Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints / History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals

by Wilford Woodruff

His journal closes with a copy of the poem dedicated to him by Eliza R. Snow.

POEM.

"With true respect, and as a tribute due
To friendship, Brother Woodruff, unto you,
As one more blessed than most your fellow men,
I now address the effusion of my pen.

You were appointed, ere your mortal birth,
To an apostleship upon the earth;
The Lord our God has His eye on thee,
With watchful care from earliest infancy.

You were preserved, midst Babylonish night,
From atheistic and sectarian blight;
From manly rectitude you did not swerve,
The Priest of Baal you never stooped to serve.

From heavenly courts, the light that's shining now,
Shone on your path, and mantled o'er your brow;
Eternal visions opened to your view,
You loved the truth and found salvation, too.

You then with joy the Gospel banner bore
To distant lands and on your native shore,
In truth's defense most valiantly you stood,
And cleared your garments of the Gentiles' blood.

One of the chosen Twelve, who're called to stand,
To turn the Gospel key for every land;
Your name in honor, as a faithful one,
To future generations will be known.

With heart inspired, rich matter to indite,
In Zion now your business is to write,
With skill you wield the ready writer's pen;
'Tis yours to immortalize the deeds of men.

Full many a righteous act and gifted word
By Saints performed from lips of prophets heard,
Had slipped the mem'ries of judicious men,
But for the promptings of your faithful pen.

The Church historian's labors to divide,
As his assistant coupled side by side,
You write for Zion, where her history's known,
Inscribing her's, perpetuates your own.

Faithful to God, to your brethren true,
Integrity has twined a wreath for you,
Of never-fading laurels, which will be,
A glorious coronet eternally.

In that blessed world, where light and knowledge dwell,
Your blessedness no earthly tongue can tell,
Where heaven's effulgence will your head surround,
And you with everlasting glory crowned.

Filled with immortal majesty and might,
Associated with the Gods of light,
With gifts and powers of endless lives you'll be,
Progressing on and on eternally."

CHAPTER 37.

ARMY ENTERS SALT LAKE VALLEY, 1858.

President and Congress of the U. S. Memorialized.—Words of Brigham Young.—Arrival of Col. Kane.—Governor Cumming Reaches Salt Lake City.—Migration Southward.—Delegates from Nicaragua.—Want Mormons To Move to Central America.—Proclamation from President Buchanan.—Peace Commission.—President of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society.—Indian War Threatened.—A Striking Dialogue.—The Mob Element.—Mogo's Deception.—Attacks on President Young.—Greeley Visits Utah.

New Year's day, 1858, was celebrated in the evening by a social gathering at Ballou's Hall, in the Fourteenth Ward. Brother Woodruff addressed the assembly, made reference to the critical conditions then confronting the Saints, but prophesied good for the future and declared the overthrow of all who fought against the people of God.

On the 5th of January he records a Memorial passed by the legislature in which the wrongs inflicted upon the Saints were set forth, and Congress was asked to investigate the condition of affairs in Utah. On the 16th of the same month a mass-meeting was held in the Tabernacle. Resolutions were adopted and a Memorial sent to the President and Congress of the United States.

About the same time Elder Benson and others returned from England and from the States where they had been on missions. They reported that persecutions were rife against the Saints, even in England, where the elders were assaulted with sticks and stones in the hands of street mobs.