Great Salt Lake City, March 7. 1863.
Col. J. M. Rosse
Dear Sir:--
Your note of the 7th inst. is at hand in which you inform me that various parties have solicited you to represent to the President of the U. S. the causes of complaint which have been made against myself and the people of Utah "by some of the federal officials here," and that "in making such representations you desire to do no man injustice" and therefore
address to me cert interrogatories and ask me to state which if any of them be true in fact. Believing as I do that your communication was conceived in a spirit of kindness and friendship and for the promotion of the best interest of this people and our common country. it gives me the greatest pleasure to comply with your request and I will answer your interrogatories in detail.
First you say it is alleged that I as well as the people of Utah are disloyal to the Government of the U. S.
In answer to that accusation I will answer in one brief sentence-- If I rightly understand the term disloyalty, the allegation is utterly and absolutely false. But if I do not rightely understand the term and a devotion to and love for my country constitutes disloyalty then I as well as this people are disloyal.
If a prompt response to the call of my country during the Mexican war by the sending of over 500 of our young men to help bear aloft in triumph our flag, whilst we were yet wanderers in the desert plains, constitutes disloyalty, I as well as this people have been disloyal in the past.
If a prompt response to the call of our acting-Governor, and a subsequent call by the President of the U. S., in April last, for men to protect the Overland Mail constitutes disloyalty, I as well as this people are disloyal. If a present readiness at all times and under all circumstances to aid and assist in protecting the honor and glory of our common country constitutes disloyalty, I as well as the people are thoroughly disloyal; but if the above acts referred to are evidences of loyalty, then no part of the
U. S. contains a more loyal and devoted people than are the people of Utah. Let me add, were it not clear to every intelligent mind, I might show a thousand reasons why this people should be loyal, and I defy the man, however acute, to show one single reason why we should be disloyal.
Second. You say it is alleged that the Laws of the U. S. cannot be executed in this Territory, because of my opposition, either directly or indirectly, as the head of the Mormon Church. In reply to that accusation I will say that I have never, directly or indirectly, thrown any impediment in the way of the execution of the laws of the U S.; and further, that, so far as my influence and power extends, shall at all times be at the service of the civil authorities to assist in the execution of the laws; and <I, and> I believe that I can speak for the inhabitants of this whole Territory, will sustain the institutions and laws of our Government to the uttermost, as we ever have done.
In regard to the third allegation-- that influential Mormons encourage the robbery and massacre of emigrants by Indians-- I have the means of knowing <that it> is absolutely false.
And now, as to the concluding allegation, that the hostile feeling of the people here to the federal officials renders it necessary to maintain at this point a large military force, to enforce the laws and secure the personal safety of the federal officials here.-- So far as the first part of this assertion is concerned, I can but repeat what I before stated, that, to the
extent of [word cut off] influence, any and every law for the government of the people of this Territory shall be executed, without any hindrance whatever; and in regard to the personal safety of federal officials, I believe they are as safe from violence here as they would be in New York or Boston.
Respectfully Yours,
Brigham Young