Sinners and Saints: A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months Among the MormonsRobinson, Phil
General
Sinners and Saints: A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months Among the Mormons
Robinson, Phil
Latter Day Saint churches; Utah -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Brigham Young, as I have said, insisted upon a conciliatory policy
towards the Indians. He made in person repeated visits to the missions
at work among them, and was never weary of advising and encouraging.
Here is a portion of one of his letters: does it read like the
words of a thoroughly bad man?--"Seek by words of righteousness to
obtain the love and confidence of the tribes. Omit promises where
you are not sure you can fulfil them. Seek to unite your hearts in
the bonds of love. . . . May the Spirit of the Lord direct you, and
that He may qualify you for every duty is the constant prayer of your
fellow-labourer in the gospel of salvation, Brigham Young." Here
is a part of another letter: "I trust that the genial and salutary
influences now so rapidly extending to the various tribes, may continue
till it reaches every son and daughter of Abraham in their fallen
condition. The hour of their redemption draws nigh, and the time is not
far off when they shall become a people whom the Lord will bless. . . .
The Indians should be encouraged to keep and take care of stock. I
highly apprcNe your design in doing your farming through the natives;
it teaches them to obtain a subsistence by their own industry, and
leaves you more liberty to extend your labours among others. . . .
You should always be careful to impress upon them that they should
not infringe on the rights of others, and our brethren should be very
careful not to infringe upon their rights in any particular, thus
cultivating honour and good principles in their midst by example as
well as by precept. As ever, your brother in the gospel of salvation,
Brigham Young."
These and other letters are exactly in the spirit of the correspondence
which, in the early days of England in Hindostan, won for the old
Court of Directors the eternal admiration of mankind and for England
the respect of Asia. Yet in Brigham Young's case is it ever carried
to his credit that he spent so much thought and time and labour over
the reclamation of the Indians, by a policy of kindness, and their
exaltation by an example of honourable dealing?
It was in this spirit that the Mormon missionaries went out to
the Indians then living in the part of the Territory over which I
travelled, and Jacob Hamblin was one eminently characteristic of the
type. Beyond all others, however, he sympathized with the red man's
nature. "I argue with him just as he argues," he said. He was on
good terms with the medicine-men, and took a delightful interest in
their ceremonies. But when they failed to bring rain with bonfires
and howling, he used to pray down abundant showers; when they gave up
tormenting the sick as past all hope, Hamblin restored the invalid to
life by the laying on of hands!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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