26^th Brother Peter W Conover & Oliver Smith arived
in this city this morning & called at Presidents Youngs
office & brought the news from our Carson valley company
they gave a rehearsal of all their travels to carson
Valley & Calafornia & back again which was Highly
interesting the company of the Carson valley saints & those
from Calafornia & Oregon were on the way to this city
they had 160 fighting men with 2700 lbs of Ammuni-
tion belonging to the Church & a great deal with private
individuals & a large amount of Arms. all the Saints are
coming from Carson Valley they left ownly 2 Boxes
of caps & 1 lb of powder in all Carson Valley they sold all
their arms & ammunition to the Brethren for their places. President
Young also received a letter from Gen Grant the Army were
still on hams Fork not desided which route they would yet
take they had got the Chief waggon Master in custidy

The presidency and Twelve were in conversation all the fore noon
at his office upon the subject of the war. President Young said

Oct 26

That the United States Government was looseing their Nation-
al greatness & wisdom is departed from them and we need
not have as much fear of them as we would of an Armey
of Grass hoppers if they take away our charter from us & divide
up our Territory it will be unconstitutional as evry thing is they
do against us. I told Brother Bernhisel that if they took
away our charters to come immediately home as soon as He
could & we would organize our state Government & fall
back upon our original Boundaries. Our East Boundary should
be at Laramie the west the summit of the Siera Nevade & run to the
pacific Ocean &c & we would defend it. John Taylor twho sat
in the Judgment seat Saith that was our legal Lawful & Legitimat
right President Young said I want Sanbernadeno & Carson valley
to remain & not be disturbed for I want the people there to raise
stock to supply us from time to time as we need. The U. S.
may do as they please we will do as the Lord wants us. One
young officer of the Army said that Old Jesus Christ could
not keep him out of salt Lake City But they will find
out who rules on Earth & in heaven Another Officer said
the United States would wipe us out another year should
they send an Army of 20000 men it would take more than
20 miles for their armey & train to move at all and the more ther
is off them the worse off they will be. Mr Ray called upon
President Young and wished him to buy his goods. He told
him his goods were a poor lot in camparison to Mr Bells
yet if ^Br^ Hooper would buy him out He would back him
up, president Young also told Mr Ray that He would
give him a little council if He would take it He told him
to stop taking opium and Alchohol and stop your fears and
hold up your head and be cheerful "Mr Ray I will now
tel you the truth. The Gentile Merchants with yourself
have been the means of Bringing on this present war you
have been selling my Blood & the Blood of my Brethren
from for Gold this I shall not put up with it any longer
I shall not permit any Gentile merchant to do business in
territory after this year in the way they have we have been
kind to them & I have been their friend & our people have
paid them promptly & they should have been our friends
& told the truth about us but they have not realized
what they were doing.["] many other remarks were made
Brother Taylor said will not the armey go into winter
Quarters & entrench themselves & remain untill they get help
from the states. President Young said if an army comes to
help them in the spring we will use up this army first &
then we will use up the other before they get to the south
Pass. In the spring we must ask Allexander what He intends
to do inform him He must not stay there untill He gets rein-
forcements in the spring and if they will not leave in the
spring we will use them up first the best we can in 10 days
we can put 2000 men around them which would soon use
them up. I do not believe that they will have 500 fight-
ing men in the spring. They are in a vary critical situ-
ation they say they have no other way to get a living

f

for their families but to war. I think it is better to let
the Army alone this winter they will die many of them
and others desert & many be weakened with the scurvey
& in the spring we will wipe them out if necessary if they
do not go away. We do all of our Business in the name of
Israel God and they in their own way. The whole matter
can be sumed up in these few words we are here at home
by our own Fireside while they are a great way from home
I intend to send those teamsters to the south whare they cannot
get Back to the Armey. I spent most of the day in the office
& with the Presidency.