think of staying here another season, or of putting in crops, for the moment you do, the citizens will be upon you. I am determined to see the Governor's message fulfilled, but shall not come upon you immediately; do not think that I shall act as I have done any more; but if I come again, because the treaty which you have made here shall be broken, you need not expect any mercy, but extermination."
Making all due allowance for the exasperated state of the public mind, these threats of "extermination" sound a little too savage in Anglo-Saxon ears. They were undoubtedly intended to intimidate the Mormons into a compliance with the stipulations of the treaty which they had made. But they were impolitic, because they gave plausibility to the idea that the Saints were the victims of a cruel and unrelenting religious persecution, and furnished them with one of the surest means of future success. The prophet was not slow in using the weapons thus placed in his hands; the cry of persecution was rung in all its changes through Christendom; his followers were compared to the early Christian martyrs, suffering under the tortures inflicted by the enemies of the Church; and converts rapidly gathered around the new Zion.
By the treaty above referred to, the Mormons were required to quit the state, and five commissioners were appointed to sell their property, pay their debts, and aid them in removing. Many families being destitute, and without the means of removing, the state appropriated two thousand dollars for their relief; the citizens of the adjacent counties also contributed in money and goods to the same object.
