than to arouse us to tread the martial and measured step of those who muster for the war, or march to the battle field. Oh, what a life we live! It is the dream of the poets actually fulfilled in real life. Here we can cultivate the mind, renew the spirits, invigorate the body, cheer the heart, and ennoble the soul of man. Here we can cultivate every science and every art calculated to enlarge the mind, accommodate the body, or polish or adorn our race. And here we can receive and extend that pure intelligence which is unmingled with the jargon of mystic Babylon, and which will fit a man, after a long life of health and usefulness, to enjoy the mansions of bliss, and the society of those who are purified in the blood of the Lamb.
Here no prisoners groan in solitary cells; no chains or fetters bind the limbs of man; no slave exists to tremble, toil and sweat for nought, or fear and crouch full low to please his fellow man. Here all are free to do right, and are warned, and chastened and corrected if caught in doing wrong.
Here, too, we are all rich—there is no real poverty; all men have access to the soil, the pasture, the timber, the water power, and all the elements of wealth, without money or price.