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Dipping briefly back into Eugene England, Brother Brigham<\/em> (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980):<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In February 1849, when the Saints were still relatively new in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, President Brigham Young learned that some of them were going hungry while others seemed to be hoarding private supplies of grain.\u00a0 According to John D. Lee \u2014 not yet the infamous John D. Lee of the massacre at Mountain Meadows \u2014 Brigham\u2019s reaction was verbally fierce:<\/p>\n Pres. B. Young said that we are safe; still he said . . . he believed all the while that corn was not so scarce as many expected, . . . and if those that have do not sell to those that have not, we will just take it and distribute amoung the poor, and those that have and will not divide willingly may be thankful that their heads are not found wallowing in the snow.\u00a0 There is some of the meanest spirits here amoung the saints that ever graced this footstool.\u00a0 They are too mean to live amoung the gentiles. . . .\u00a0 Still . . . I will talk to the people in public.\u00a0 I know the strongest side are willing to do right.\u00a0 (146-147, citing A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876<\/em>, eds. Robert G. Cleland and Juanita Brooks, 2 vols. [San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1955], 1.7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Professor England expressly notes what he terms those \u201cpicturesque threats about heads wallowing in the snow.\u201d\u00a0 But those words aren\u2019t the whole story.\u00a0 \u201cCharacteristically,\u201d England comments,<\/p>\n President Young had vented his feelings in extreme terms in the council meeting but then spoke and acted moderately \u2014 and every effectively \u2014 with the body of Saints.\u00a0 (147)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A similar incident had already occurred back on 6 January 1849, just a month before, when Brother Brigham had received a report that \u201cthose that have fat cattle were grinding the faces of the poor\u201d by charging them extortionate prices.\u00a0 Some on the council proposed price controls, but Brigham said No.\u00a0 Instead, he proposed that members of the council organize prayer meetings and use their influence to reason with the people.\u00a0 And that is what he himself did.\u00a0 John D. Lee records,<\/p>\n Pres. B.Y. addressed the Saints in Public.\u00a0 Spoke of their conditions and of the opression of the poor; said to those that [have] corn to spare, to let it go on reasonable terms; said to those that had to bye, not to be particuelar about what they had to pay, for it would be salvation to them but death to the seller that extortioned.\u00a0 (147)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Commenting on the episode, Professor England writes that<\/p>\n The speech was effective and \u201cgreatly ameliorated the condition of the Poor.\u201d\u00a0 Lee reports that \u201cevery man that could be touched was stirred by way of remembrance and began to let corn go,\u201d and he give a convincing example.\u00a0 That Sunday morning a William Matthews had charged him forty dollars for an ox, but then:<\/p>\n The same day said Matthews went to meeting, heard what Pres. B. Young had to say about extortioners, came home the same evening and said to [me], kill the ox that I let you have and weigh it and pay me what he weighs.\u00a0 I likely asked you more than what he was worth, etc.\u00a0 Thus [Lee editorializes] the reader may see the effect of the preaching of the man of God.<\/em> (147)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here are some indications of Brigham Young\u2019s honest self-estimation, expressed in his own words:<\/p>\n President Young knew well enough what his own chief fault was: in a speech in 1853 he told the Saint:\u00a0 \u201cNever, in the days of my life, have I hurt a man with the palm of my hand.\u00a0 I never have hurt a person any other way except with this unruly member, my tongue.\u201d\u00a0 (141)<\/p>\n \u201c[It] is not the good, rel[i]gious, Sa[n]ctified feelings that I have that will present me or any other man blameless and acceptable before the Lord, but it is the good that we do to one another. . . .\u00a0 Esteem it a prevelege to help one another that you may have your reward. . . .\u00a0 I confess my own faults.\u00a0 I am subject to temptation and as liable to do wrong as any other man. . . .\u00a0 I know what is right all the time.\u00a0 I am never at a loss to know what is right, but sometimes I do not think or I am not guarded against the Temper.\u201d\u00a0 (144)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On another theme:<\/p>\n Brother Brigham was . . . perfectly clear about the relation of the Twelve to the Prophet:<\/p>\n The Twelve may get a revelation in any part of the world concerning the building up of the Kingdom, as they have to establish it in all parts of the world . . . but not to lead the Church \u2014 that belongs to the head of the Church.<\/em><\/p>\n And again, late in that same year, 1843, on another occasion when Joseph\u2019s absence seems to have left Brigham automatically in charge:<\/p>\n I attended prayer-meeting in the Assembly Room.\u00a0 President Joseph Smith being absent, I presided and instructed the brethren upon the necessity of following our file leader, and our Savior, in all his laws and commandments, without asking any questions why they were so.<\/em>\u00a0 (68-69)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I close with four bone-chilling pieces from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9:<\/p>\n \u201cUS Coast-to-Coast Disaster Relief from the Church of Jesus Christ:\u00a0Natural disaster victims in California, Alabama and Georgia receive food, supplies, service and comfort\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHow quilts recovered from a flooded Kentucky home comforted a grieving family:\u00a0Despite several people saying it was a lost cause, a Latter-day Saint couple and others did their best to preserve 16 vintage quilts salvaged from a waterlogged and muddy home for a family that lost its mother\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
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