George Q. Cannon

“ I desire greatly to see this people prosper and increase in everything which will make them the favored people of God. I want to see us be come a strong people, strong in our virtues; looking after our children, and bringing them up in the fear of God, and teaching them good morals and good precepts; whilst we endeavor to put down those evil practices that are creeping in, such as smoking and chewing tobacco, using the name of the Lord in vain, and also profane and improper language, and to see that our boys and girls are educated in everything that will make them great and noble. ”

“ There are practices which prevail in society, and which are not unpopular if a certain degree of secrecy be observed which a licentious people could avail themselves of, without the trouble, care, expense and responsibility of marriage. What is the crime of which the people of Utah are accused? It is that of marrying women! It is not that of seducing or debauching them. All the pains and penalties inserted in bills before Congress for the punishment of the "Mormon" people are affixed to the marriage of women. This is made a crime, and because of it, it is proposed to punish men. ”

“ Notwithstanding all the efforts which are being made against us to destroy our liberties, to embarras [s] us in our progress and to malign us, the people who reside in these mountains have gained and are gaining a credit which in many respects is very gratifying to those who love the truth. It is a difficult thing to condemn an entire people, and make the world believe that those who manage a Territory such as ours, the affairs of which are so well managed, and are in so healthy and thrifty a condition, are a wicked people. ”

“ I can appreciate the privilege we enjoy in meeting in these quarterly conferences, perhaps more so because of my lengthened absence from home, than I could were I constantly in your midst. After a person has been deprived of food, many of you know how good it is to sit down to a well-spread table. I do not know that the Latter-day Saints are exactly in this condition. There are privileges we need and which we can enjoy, even when away from the body of the Church, which enable those who are thus separated to rejoice in their religion and its blessings. ”

“ It is true we have looked to our admission to statehood as likely to greatly relieve us, and to bring about a better condition of affairs throughout our Territory. But the conviction has grown upon me in watching the progress of events, that our being kept in a territorial condition to the present time has been attended with great advantage to us as a people. The experience we have gained under this condition of affairs is an experience that is necessary to us, and without which we could not so well, in my opinion, fulfill the destiny assigned to us. ”

“ We have a healthy land; we have a land that the Lord has blessed and made fruitful as the result of our labors. It is a land in which men cannot, from the very nature of things, monopolize large bodies of land to the exclusion of their poorer neighbors. This is an advantage to the people of this country. The nature of our surroundings compels us to occupy small holdings and the result is our land is better cultivated, there is a more widespread ownership of the soil than you will find in any part of these United States ”

“ Every man who has gone down to Washington from here to fight us has made men in Congress think about us and talk about us, and has made editors write about us. They have, without designing it, helped to disseminate a knowledge of our cause. ”

“ When we reflect upon this it shows how changed have become the affairs of our nation, when it is deemed necessary to appeal to military power to maintain good order in the Republic. There can be no surer sign of the decay of a republic than when human life and property and liberty cannot be sustained by the masses of the people, and the military power, the ranks of which are filled with hired soldiers, has to be appealed to sustain good order in the midst of the people. ”

“ It is a remarkable fact that every publication against this doctrine of the Latter-day Saints has the effect to spread the knowledge of it among the people and it makes men and women reflect upon it. Our efforts alone would not be attended with the results that are now witnessed. But every man that has published articles against it, or lectured or written books or made any effort against it, has helped to propagate the knowledge of it ”

“ I have endeavored to urge men of national standing, men who hold high positions in the Government, to visit Utah. And I may say that some of the warmest friends we have, while they do not sympathize particularly with our religious views, but are tolerant and desirous that we should have our rights in common with other people, are those who have visited this Territory and have seen us in our homes, and have had opportunities of witnessing the changes that [have] been effected in this desert land by our residence and labors. ”

“ Not one word of condemnation, nor penalty of any character, is proposed for the seducer, or the vile betrayer of female innocence; he is to walk up to the polls and vote unchallenged; but the man who marries women, and maintains them honorably and virtuously, sustaining family and parental relations in all purity and sacredness, is to be disfranchised and visited with other pains and penalties! ”

“ The feeling has been to let us alone for the present; and although there were emissaries sent down from here who labored very diligently to stir up feeling and to secure action against the people of Utah, their efforts scarcely created a ripple upon the surface of political affairs, and they attracted no attention outside of the committees, to whom they addressed themselves. Though it is unpleasant upon some accounts to have men there who are circulating all manner of falsehood about the people of Utah to gain their ends, they have their uses. ”

