“They have learned caution. They might be suspicious of you for one thing; this is why I advise you to secure Brother Hickman's help. They all know him, and know he would not mix in any affair that would bring them into trouble.”
“But I can't understand why they should be suspicious of me!” urged Benson.
“Then it's evident you know nothing of the Latter Day Saints,” said Young.
“Very little,” admitted Benson.
“We've been accused of crimes; and we've been lied about until a stranger from the States has to prove himself before we accept him for what he seems. You have come to me frankly, not like some of these Gentiles who sneak in here to make trouble. Why, sir, they even quarrel among themselves and take their troubles into our courts; get justice, and then go away and swear they have been robbed; or, they come here without a dollar, and live on our charity, and then go away and vilify us.” He seemed to be lashing himself into a rage at the memory of these wrongs, real or imaginary. “But it hasn't ended with these scoundrels that turn up here to make discord, the wrong has gone further; the Government at Washington has used us shamefully; it's trampled the constitution under foot in its dealings with us; it's ridden recklessly over all law to persecute and drive this people; and now they talk about sending troops here. You may as well tell me you can make hell into a powder-house as tell me you can let an army in here and have peace!” He rushed on with his grievances. “If I have forty wives, they do not know it; neither did I ask any judge for them. I live above law, and so do this people. Before we left Nauvoo, not less than two United States senators came to receive a pledge from us that we would leave the United States; and then, while we were doing our best to quit their borders, the poor degraded cusses sent a requisition for five hundred men to go and fight their battles in Mexico. That was President Polk; and he will welter in hell for it, with old Zachary Taylor; and that's where the present administration will soon be if they don't repent and let us alone!”
He paused, and Benson made haste to assure him of his entire sympathy. In spite of his coarseness the lawyer realized that Young spoke as one who had suffered oppression; or else he joined with an aggressive, quarrelsome disposition, the happy faculty of believing always in the justice of his cause, and that he was as firmly fixed in the right, as his enemies were hopelessly involved in the wrong.
A pause succeeded, and the governor came back to the matter in hand.
“When I think of our wrongs, Mr. Benson, I lose my temper; but they are nothing to you; what do you think, Hickman? What would you advise?”
Hickman turned to Benson and said:
“We can look about here, and try and learn if the party got this far.”