G. S. L. City, April 18, 1861.
Presidents Amasa Lyman,
Charles C. Rich, and George Q. Cannon,
42 Islington, Liverpool, England.
Dear Brethren:-I take pleasure in acknowledging the receipt, by last mail on the 13th inst., of very welcome favors from you of Feb. 28. and March 1, with George Q. Cannon, a/c with the Missionary Fund and corresponding vouchers, copy of letters written by Elders Thomas E. Jeremy and sister Elizabeth Lewis, and inclosure to br. William S. Warren of Parowan.
We were much gratified with learning of your zeal and diligence in your several duties, and of the blessings attending your labors, which is cheering and encouraging to all who love the great cause of truth and are striving to promote its advancement.
On the 28th of February I wrote advising you of the teams to be sent to Florence to assist the poor and bring freight, which letter you probably received about the same time I received your favors above acknowledged Those teams began to rendezvous in this City on the 16th inst., and it is expected that by Monday next (the 22nd) and soon thereafter upwards of 200 four-yoke teams will be under way for Florence, with quite an amount of flour to deposit at different safe points on route, with a considerable number of extra cattle for sale to those of the brethren who may wish to buy. It is presumed that the teams and extra cattle will accommodate nearly if not quite all who may be at Florence in readiness to cross the plains about the 1st of July. It may be well to impress it upon the Saints that the liberal and efficient aid now extended by their brethren here, with the intent, if blest, to greatly increase it each succeeding year, should cause those desirious of gathering to redouble, if possible, their efforts to effect their own deliverance to the utmost of their skill and diligence, and tend greatly to increase their faith in so doing. Our labors here are arduous for accomplishing the purposes for which we have been gathered, and amid them all, sustaining our Missionaries and gathering the poor enlist our warmest sympathies, and through the blessing of our God we trust to be able to greatly strengthen the arm we are stretching forth in aid of those important movements.
Aside from sustaining Missionaries, sending out teams, teamsters, flour, &c., it is always our aim never to draw upon the Liverpool Office for any amount that will in the least cripple its legitimate financial operations. If we have at any time varied from this purpose, it has been through ignorance of the financial condition of the Office, or the stern compulsion of unavoidable circumstances. From these statements you will readily understand that I fully commend your course in regard to the $3000 wanted by br. Hooper. True his wants may be somewhat urgent, simply in a business point of view; but upon reflection he can only conclude, as we do, that the public is greatly paramount to private interest, and when the two meet the latter should give way without ill feeling.
If upon examining your books you find that the £833.6.8 debited to br. Hooper is made up of $3000 drawn from br. Calkin by br. Hooper, and $1000 forwarded to br. Hooper by br. Calkin to be expended for my private use, (in both cases plus or minus the difference of exchange), then br. Hooper has accounted to this Office for that amount, and the Trustee in Trust should in your books be debited with the $3000, and the profits a/c be debited with the $1000, as br. Calkin forwarded the last named amount, to be expended upon my orders, as a small portion of the profits of the Office justly my due for my instrumentality in its being instituted.
The sale of provisions mentioned by you amounted to $700, and should be charged to Trustee in Trust's a/c.
In regard to drafts issued for money on deposits here, we issue them at the rate of $5, to the £, hence your practice in paying that class of drafts is correct
In answer to your question, relative to interest on a certain $1600, "shall I take the amount from the Missionary Fund and charge it with it and credit him (br Hooper)?", Yes. Has draft no 159, favor of W. H. Hooper, for $1000, been paid?
A few brethren have been selected to go on missions this Spring; they will meet in the Historian's Office on the 21st inst., and will go to the frontiers with the down trains.
I am informed that Gov. Cumming intends starting for the States on the 10th of May, without waiting for Presidential action in Utah appointments. It is also rumored that several other incomers of the class of 1857 are expecting to leave soon, and certainly prospects are not encouraging for them to remain, so long as they entertain their present views and designs.
By latest dates by pony from Fort Kearney, St Louis April 12, we perceive that the North and South continue writing, printing, and talking without coming to any adjustments of existing difficulties, each manouvering to throw upon the other the onus of the first attach. But while the elements of discord are rife throughout the States, Utah is calmly pursuing her path of peaceful progress, and, instead of seceding, bids fair, in due time, to annex portion after portion until the land of Joseph is blest with the sway of wholesome and righteous laws.
Current home events you learn from the papers, it is therefore only necessary to add that the weather is propitious, the people very busily occupied and generally enjoying good health, as are also your families and friends.
Your Brother in the Gospel,
Brigham Young