CHAPTER IX. HISTORY CONTINUED. Battalion for Mexican War.-Mormons arrive at Salt Lake.-Character of the Mormon Exode.-"Crickets."-General Address to the Saints. 66 'Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company," and "Public Works."-State of Deseret.—Territory organized.—Ceremonies on breaking Ground for the Temple. - THE fugitive Mormons established themselves at two different points in the Indian country, and, after a season of much privation and suffering, their affairs began to brighten. The Indians were friendly, their own industry and perseverance worthy of all commendation, the land was fertile, and their crops abundant. It was during the fore part of their sojourn in this region that a Mormon regiment was recruited into the United States service for the Mexican war. This, like many other matters connected with the Saints, has been made the subject of much contradictory remark. They are fond of referring to it as a requisition made upon them by the government to test their loyalty, and their ready response to it is cited as strong evidence of their patriotic devotion to the country; and as this regiment was on its march to California at the period when the remaining Saints were driven from Nauvoo, it offered an opportunity for comment not to be neglected. In an address to the Saints in all parts of the world, Brigham Young certainly makes a strong point on this subject. After taking a retrospect of the sufferings and persecutions of the Mormons, he says: "And, hard as it was to write it, it must forever remain a truth on the page of history, that, while the flower of Israel's camp were sustaining the wing of the American eagle by their influence and arms in a foreign country, their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, and children were driven by mob violence from a free and independent state of the same national republic, and were compelled to flee from the fire, the sword, the musket, and the cannon's mouth, as from the demon of death." Some of the Mormon seceders represent that they intended to excite an Indian war, and furnished the men to lull suspicion, knowing that active service would in the end make them a well-disciplined corps. But it is not probable there was any settled purpose of the kind. Nor is it to be presumed that they felt much attachment to a country which they had over and over again doomed to destruction, and against which they habitually indulged in bitter complaints and denunciations. According to William Smith, the prophet Joseph's brother, the leaders intended to establish an independent government beyond the Rocky Mountains; and as the Great Salt Lake Valley, to which they were journeying, was at the time Mexican territory, there would seem to be good evidence to that effect. Their professions of loyalty and patriotism must therefore be received with many grains of allowance. Colonel Kane says: "At the commencement of the Mexican war, the President considered it desirable to march a body of reliable infantry to California at as early a period as practicable, and the known hardihood and habits of discipline of the Mormons were supposed peculiarly to fit them for this service. As California was supposed, also, to be their ultimate destination, the long march would cost them less than other citizens. They were accordingly invited to furnish a battalion of volunteers early in the month of July” (p. 27), The transaction seems, then, one of convenience on both sides; the government wanted some good troops, and the Saints were willing to fight for pay, especially in the direction and against an enemy which harmonized so remarkably well with their ulterior designs. They were at that time, too, in great need of ready funds, and the bounty, or portion of the pay, which is said to have amounted to some $20,000, was paid to the authorities of the Church, and more than counterbalanced the inconvenience arising from the absence of that number of men. Early in the spring of 1847, a pioneer band of one hundred and forty-three men, with seventy wagons, started on their westward journey, with all the means and appliances for forming a settlement. They reached the valley of Great Salt Lake in July, laid the foundation of their present capital, and put in extensive crops for the future necessities of the incoming Saints. Others followed at short intervals, and some four thousand people became the inhabitants of the valley during that year. In 1848, nearly all that remained made their way to the new land of promise. Fortunately, the land cost them nothing, and all the money and goods saved from the wreck of their property at Nauvoo they were able to devote to other uses than acquiring a property in the soil. |