"I will state that I feel very much obliged to my brethren for the generous feeling manifested to myself. Permit me, however, to say with regard to some of these ideas presented to the conference by Brother George Q. Cannon, and which, as he he has said, he has frequently presented to me and others of the Twelve, that while I duly appreciate the feelings and views of my brethren, and am not ignorant of the proprieties of life, individually I would not wish to change my position. Personally I care nothing about the outside show, the glitter and the appearance of men; but I do care about the great and eternal principles associated with the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth. And as stated it was some time before I could make up my mind to accept a proposition of this kind, and I accept it now simply in the capacity of your servant for Christ's sake, for the benefit of the kingdom of God, and that all things may be conducted in a proper manner." The general conferences of the Church--those mammoth semi-annual gatherings of the Saints of God, where representatives from all the Stakes of Zion assemble to hear instruction, council, reproof and the word of the Lord--under President Taylor's administration were spirited, valuable and soul-stirring. The one held in April, 1880, known as the Jubilee Conference, was especially so. The Church had just completed the fiftieth year of its existence. Half a century before it had been organized in a log room, possibly fourteen feet square, with six members. During that time a knowledge of the work had spread throughout the civilized world, and among some of the tribes of the heathen. The Church had survived the ridicule of the worldly-wise, the clamor of bigots, the intrigues of demagogues, the violence of mobs, its banishment from civilization. Neither fire nor sword, nor intrigue, nor ridicule, nor banishment, nor its journey through the wilderness, nor any other thing had prevailed against the Church of Christ. It was fitting, then, at the close of the first half century of its existence that the Saints should rejoice mightily before the Lord. To ancient Israel every fiftieth year was a jubilee. In it the inheritance which had been sold in the days of misfortune or poverty was restored to the original possessor, and his family returned to the old homestead. The poor debtor was released; the man who had sold himself to his brother, to be his hired servant, was set free, together with all that was his, his wives and his children and they returned to their inheritance.