Brigham Young

“ I have counted the cost to this people of a collision with our enemies; but I cannot begin to count the cost it will be to them.
I have told you that if this people will live their religion, all will be well; and I have told you that if there is any man or woman that is not willing to destroy anything and everything of their property that would be of use to an enemy, if left, I wanted them to go out of the Territory; and I again say so to-day; for when the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down ”

“ If there were no more men here than there are in the Seminole nation, our enemies never could use us up; but they could use up themselves, which they will do. The Seminoles—a little tribe of a few hundred in Florida—have cost our government, I suppose, in the neighbourhood of 100,000,000 dollars; and they are no nearer being conquered than when the war commenced. And what few have removed have been induced to do so by compromise; and it would be far cheapest for the Government to pay the debts they honestly owe us, and leave us unmolested in the peaceful enjoyment of our rights. ”

“ We have known all the time that the kingdoms of darkness were opposed to the kingdom of God—that the powers of earth and hell were combined against it. Christ and Baal cannot make friends with each other: you cannot mix oil and water, righteousness and wickedness. This is the kingdom of God; all others are of Devil. They never can be united in this world, nor in any other: there is no possibility of the two kingdoms becoming one. ”

“ All the world have to learn that the Lord is God, and that he is the God of his children. He will protect his anointed; he will defend his own family; and all we have to do is to do his will; and every man, woman, and child ought to seek to learn the will of God and do it. When that is the case, we need not fear all earth and hell. Do not offend God by not doing as he wants you to. ”

“ Hundreds of miles have the Indians travelled to see me, to know whether they might use up the emigrants, saying—"They have killed many of us; and they damn you and damn us, and shall we stand it?" I have always told them to hold on, to stop shedding blood, and to live in peace. ”

“ I am perfectly willing that the brethren should stop all improvements, if they choose, and spend a few years in seeing what our enemies will do; though their efforts against us will only tend to use them up the faster. If the people prefer it, they may stop their improvements and take care of their wheat, and cache a supply of grain, flour, &c., where no other persons can find it; though we can raise grain here all the time,—yes, all the time.
Suppose that our enemies send 50,000 troops here, they will have to transport all that will be requisite to sustain them over one winter ”

“ Our enemies had better count the cost; for if they continue to job, they will want to let it out to sub-contractors, before they get half through with it. If they persist in sending troops here, I want the people in the west and in the east to understand that it will not be safe for them to cross the Plains.
It has cost the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the Indians in other territories than it has in this; and I have saved the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars, by keeping the Indians peaceable in Utah. ”

“ Politicians and traders combine to lay plans, no matter how devilish, for getting their hands into the treasury of the United States, that they may have money with which to sow corruption and gratify their debauched natures. ”

“ Those who believe and obey the Gospel of the Son of God, and forsake all for its interests, belong to the kingdom of God, and all the rest belong to the other kingdom. There is a distinction, and the line must be drawn ”

“ Some men do not realize what they are doing. I said, a few weeks ago, that the deeds of some men are out of sight. Our merchants here have fanned the flame, and what for? To peddle off my blood and yours for gold and silver. ”

“ The Lord in his mercy has suffered our enemies to do that which we could not have accomplished for many years; and, let a war commence, and there is no knowing where we shall next land in Jackson County, Missouri. They will learn that "Mormonism" is a living creature. ”

“ And you cannot talk to a brother, or even to a sister, but that she will tell you that, if she consents in her feelings to have our enemies come here, she feels uncomfortable, and her heart sinks within her. ”

“ Probably scores of persons have been killed; animals have been taken from nearly all the emigrants that have passed on that road; and the Indians in that region have now more stock than they know how to take care of; and they come into settlements with their pockets full of gold. The whites first commenced on the Indians; and now, if they do not quit such conduct, they must stop travelling through this country; for it is more than I can do to keep the Indians still under such outrageous treatment. ”

“ It is now becoming a universal practice with them to punish the guilty, and not the innocent: they have been taught that from the time we first came here. Talk with them, and you will learn that they have a good deal of knowledge. ”

“ I am aware that you will want to know what will be the result of the present movement against us. "Mormonism" will take an almighty stride into influence and power, while our enemies will sink and become weaker and weaker, and be no more ”

“ They will have to bring all their provisions and forage; and though they start their teams with as heavy loads as they can draw, there is no team that can bring enough to sustain itself, to say nothing of the men. ”

“ Should the crisis come, they will find themselves in poor pasture, with nothing but greasewood and sage to feed upon. It will not do for them to sell us for money; for we are worth more than the Methodist society was sold for in Canada, where they were sold at three cents a head. ”

“ If the troops are now this side of Laramie, remember that the Sweetwater is this side of that place. They must have some place to winter, for they cannot come through here this season. We could go out and use them up, and it would not require fifty men to do it. But probably we shall not have occasion to take that course, for we do not want to kill men. They may winter in peace at some place east of us ”