WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
525
are now in almost a quivering condition, and the least exertion will cast them down. With five hundred, or even fifty men, they could destroy an army of ten thousand, if they were in one of these gorges, and they choose to hurl down the rocks upon the troops. I am told there is a road for fifty miles which you have to pass, that is very difficult under the most favorable circum- stances. Then, after you strike the margin of Salt Lake, there again is a precipitous mountain of several hundred feet high and perpendicular, on which an enemy could stand and act. But this is not all. The rivers are impassable except by ferry- boats. Do you think the Mormons will let the ferry-boats remain? Will they not destroy them? There are no means there of mak- ing them; there is no suitable timber. How are they to carry the army and the supplies across? To reach Salt Lake City would require a march of many days from where the army are now, if they had no obstacles to encounter, no impediments in their way, and no enemy to encounter. I received the other day from a very intelligent Mormon whom I knew in Texas, and a very respectable man he was, once I believe the United States district attorney for Utah, a letter of seven pages. In that letter he takes a comprehensive view of this subject. He protests most solemnly that there never would have been the least hostility to the authorities of the United States if the President had sent respect- able men there. He says that Governor Brigham Young has been anxious to get rid of the cares of office, and would freely have surrendered it and acknowledged the authority of the United States; but that men have gone there, who have made threats that they would hang them, and even threats of a character that renders them more sensitive in relation to their families, and that they expect nothing but rapine and destruction to ensue on the advent of those troops if they should ever arrive there. I know not what course will be taken on this subject. I hope it will be one of conciliation. As for troops to conquer the Mor- mons, fifty thousand would be as inefficient as two or three thou- sand; and in proportion as you send troops in that vast region, without supplies, and without the hope of them, with no means of subsistence after a certain period, unless it is transported to them, the greater will be your danger. Consider the facilities these people have to cut off your supplies. I say your men will never return, but their bones will whiten the valley of Salt Lake. If war begins, the very moment one single drop of blood is drawn, it will be the signal of extermination. Mr. President, in my opinion, whether we are to have a war with the Mormons or not, will depend on the fact whether our
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