LS signed “Brigham Young,” six pages on adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, Great Salt Lake City, December 30, 1858. Letter to Horace S. Eldredge, an important member of the Mormon Church, wagon master for Brigham Young’s company, territorial marshal for the State of Deseret, Brigadier General in the Utah Militia, and from 1852, the immigration agent for the Mormon Church in St. Louis.
In part: "We received a note from Brother Coward announcing your safe arrival at St. Louis and departure to Chicago, he also stated that you would write by the next mail but we have not received it. We would most emphatically remind you of former instructions to trust nothing of moment to that channel, for if you do, you may rest assured it goes into the hands of our enemies instead of ours. The imported Postmaster still holds sway and nothing can be got from the office until the Hurt, Burr, Craig and Dolson clique, have rummaged to their hearts content. I wish you would ascertain if you can how many copies of the Missouri Republican containing the Presidents message were sent to this Territory by the Express and to whom directed. The Valley Tan managed to monopolize every copy sent or at least keep them under its own thumb, so that even Governor Cumming could not get a copy until after that paper had issue it.
The Members of the Legislative Assembly refused to receive the message through that channel, not feeling to patronize such a dirty, filthy, slanderous sheet. Of this and other matters I have written more fully to Brother Cannon, whose letter you will probably see. If it comes to your hands first you are at liberty to open and read it and be sure either to take or send it by some private conveyance to him and not trust our letters in the Mails at all. We suppose that the mail party consider the Express coming through in eleven days from St. Loo quite a brilliant affair but we think if our Express company had been let alone until this time it would have beaten that by a great odds, especially if Congress had backed it up with two hundred thousand dollars a year for carrying the mails as they do now. To say the least this Express was very exclusive in its favors when it could not afford a single citizen and not even Governor Cumming a copy of the message. I have no doubt but the butterfield company will beat them but their being able to come through with the express does not prove their ability to carry the mails within time as there is no news of the last two which were due last week and the week before and those which have come lately arrived some week or ten days after their schedule time.
President Buchanan inclines to the southern route for a Rail road. I trust that it will be so located, it doubtless combines greater advantages in many respects especially in the winter season. He also treats pretty extensively upon Utah affairs but his investigations do not go behind the writ but takes it up after the troops which he had sent to use us up had actually come into the Territory. Well he must have 'his say' just now we will have ours when the whole subject comes up for investigation. On the whole we consider the message quite favorable as much so as we could expect.
His recommendation of extending the land laws pre-emption right &c to us is quite suggestive and we trust will have the way to many other things, the greatest of which is our admission, or at least an enabling act.
The Courts or court I should say as thus far we have had but one for which we are truly thankful is simply making an ass of itself as everybody else will do who strikes against Israel. Mr. Sinclair at an early day after his arrival in the Territory placed himself under the influence of Burr, Craig, Hurt, who with Kirk Anderson and others of like stripe have since continued his boon companions; he is moreover a notorious drunkard and appears as though he could not endure to sit in court outside of an hour without 'going to liquor.'
The civil officers of the Territory are rather notorious for this propensity, even Wilson, it has leaked out is fond of the ardent, though it is thought his wife holds him in check, but in the world this is no disqualification for office, and we have so completely learned their ways that if we have any important business to transact with any of them we will find them generally the most capable of attending to it before the ninth hour, in the day not at all safe after the tenth. The Governor though not by any means an exception to this rule us more compes mentus while under the influence of liquor than the most of the others, and although naturally tyrannical and oppressive in his nature, still we do not wish to exchange him at present, for fear we might get a worse one. He is not as yet like many if not all of the other civil officers a 'bitter foe' to this people, at least he has not so proven himself and I trust that Mr. Wilson may not turn out one either though of late he has appeared to drink into the spirit of our enemies.
If the Troops should leave we think it will very essentially alter the tone and feeling of all and quite a different atmosphere will doubtless prevail, but the Deputy Quarter master Gen'l Mr. Crosman has advertised for proposals for 150,000 bushels of grain for animals to be delivered for the use of the Army in the months of August, September, and, and October 1859, this would indicate that the Army were not going to leave in the spring, which we trust they may. It is the most perfect absurdity to keep them here and if we should be afflicted either with drouth, crickets, grasshoppers, or anything else another year so as to cause a failure of our crops and the Government should not provide for their wants outside of the Territory it would leave the troops in a very precarious condition. It is as much as a bargain that a collision can be avoided now and if they should undertake to coerce grain when there was a scarcity nothing could prevent one. So if Mr. Buchanan wishes to avoid any such contingencies or timely avert any direful calamity which might befall his army, it would be wisdom at least for him to embrace the earliest opportunity to remove them to some place where supplies are more easy of access, and not subject to so much expense and uncertainty in furnishing. This is a consideration which I think might be used in certain quarters to produce the desired effect of their early exit from our mountain home.
We send these letters by John Y. Green who is going east. I have paid Daniel Spencer $193.64 in full of his credit on your books which please credit in Trustee in trust. We wish you to send 50 lb. of antimony to mix with old type metal to harden it for recasting. Enclosed you will please find some additional bills…John Y. Green will not probably leave before the 15th of this month, we expect to send some more means to you, but do not know at present precisely how much…
We observe that Wright & Co. of New York have reprinted the Book of Mormon we trust now that it will go into more general circulation. We have often been unable to get it even into the Book Stores for sale but we presume that now it will be hawked about the streets by every seller of new publications. We shall not at present prosecute them for invading our interests in the copyright, believing it will do us more good than harm." In fine condition. Accompanied by a custom-made presentation folder.
Written in the aftermath of the Utah War, this important letter offers a rare, unguarded window into Brigham Young’s leadership at a moment when political survival and religious evangelism were deeply intertwined. Addressed to the trusted Horace S. Eldredge, Young details his profound distrust of federal mail channels, perceived manipulation of news by hostile editors, corruption among territorial officials, and the destabilizing presence of federal troops. He also comments pointedly on President Buchanan’s recommendations regarding land pre-emption rights, viewing them as a possible pathway toward Utah’s admission as a state.
Particularly notable is Young’s forward-looking discussion of the Book of Mormon, prompted by the late-1858 New York reprint issued by Jas. O. Wright & Company, drawn from Joseph Smith’s carefully revised 1840 Nauvoo edition. Although unauthorized and commercially motivated, the reprint represented a rare opportunity for wider national circulation of Mormon scripture at a time when official Church editions were scarce and difficult to obtain.
Young’s pragmatic decision not to challenge the publishers—believing the exposure would do “more good than harm”—reflects a calculated embrace of wider exposure at a moment when Mormonism was under intense national scrutiny. At once political, ecclesiastical, and deeply personal, the letter stands as vivid testimony to Brigham Young’s efforts to safeguard Mormon autonomy while advancing the faith during one of the most volatile periods in its history.
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