“ One of the strongest arguments that was made in favor of keeping up the United States army up to its present numbers was, that there would probably be riots in large cities and in populous centres, which would require the presence of the military acting as police to quell. And had it not been for this evil the army would have been cut down. But a good many men were anxious to have it increased, deeming it necessary for the preservation of life and property. ”

“ Although I have often been at Washington for the past 20 years, and have spent a considerable portion of my time there for a number of years past, I have never seen less of the disposition on the part of public men to take adverse measures against the people of Utah Territory than there has been this season. ”

“ He was the target at which every arrow was aimed he was the object of every plot and scheme; every combination for evil had for its object, his destruction or his embarrassment. His withdrawal from the scene spoiled these combinations, and brought these plots to naught. ”

“ The more the "Mormon" question, as it is termed, is agitated, the better it is for us; the more it is fought, the more it is written against and talked about, the more that Congress is stirred up to take steps against it, the better the principles of our faith are understood; because there are some men and some women who reflect upon these things, and who will contrast that which they hear of us, with that which exists in their midst. And when they see a man stand up boldly and say, "We believe in plural marriage; we do not believe in prostitution ”

“ It has been a rule of my life, since I was old enough to comprehend the truth, to so live that the Spirit of the Lord would be my companion, and thus to have peace, to have joy and to have satisfaction of mind ”

“ However, this is a matter that should receive attention and from those, too, who care for the people and have their welfare at heart. No doubt everything will be done that should be to preserve good government throughout this Territory, and throughout all these valleys which are inhabited by the Latter-day Saints. The fact is, the time will come, concerning which there has been so much said in the past, when it will devolve upon the people of these mountains to maintain good government, to uphold constitutional rights ”

“ You will perceive, therefore that the "Mormon" people are either not a licentious people or they are the most foolish in the world. No one ever charges them with a lack of shrewdness or prudence. Such a charge would be utterly at variance with all their known characteristics. If they were not a conscientious people, with strong moral and religious convictions, they would not risk becoming martyrs, as they do, for the sake of marrying women, when, if they followed the usual practice of the age, they could get them without marrying. ”

“ The business of furnishing employment for our poor people, so that our streets shall not be filled with idle men and boys, has no doubt pressed, and will continue to press itself upon the minds of the leading men of this Territory. ”

“ At the present time, in the western States especially, men are greatly concerned about the element known as Communism, which has taken possession of the minds of a numerous class of the people. The working classes are becoming very dissatisfied, and men are trembling for fear of what will come upon the nation. ”

“ But in the providences of the Almighty we were driven out and led to this land, and the Lord has showed unto us, and is showing to the inhabitants of the earth, that when a people will do that which He requires of them, that he is abundantly able to sustain them and make their labors successful. ”

“ It is becoming recognized in its true light, and people are beginning, as I never heard them before in my experience, to talk about it and reflect upon it, often alluding to it in a way that shows that a better understanding of the subject is steadily spreading among the people. ”

“ The results which have followed the decease of President Young have given to thinking men a higher idea of the strength and power of this system. It assumes a different position in their minds. The idea now begins to prevail that it is not entirely dependent upon the life or the ability of any single individual; and I think the death of President Young has had the effect also to cause men to pause, and to look upon the work a little differently. ”

“ The fact is, illicit connexions are winked at and overlooked by very many people in the world while they are kept from public knowledge; they only excite scandal and unfavorable comment when the parties to them are so unfortunate as to become known. ”

“ The opinion which some entertain who take their views from the slanderous reports published about us, is that we are a licentious people, who take wives to gratify lust. Such persons, if reasonably honest, are soon made to reflect and to modify their views by asking them a few questions. ”

“ So that it is not necessary that we should become excited or impatient or indulge in too much anxiety concerning such things, but leave them in the hands of Him who has up to the present time controlled all things for the good of his people and for the bringing to pass of his own purposes. ”

“ Many who have heard of this reply, think the idea embodied in it a capital one, for it is not uncommon in many places for other men's wives to receive attentions which should be only tendered to them by their husbands. ”

“ There are many, a great many men of both political parties who have said to me that they would vote for Utah's admission whenever the question should be brought up, provided they had a voice in the matter. ”

“ I have said the eyes of the people are upon us; they are watching us and great hopes are entertained concerning us by many people who are not of us. We are looked upon as the pioneers in many reforms. The ladies, as you are aware, have lately been agitating in Congress their question—Woman's Rights. Among other ladies who argued their cause before the general committees of the Senate and the House, was a sister of the Rev. ”