G.S.L. City, Dec. 27, 1860
Hon. W.H. Hooper, M.C.,
Washington City, D.C.,
Dear Brother:-Your St Louis favor of Nov. 23, advised of in your first by Pony, Dec. 4, came to hand by mail on the 22nd. inst. <and your second by Pony, Dec. 11, was received on the 24th inst.> for which please accept my thanks, as it contained as usual quite a fund of very interesting intelligence. None of the clippings you mention have as yet come to hand, but we hope that we will soon receive them. Should you see Russell & Co., the proprietors of the mail, or write to them, urge upon them the propriety of giving attention to the mail matter and seeing that it is delivered here as promptly and safely as circumstances will permit.
Upon the first opportunity, please ask our Friend what his views now are in relation to the permanency of our Union. The events that have transpired in the short time since he was here are strongly confirmatory that unaided human wisdom can foresee but little and only for a short distance.
Take some of our old memorials, of which you have plenty, and alter the dates, and petition for donations of lands for settlers; to grant town and City sites to the citizens thereof, for a railroad; for extinguishing the Indian title; for a daily mail from Omaha via G.S.L. City to San Francisco, Cal.; for a weekly mail form Fillmore City, U.T. to Los Angelos, Cal., if we are not admitted as a State during the present session, petition that we at least be privileged to elect our own Governor, Judges, and other Territorial Officers. Several Memorials are being adopted by the present assembly, and may reach you in time to operate with.
On Christmas day I was blest with the privilege of convening my family, including Sons-in-law and daughters-in-law and grand children, with Prest's Kimball and Wells and Bishops E.D. Woolley and L.D. Young, in my private school house just completed, and dedicating it to the Lord for the purposes for which it was erected. In the evening the company very pleasantly enjoyed themselves with music and the dance until midnight.
The new lattice bridge over Jordan will probably be completed in a few days, and will be a durable and creditable improvement. A fall of some 8 to 10 inches of snow last night put a temporary stop to the improvements on North Temple Street, where we are fixing the high-water sect, paving the side sects, and carting gravel onto the lowland portion, all with tithing labor, which, when completed, it is contemplated to make a present of to the City.
The road to the coal on grass creek, by way of Big Canon, Parley's Park, and Silver Creek Canon, is worked so as to be quite passable, and portions of it are admirably well made. Previous to the late fall of snow in the mountains, quite a quantity of coal had been hauled into the City, and I am burning it in my office, school house, and blacksmith shop, as is also br. Wells in his nail factory, and several blacksmiths in their shops.
Your friends are very generally in the enjoyment of good health, the holidays are being past with much quiet enjoyment and recreation, and we are still blest in being able to report favorably as to the condition of home affairs in general.
Your Brother in the Gospel,
Brigham Young