While our party was gathered in a quiet room in a hotel one evening after we had been reviewing the results of our observations and the statements heard upon the streets and elsewhere, Ben with much gravity outlined in a single sentence what seemed to be a wise and dignified policy for us to pursue. "Now here we are," said Ben, "among a people who are bitterly divided among themselves. We don't have to be Mormons, but I see no sense in vilifying and denouncing them as hundreds are doing on the streets, who don't know any more theology or facts than we do. Let's be fair and unprejudiced and avoid controversies on these local affairs. I believe the men who are doing most of the talking are a heap worse than any Mormons I have seen." During that summer and autumn of 1866 the relations between the Mormons and the United States Government were exceedingly strained, and some unfortunate events occurred which increased the tension. The few Gentiles then in the city who were in any sense not friendly in their attitude toward the local government (which was Mormon) were regarded with disfavor by the Saints--and for evident reasons. This was especially the case, if their relations with the army or United States officials were intimate. An anomalous condition existed in which even the Jews, with all the others who were not Mormons, were known as Gentiles! The Gentile was to the Mormon what the Giaour is to the Mussulman. General Connor, who had been in command of the United States forces stationed at Camp Douglass, which post overlooked the city, had held the situation firmly. The antagonism between him and the Mormon authorities had at all times been generally recognized by all parties. Soon after the withdrawal of General Connor, and in the spring preceding our arrival, Newton Brassfield, recently arrived from Nevada, married a wife of one of the elders of the Church, who was then absent on a foreign mission.