G. S. L. City, April 9, 1859
Elder John M. Horner,
Mission of San Jose, California,
Dear Brother:--
Your letter of Feb 26, also two packages of Madder seed and Lawten blackberry seed, came safe to hand, for which please accept my thanks. Those you sent are the first madder seeds that have ever reached Utah, so far as I know; neither am I aware that the Lawton blackberry is growing any where in this Territory. Both kinds of seeds sent by you are a great acquisition; much care and pains will be taken in their culture, which I trust will be crowned with success, for our soil and climate are admirably adapted to their growth. I am also highly gratified at your many careful, judicious and extremely liberal efforts to supply us with cuttings and rootlets of so many choice varieties of much desired fruits, and regret that such praiseworthy efforts met with such ill success. But I trust that in this, as in every good work, you will not become discouraged, nor "weary in well doing" in the season thereof, until our isolated and barren region is supplied with every kind of fruit, of the choicest varieties, adapted to the wide range of our soil and climate, for which we hope the new, mail route by Carson will afford facilities heretofore wanting. It has been and continues to be so difficult to procure cuttings, rootlets and seeds from the East, that we are looking with increased interest and confidence to being able to obtain the yet desired varieties of fruits and other adaptable products from our western friends and neighbors; for which we are anxious to reciprocate in any manner that will be mutually satisfactory and beneficial.
We are well supplied with a great variety of most excellent peaches, but an extra early peach of excellent quality might prove an addition to our stock, our earliest ripening about the 12th of August. We have the means of multiplying the California grape quite extensively, but have only one feeble cutting each of the Catawba and Isabella growing here, and not one of any of the other celebrated varieties that would doubtless prove to be a great acquisition. The wild western strawberry, raised from seed, is the only kind much raised here, from the fact that we have been unsuccessful in our efforts to introduce superior kinds. We are beginning to have a great variety of apples, both seedling and imported, but there is a wide margin to fill in regard to many kinds which have quite a favorable reputation in fruit lists; and we have but few pears of any kind, and not any in bearing.
The general news, proceedings of courts, &c. are published in the Deseret News, which precludes the necessity of detailing them here. It is a matter of annoyance and regret that any court should call upon Federal troops to encamp adjacent to the court room, quarter military officers in the building within hearing of witnesses being examined before a grand Jury, treacherously arrest witnesses in court on bench warrants and thrust them under the keeping of soldiers, and use soldiers in making unwarrantable and unconstitutional searches of private dwellings, when at the same time the civil authorities were sufficiently numerous, amply competent and known to be ready, and prompt, and responsible for the performance of all legitimate duties, and when no resistance to an impartial administration of the laws had been offered or designed, and therefore no occasion for even calling upon a civil posse, both which aids should have been tried and found wanting, before resorting to military aid. But the plottings and designs of those who aim to gratify vengeful feelings and make gain, by forcing an angry and violent collision, have thus far signally failed, and even lover of the Constitution and laws our common country is individually interested that they continue to fail, and that justice, law, and order prevail, for upon no other basis is the perpetuity of our republican institutions guaranteed. The so-called court, by Judge Cradlebaugh held in Provo out of time and place, and of course contrary to all law that we are aware of, adjourned on the 4th. inst., and what the next strife-stirring move will be remains to be developed. Upon the adjournment, the Federal troops in and near Provo repaired to their quarters in Camp Floyd, having at the Judge's requisition, given the court the character of a military tribunal which men shunned through the idea that private pique or malice would cause their being arrested and thrust into the tender keeping of a 'walking calaboose' of soldiers, thus thwarting efforts for the promotion of justice.
The season is unusually backward, much of the stock is very poor and forage is scarce in many settlements-- serious hindrances to plowing and seeding-- but prudence, patience and diligence will enable us to improve, to a good extent, the facilities promising an abundant harvest.
Your Brother in the Gospel,
Brigham Young