"Some ability is required to efficiently remove bodies of armed troops over such new and pioneering obstacles: well supplied, equipped, and mounted, it takes a commander's skill; but here were poor, unprovided, feeble men, women, and children, shaking with ague, pale with suffering, hollow and gaunt with recent hunger. Without strife, without discord, almost without a murmur, this heterogeneous mass moved off. Many groaned with anguish, but none with complaint. Brigham's energy inspired them all; his genius controlled them all. Marking their road with their gravestones, they arrived at Salt Lake Valley, destitute and feeble, in 1848. The desert to which they had come was as cheerless as their past history. From cruel foes they had fled to as unfeeling a wilderness. Renewed difficulties demanded a renewed effort from Brigham. Everything depended on him. Starvation and nakedness stared in the gloomy faces of the desponding people. Murmurs and complaints were uttered. He quelled everything; scolded, plead, threatened, prophesied, and subdued them. With a restless but resistless energy he set them to work, and worked himself as their example. He directed their labors, controlled their domestic affairs, preached at them, to them, for them. He told foolish anecdotes to make them laugh, encouraged their dancing to make them merry, got up theatrical performances to distract their minds, and made them work hard, certain of rendering them contented by-and-by. Feared with a stronger fear, venerated with a more rational veneration, but not loved with the same clinging tenderness that the people still felt for Joseph Smith, Brigham swayed them at his will. They learned to dread his iron hand, and were daunted by his iron heart."[10:A] While he was thus consolidating his power, laying plans for the foundation of a monarchy more despotic than that of Austria, important changes were going on in the political condition of the country. Mexico was conquered, and much of its territory, including Utah, was annexed to the United States, and the Mormons thus again brought within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. From this era in Mormon affairs Brigham appears in so many different characters that his history can only be fully written by considering him in his various _rôles_,--as "Governor of Utah and Superintendent of Indian Affairs;" "President of the Church, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator;" "Trustee in Trust for the Church;" "President of the Emigration Company;" "Lord of the Harem;" "Eloheim, or Head God;" and "Grand Archee of the Order of the Gods." FOOTNOTES: [10:A] _Mormonism; its Leaders and Designs_, by John Hyde, Jr. New York: W. P. Fetridge & Co. 1857. Page 144. CHAPTER II. POLITICAL.