"He was a man," said one who knew him well nigh half a century, "that could not get down to grovel with the low-lived, the vicious, the ribald, nor any who indulged in the follies and vanities of mortal life." Referring himself to those who did love the abomination of wickedness, with all its crookedness, deceitfulness and crime he ever exclaimed: "My soul, enter thou not into their secret; and mine honor, with them be thou not united!" In all these things he not only lived above reproach, but above suspicion. The most prominent feature of his character, doubtless, was his ardent love of liberty. For this he was distinguished even among his brethren who as a group were remarkable for their love of and devotion to freedom. To other men the love of liberty was a principle; with him it was not only a principle but a passion: others may have been educated to love it; he loved it instinctively. In a letter to one of his brethren, answering one that had laid rather hard conditions upon him, he expressed the following sentiments, in which it is difficult to determine which most appears, his love of liberty or his detestation, his utter abhorrence of slavery: "I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not be slave to God! I'd be His servant, friend, His son. I'd go at His behest; but would not be His slave. I'd rather be extinct than be a slave. His friend I feel I am, and He is mine:--a slave! The manacles would pierce my very bones--the clanking chains would grate upon my soul--a poor, lost, servile, crawling wretch to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the thing who gave the lash! Myself--perchance my wives, my children to dig the mud, to mould and tell the tale of brick and furnish our own straw! * * * But stop! I'm God's free man: I will not, cannot be a slave! Living, I'll be free here, or free in life above--free with the Gods, for they are free: and if I'm in the way on earth, I'll ask my God to take me to my friends above!" He never devoted himself to money getting. He never bowed at the gilded shrine of mammon. The yellow god of this world found in him no devotee. "Many men could see a sovereign or a half eagle a long way farther off than he could," remarked one who knew him. Yet the amount of property he accumulated at Nauvoo, and which he sacrificed in order to flee into the wilderness with the Church of Christ, is sufficient to prove that he was not without financial ability. But he had his eyes and heart fixed upon the better riches, those which moth and rust could not corrupt, neither mobs break through nor steal. These things filled his soul, engrossed his attention and left but a small margin of time to him in which to fall in love with the wealth of this world. His motto was--"Money is of little importance where truth is concerned."