President's Office
Great Salt Lake City
Apl. 2nd, 1867.
Elder L.D. Rudd
Care of Mr Geo. Dunford
38 North Main St. St. Louis.
Dear Brother:
I have received several favors from you giving me details of your labors in connection with Bro. Tullidge in the States, In your last, which was dated Feb'y. 25th you speak about some efficient and suitable man being sent down to labor in the Ministry in the States. I think that your own labors can be continued there with good effects. You are acquainted, now, with the people and their circumstances, and are familiar with the nature of the field, and can probably accomplish more than a stranger, however zealous and energetic he might be. There is no special hurry for you to come home this year, and if your health is good you may be able to labor for another year with advantage to yourself and benefit to the people. Elder Tullidge, I suppose, will return this season.
Although Church trains will not be sent down this year to bring up the poor from the frontiers, yet I expect there will be an emigration of the Saints from Europe who will come from there with their own means and who will furnish their own outfits. Should there be any brethren in the States who wish to come thus, they can do so; but they should unite themselves with the emigration from Europe and be subject to the direction of the Elders who may be in charge. It will not do for small parties or companies to start out on the Plains without thorough organization, and the preparations necessary to guard against Indian attacks and depredations. There will doubtless be an experienced elder or elders in charge of the European emigration, and their counsel and guidance in these matters should be submitted to by the Saints in the States who may desire to emigrate.
We have had a very quiet winter, and peace has prevailed throughout the Territory. The health of the people, generally, is good. The Spring is very backward, and there is probably more snow in the mountains than we have had in any previous year since our Settlement here; prospects are, however, that we will have a very fruitful season. The people in the North are a little afraid of grasshoppers, as they say there is scarcely a foot of land from the summits of the mountains in Cache to the centre of the valley that is not filled with their eggs. The Lord has all these mattes in His keeping, and He can cause the grasshoppers to disappear as easily as He can bring them. The Saints in most of the Settlements, however, are taking timely precautions to guard against famine by laying up a store of flour. The spirit to do this is very unanimous in this city as well as in most other places.
Our Telegraph Line is in full operation between Logan in the North and Saint George in the South, with a branch line running through San Pete to Manti. This institution promises to be of great benefit to us. I can sit in my office and send a message to Bro. Erastus Snow, at Saint George, making enquiry about the health of the people, or upon any other subject, and in two or three minutes, receive a reply. So also with all our principal settlements throughout the Valleys. We only begin to realize a few of the great advantages which will result from the introduction of this great improvement into our Territory.
There is a spirit among the people to listen more strictly to the counsels that have been given by the servants of God than they have been in the habit of doing in the past. An effort has been made to unite the people on the subject of not patronising our enemies. Thy have adopted this counsel with considerable unanimity. Times have favored us in enforcing this counsel, business being dull and money very scarce, hence the people reflect on this counsel more than they would do if times were flush and money plentiful. It is time the Latter-day Saints began to practice the principle which has been enforced upon their attention for so many years. As long ago as the first Settlement of Kirtland by our people Joseph taught us that we should not devote our strength or means to building up cities and places for the gentiles, but to the up-building of Zion, Had that counsel been strictly carried out a very different condition of things would exist in our midst to-day. But there has been a carelessness manifested by many on these points, and if a gentile would offer an article as cheap as, or a little cheaper than a Saint, no matter how bitter an enemy he had been, he was apt to obtain preference among the Saints. This practice is radically wrong, and the Elders are laboring diligently to set the principle in its true light before the people, and we hope with excellent effects.
We shall be pleased to hear from you at any time. Accept my love to yourself, and remember me to the Elders and Saints who may be with you, and praying the Lord to give you great success in your ministry, and the wisdom necessary to carry on that portion of the work entrusted to your care, I and
Your Brother
Brigham Young