Great Salt Lake City Oct. 22nd. 1858
Captain
I feel it due to you as well as myself to reply to your note of April 15th. I admire your candor and believe that you gave your advice sincerely desiring our best good. We think however that we understood the designs of the administration, and our enemies better than you, and that the check which the Army received evinced to the people that we were in earnest and would not tamely submit to being used up at the dictation of anonymous and lying scribblers. corrupt officials, speculators and gamblers. upon whose misrepresentations the administration, without the consent of Congress, based hostile action against us. No person was more anxious to avoid a collission than myself, and I feel truly thankful that matters have thus far progressed without one. But Captain it is but small liberty that a people can enjoy when every officer, trader, contractor are selected from among our enemies, imported, held, backed up and sustained by the Government of this Great Republic by her standing army and the train of hell which follow after. It is bad enough now. What would it have been last fall if this heterogenous mass had been permitted to come into our Settlements without the restraint which subsequent events caused as a rein to be held over them, and checked our bitter enemies in accomplishing the base purposes which they had so cunningly devised?
You say that "If your religion cannot withstand the contact of the world it cannot be true -- If the presence of a thousand U. S. troops quartered in Rush Valley can shake the faith of your people that faith can be of little value." Our Religion has ever stood the test and come off gloriously victorious in its contact with the world, and for this reason, and because it is true and cannot otherwise be overthrown, it is that the world arrays theri armies against us to endeavor to destroy by physical and brute force the humble and sincere votaries of principles which theri best logicians and most eloquent champions have by argument and reason contended against in vain. Jesus was crucified! Tho' all Christendom profess to believe in his divine Mission, and admire the truths which he inculcated. Was it any evidence of his being an imposter because the Jews reviled, slandered and finally killed him? In the history of the world an impostor is seldom persecuted. It is the truth which has to cut its way, and hence becomes unpopular, calling forth the denunciation of all the world who are sunk in profligacy, corruption and sin.
It has ever been that the enemies of truth failing to effect its overthrow through "moral suasion" have sought to oppress and kill its supporters.
It is not the objectionable feature that the U. S. troops being quartered in our midst will shake the faith of the Saints. They are welcome to all they can draw off and it would be a good riddance to our community. But throwing into our midst such a mass of abandoned profligacy, licentiousness, debauchery and dissoluteness as you Captain must acknowledge so generally pervades every department and always attends the camps of the U. S. Army. The corrupting influence of such a mass of filth might well be, and is dreaded in every well regulated community and we trust that ere another winter they will find more congenial quarters, where they can perform some practical service at less expense to the Government. I trust the next `war' the contractors and Treasury leeches get up they will seek elsewhere for the field of their enterprize. That this has been as extravagant as it is useless, none I presume will deny. If the President, his Cabinet, and the Contractors are satisfied I am glad of it, and hope that they will rest content.
If Congress and the people of the United States feel equally content and satisfied, we can only say they are senseless to the knell of departed Liberty, and will only awake to a sense of their loss when its funeral dirge shall echo in the sacred precincts of their own cherished homes.
Captain;-- where is your overflowing Treasury? Where the prestige of your Army? They have marched 150 miles from Fort Bridger to Cedar Valley and are now in the snow without having completed their winter quarters, although they have had all summer and fall to operate in and no one to molest them. Where are the trains now? We hear that 75 of them, including some of the Sutler's and merchants, are yet East of the mountains--elucidating to a demonstration that they can scarcely cross the plains in one season, even without opposition Where would they have been if we had been disposed to interrupt them? And where would the army have been by this time if we had not supported them? No Captain we are not overawed or frightened in the least by all the `pride, pomp, and circumstances of `glorious (?) war' The Army would sink and die where they are even now, and never be able to leave here, if it were not for the supplies drawn from the people of this Territory.
We have learned of your Court of investigation. We soon expect to hear of your successful triumph over your accusers; but if you do not, remember, Captain, there is a day when truth and integrity will prevail not only with you but us.
All is well with us as could be expected under the circumstances, as we are used to the "kicks and cuffs" of the world, but as you are aware our trust is in that power which all must sooner or later acknowledge; and who can cast down, and set up, and none shall presume to stay His hand.
May God bless you for your kindness of heart, and preserve you to live until you shall shalll see truth triumphant and our oppressed, though innocent people obtain their Constitutional Rights.
With best respects I have the honor to remain Your Friend,
Brigham Young
To Capt. Stewart Van Vliet
Ass. Qr. Master Genl. U. S. A.