It was about the same time also that there began those regular weekly meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which have continued to the present time. The object was to keep the Twelve in harmony with one another, that each might know what the other was doing, that there might be uniformity, and that they might be actuated by a spirit of unity.
Early in February of that year, the legislature granted a charter to the community that was to be known as a municipal organization under the name of Salt Lake City. Concerning the charter President Woodruff writes that President Young said: "We do not want the Church to pass laws to punish crime, but to try members only on questions of Church fellowship. If the members transgress the laws of the land, turn them over to the authorities of the land. We want to protect the Church also in its rites of worship and protect every other sect that comes here. When the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, will their people all be members of the Church of Jesus Christ by obeying the Gospel? No, not one-eighth part of them. No more than a telestial kingdom is a celestial one, and they stand in about the same relation to each other."
Elder Woodruff, on the 23rd of April, in company with a party of about forty men with twenty wagons entered Utah Valley. This was his first visit to the settlements there. He met the Indian chief Walker. He thought him rather an ugly looking specimen for an Indian chief. Later on the company reached Sanpete valley. Here there were about one hundred families located. These families were engaged in farming. They had erected a schoolhouse and had commenced a council house.
Passing on from Sanpete, the company went through Sevier Valley to Marysvale and on to Cedar City. "We passed over the worst road the last few days that I ever knew. We had to draw our wagons up and let them down with ropes in places where the roads were so bad, and at places the slant was so great that we had to hold our wagons up to keep them from turning over." In the valley near Cedar City the company was met by President George A. Smith who at that time had charge of the southern settlements. The settlers had been there only three months. They had enclosed a fort of 19 acres, plowed and sown 1,000 acres with wheat, had fenced 600 acres, built a sawmill, and erected the first story of their council house. The little community welcomed President Young and party by the firing of a cannon and by waving the stars and stripes. This small settlement of pioneers had about one hundred men.
The discovery of coal and iron ore in the vicinity of Cedar City awakened in the Latter-day Saints a special desire to establish iron foundries. Men had been called to this work as a mission. Among the one hundred, there were perhaps thirty who were discontented. Part of them desired to return to Salt Lake City to get their families, and others to abandon the mission at Cedar entirely. Apostle Woodruff records the following words of President Young to these men: "If you were now on a mission to France or England or to any other part of the earth, you would not sit down and counsel together about going to get your families, or about going home till your mission was ended. This is of quite as much importance as preaching the Gospel. The time is now come when it is required of us to make the wilderness blossom as the rose. Our mission is now to build up stakes of Zion and fill these mountains with cities, and when your mission is ended you are at liberty to go. Only do what is right. When I go on a mission, I leave my affairs in the hand of God. If my house, flocks, or fields are lost in my absence; if my wife or children die, I say, Amen, to it. If they live, I say, Amen, to that and thank the Lord." The words of President Young removed much of the discontent and most of them remained to fill their mission in honor.
In speaking at this time of the Indians in that section the President said: "These Indians are the descendants of the Gadianton robbers who infested these mountains for more than a thousand years." At the conclusion of this visit, the party returned to Salt Lake City which they reached on the 24th of May, 1851.
Elder Woodruff's journal contains many of the discourses preached by President Young in those days on subjects of practical religion, home industry, prayer, financial integrity, farming, tithing, and kindred subjects. His talks contained just such subject matter as one would expect to hear from a leader whose mission it was to make the desert blossom as the rose. Elder Woodruff, here and there, used stenographic characters in making notes in his journal. He was not a stenographer, however, but he was so accustomed to writing the sermons in long hand that his memory was trained for the work, and a large measure of accuracy was given to these journalistic efforts.
To this work he had been called by President Young soon after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. The day would come when the details of that early history would be in great demand among those who would love to know the beginning of the work of God in this dispensation. "Some day," said President Young, "I shall look to you for my journal." This work was so carefully done, and the devotion of Elder Woodruff was so great towards his brethren that one is impressed by the splendid fidelity with which he honored the call.
On the Fourth of July of 1851 the Saints joined in a celebration at Black Rock on Salt Lake. "The procession was led by the general authorities with the Nauvoo Legion as an escort. It consisted of 140 wagons which reached Black Rock at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Patriotic speeches were made, and after the meeting, social pastimes were indulged in, and many enjoyed a bath in the lake. It was as pleasant a Fourth of July as I ever spent, and my family was with me. Next day we returned to Salt Lake City."
Those were happy days. The simplicity of their faith, the candor of their words, and the friendship of their lives produced a remarkable unity which in itself was both inspiring and joyful.