"Will you allow such a man to remain in the Territory? [Voices, 'No; put him out.'] Yes, I say put him out. Judges Waite and Drake are perfect fools, and the tools of Governor Harding, and they too must leave. If all three do not resign, or if the President does not remove them, the people must attend to it.
"If they could get the power, as they want to do, to have the Marshal choose jurors of cut-throats, blacklegs, soldiers, and desperadoes from California, and we are to be tried by such men, what would become of us?
"In regard to the war now desolating the country, it is but the fulfilment of the prophecies of Joseph Smith, which he told me thirty years ago. Brother Joseph said that the South would rise against the North, and the North against the South, and that they would fight until both parties were destroyed; and for my part I give it God speed; for they have spilt the blood of the Prophet. [To which the audience responded vociferously, 'Amen!']
"I would like to live in peace with the Government of the United States, but have no desire to live with the people who have brought ruin and disgrace upon their own heads. I do not wish to live in, or have anything to do with the United States; I will have a free and independent government for myself, where I may live and enjoy my civil and religious liberties. [Loud cries of 'Amen,' and 'Yes, yes,' on the part of the entire assemblage.]
"When our rights, and the protection of our liberties are taken from us, what is there remaining? [Voices, 'Nothing,' 'Nothing.'] Yes, service to despots,--service to tyrants."
Brigham also said that money had been appropriated for the purpose of turning the mail by the way of Panama; and these men were not above taking money for such a purpose, under pretence of other business.
The injustice and falsity of these statements concerning the bill introduced into Congress, and which was the immediate cause of this outbreak, will be manifest, when it is stated that so far from authorizing soldiers to sit as jurymen, it was expressly prohibited in the bill itself. Again; the right of suffrage was actually extended by the bill, because, while by one section the militia officers were to be appointed by the Governor, the bill in other sections provided that nearly all civil officers of the Territory, who were before elected by the Legislature, should be elected by the people.