Brigham Young

“ There is as good material in this Territory for making hats as there is in any part of the world, and we have the mechanics who can put it together. We have an excellent button machine, one capable of producing as good buttons as these I now wear in the bosom of my shirt. There are tons of bones and horns bleaching upon the prairie, which can be manufactured into as good buttons as any man need to wear, if some of our button-makers would take hold of the machine and work it. We also have men here who can make pressed buttons which will do very well. ”

“ Any man of this Church and kingdom who exerts his influence, strength, and means to promote any community, or to build up any city, except the people and cities of Zion, is exerting his strength and means against the kingdom of God. ”

“ There is one practice among this people that I am at war with, and I pray God to give me strength and ability, with the faith of the righteous, to root it out from our midst, and that is, they would seemingly rather be damned than not give their money to their enemies. ”

“ It is impossible for me to speak pleasantly of their conduct while they, in their feelings and affections, lean toward the wicked who will take the name of God in vain and curse the chosen of God. Even now, many of our brethren are running after them begging for a little job of hauling, for a little employment here and there, and apparently would lick the dust of their feet for five cents. ”

“ In this country and in the old countries politicians and wealthy men, who have any influence whatever over their neighbours, or over a family, or district, exert that influence to keep the people from embracing the Gospel the Lord has restored again to the world, by threatening to injure them, to stop their wages, turn them out of employment, or out of their houses, if they embrace "Mormonism," and thus the masses are bound down. ”

“ We can make everything we want; and that is not all, we can, if we are disposed to, cease to want that which we cannot make. The moment we do this, and are satisfied with our productions, we are an independent people. ”

“ People will hardly stoop down to pick up a needle or a pin, but they will go to the stores and buy them. Ladies will take a dollar ivory comb, put it in water, and then comb a child's hair with it; it is never dry, the ivory softens, and the comb is used up in a very short time, when a good comb of that description ought to last five years in a common family. Mothers have not learned that water will spoil an ivory comb. ”

“ Will we still continue to build up and foster our enemies, and give them our life's blood? If we intend to cease doing so, we will cease trading with them in the way and manner we have done and are doing. ”

“ The priests have rivetted their fetters and chains around the millions, and they more or less influence every political man in our Government, to ridicule and fight against God and every holy principle that comes from heaven. ”

“ Were the Lord to be as indulgent with us as many want him to be, and continue to bear with the sins of the wicked, I presume it would take him fully as long to prepare the people in his day, but he will not wait so long. The Lord can oblige this people to come to the standard he wishes them to reach, but I have very little faith that many will attain to it in the flesh. ”

“ When the Lord cuts off every resource from this people, only that which is immediately around them, they can then live as well if not better than they do now, and attain to a state of self sustenance much sooner than if he should continue to plead with them to rise up in their strength and do as they ought toward becoming independent before all foreign temporal facilities are entirely cut off. ”

“ They want to go to California after gold, or they wish to freight for this man or that man who has nothing in common with the interests of the kingdom of God. In the same proportion that men operate to encourage the importation of foreign productions, so far, according to their influence and means, they operate against the advancement of the kingdom of God on the earth. ”

“ If these fetters were broken asunder, and every man and every family permitted to judge for themselves, hundreds of thousands would embrace the Gospel as soon as they could have the privilege of hearing it, receive their ordinations and endowments, and be ready to go forth and hasten the work of building Temples wherein to officiate for those who had not in their lives the privilege of going into a Temple to receive their washings and anointings. ”

“ The people are ignorant and careless touching these matters, and in them do not answer the end of their creation, and will not without prudently making the best possible use of that which God gives us. ”

“ We can make spinning wheels and jennies; but brother Erastus inquires where are we going to get the spindles, if we do not import them. That we have need to import spindles is not correct. We have plenty of men here who know how to make iron, and steel, and spindles. ”

“ No; but they will put fortunes in the pockets of strangers, to import from a distance what we can produce at home. If this people had followed the counsel given to them, there is not a man in Israel would have raised a bushel of wheat for our enemies who came here to cut our throats, without making them pay from five to ten dollars a bushel for it. I do not wish to scold, but still I do most cordially dislike the conduct of certain men with whom we are obliged to associate in a Church capacity. ”

“ There are some combs made of gutta percha, that comb the hair better than horn, but they are brittle and require to be used with care; but the first you know, one is on the floor and the rocker of the rocking-chair has passed over it and rendered it useless. ”

“ I see here, to-day, many who are dressed in homespun, and they look comfortable and comparatively independent. Some of the sisters I see, wear home-made shawls, and to me, they appear far more appropriate than do the gaudy trappings of foreign make. ”

“ Our history records hundreds of such cases in consequence of the persecutions, mobbings, and drivings to which this people have been exposed. Infants, the youth, and the middle-aged have dropped into untimely graves by hundreds. They have taken our lives from the earth and swallowed up our substance, and forsooth we feel very much to pity them in their present condition. ”