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RARE WORKMANSHIP.

hands and by the blessing of God. To lief of necessitous Saints; and Young men hungering after lands and houses, | himself, the servant of all, discharges the prosperity which he can truly des- in person the troublesome duties of cribe as existing in Deseret, and which this trust. I went with Bishop Hunter, he warmly invites them to come and a good and merry old man, full of share, is a great and potential fact. work and humor, to the emigrants' corral, to see the rank and file of the new English arrivals; six hundred people from the Welsh hills and Midland shires; men, women, and children; all poor and uncomely, weary, dirty, freckled with the sun, scorbutic from privation; when I was struck by the tender tones of his voice, the wisdom of his counsel, the fatherly solicitude of his manner in dealing with these poor people. Some of the women were ill and querulous; they wanted butter, they wanted tea; they wanted many things not to be got in the corral. Hunter sent for a doctor from the city, and gave orders for tea and butter on the Tithing Office. Never shall I forget the yearning thankfulness of expression which beamed from some of these sufferers' eyes. The poor creatures felt that in this aged Bishop they had found a wise and watchful friend.

Care of the poor is written down strongly in the "Mormon" code of sacred duties. A Bishop's main function is to see that no man in his ward, in his county, is in want of food and raiment; when he finds that a poor family is in need, he goes to his more prosperous neighbor, and in the Lord's name demands from him a sack of wheat, a can of tea, a loaf of sugar, a blanket, a bed; knowing that his requisition will be promptly met. The whole earth is the Lord's, and must be rendered up to him. Elder Jennings, the richest merchant in Salt Lake City, told me of many such requisitions being made upon himself; in bad times, they may come upon him twice or thrice a-day. In case of need, the Bishop goes up to the Tithing Office and obtains the succor of which his parishioners stands in need; for the wants of the poor take precedence of the wants of the Church; but the appeal from personal benevolence to the public fund has seldom to be made. For if a Saint has any kind of store, he must share it with his fellow; if he has bread, he must feed the hungry; if he has raiment, he must clothe the naked. No excuse avails him for neglect of this great duty. The command to sell what we have and give the money to the poor, is to most of us an empty rule; but the "Mormon," like the Arab and the Jew, whose spirit he has had breathed into him, knows nothing of such pious fictions. "Feed my flock," is to him an injunction that admits of no denial, and of no delay.

A special fund is raised for the re

Yet the Saints, as a rule, are not poor in the sense in which the Irish are poor; not needy as a race, a body, and a Church; indeed, for a new society, starting with nothing, and having its fortunes to make by labor, they are rich. Utah is sprinkled with farms and gardens; the hill-sides are pictured with flocks and herds; and the capital city, the New Jerusalem, is finely laid out and nobly built. Every man labors with his hand and brain; the people are frugal; their elds cost them nothing; and the wealth created by their industry is great. To multiply flocks and herds, to lay up corn and wheat, is with them to obey the commands of God.

RARE WORKMANSHIP.

(From the Salt Lake Semi-Weekly Telegraph, Jan. 24th, 1867.)

One of the most curious and rare specimens of pen painting we have ever seen, is that just completed by brother Daniel Graves, of Provo, and intended

for the Paris Exhibition. It is a painting entirely executed by the pen, and measures 4 feet 7 inches in length, by 3 feet 7 inches in breadth. It is a re

LEICESTER CONFERENCE.

MINUTES OF A CONFERENCE HELD IN LEICESTER, JANUARY 20TH, 1867.

Meeting opened by singing, at 10.30 the preaching of the word, unaccompanied by the Spirit of God, is ineffectual in bringing men to a knowledge of the truth.

(From the Salt Lake Semi-Weekly Telegraph, Jan. 28th, 1867.)

and Constitutionally organize a State Government, preparatory to their admission into the Union, as the "State of Deseret."

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress Assembled: GENTLEMEN,-We, your Memorialists, the Members of the General As- Wherefore, your Memorialists most sembly of the "State of Deseret," Body to favorably consider this our "respectfully solicit your Honorable respectfully state that our peculiarly isolated position, the well-proven in- Petition, and, at as early a day as adequacy of a Territorial organization other important duties will permit, to meet the wants of a numerous and take action admitting the "State of rapidly increasing population, a dis- Deseret" into the Union on an equal position to lessen governmental ex- footing with the original States. And penditures, and an earnest desire to as in duty bound your Memorialists enjoy those inherent, inalienable and will ever pray. Constitutional rights guaranteed to every American citizen, have induced the citizens of Utah to unanimously

Adopted by the General Assembly of the "State of Deseret," on the 22nd day of January, A.D. 1867.

THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' MILLENNIAL STAR.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1867.

REASONS WHY UTAH SHOULD BECOME A STATE.

UTAH is fully entitled to a State government, and should be immediately admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the other States.

In support of this proposition, we offer the following reasons:— 1st.-Utah has the requisite number of population, to entitle her to a representative in the national Congress. Many years ago, her estimated population reached nearly one hundred thousand. During the last few years, she has received an accession of many thousands by emigration from the States, and from the old world. Plural marriages, combined with the healthiness of the climate, have augmented the excess of births, over that of deaths, by many thousands annually. While the unparalleled sobriety, peace, good order, good morals, good government, and unexampled contentment, prevailing throughout the Territory, have so won the affections and love of the inhabitants, that but very few, indeed, have migrated to other parts. All these causes, combined, have produced a remarkable increase of population. Most of the

EDITORIAL.

169 Territories which have been admitted into the Union as States, had less population, at the time of their admission, than Utah. Nebraska, which received a State government, but a few weeks since, has probably not more than one-third of the population of Utah. Want of population, therefore, can no longer be urged, by any member of Congress, as an objection against receiving Utah as a State.

2nd.-Utah should become a State, because she has, by her convention, formed, and by the unanimous voice of the people, adopted a Constitution, republican in form, guaranteeing the right of suffrage to all citizens, irrespective of race or color, and also all other constitutional rights, enjoyed in any of the States. Hence, the form of government, proposed for the future State of Utah, is unobjectional to Congress. Indeed, no one, for a moment, can believe, that the national Legislature would require the loyal citizens of Utah, to adopt a Constitution, or a government, differing from that of the other States. Utah asks for no such peculiarities: she believes, that the civil and religious rights, guaranteed to the already existing States, are abundantly sufficient to satisfy the most ambitious desires of all future States. While Utah seeks no expansion

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of powers, she is unwilling to accept of any retrenchment of constitutional rights she claims admission upon terms of perfect equality with the other members of the Union, and has no desire to enter the Union on any other basis. Such being the indisputable facts, if she is debarred of a State government, it will not be, because there is anything lacking in her proposed form of future government.

3rd.-Utah should be admitted into the Union, because the voice of the people is unanimous for admission. At the election, a few years since, in regard to this subject, there was no minority in favor of continuing in a Territorial capacity. When Nebraska polled her 9000 votes in favor of and against a State government, she only had about 100 majority, favoring a change. If so small a majority were sufficient to obtain admission, surely Congress ought not to refuse the unanimous vote of a Territory, containing three times the population of Nebraska.

4th.-Utah is entitled to a State government, because of her age and experience in governmental matters. For the last twenty years, she has been thoroughly drilled, first, in the administration of a provisional State government; and secondly, in all the forms of a government in a Territorial capacity. The proverbial peace, and most excellent order, which have so universally prevailed throughout the Territory, testify loudly in praise of the wisdom of her Legislators and administrators of the law. In no Territory or State have there been so few crimes, and so little disturbance of the public peace. Taxation has been very light, and yet great public improvements have been made. Roads, bridges, public ferries, public buildings, canals, telegraph lines, great numbers of school houses, and a vast number of other public works, have been completed, and yet the finances of the Territory' have not been exhausted, nor the treasury emptied. Other Territories around her are deeply in debt, but Utah is solvent, with a surplus on hand for future use. Under good and wholesome laws, and wise and just administrators, over a hundred towns and villages have sprung up, unbounded prosperity has everywhere prevailed, and a dreary desert has been made to blossom as the rose. When a hundred thou

sand poor people have made themselves comfortable, if not rich, under the most trying and adverse circumstances; when they have penetrated a savage howling wilderness, upwards of a thousand miles from the abodes of civilized man; when they have prospered in the midst of untold hardships and privations, and planted the standard of American liberty, upon the very back-bone of the continent; when their youthful and brave patriots, over 500 in number, have shown their unbounded fidelity to their country's flag, and traversed thousands of miles of deserts, to fight the Mexican foe, and conquer for the American government, the soil of Utah, in addition to an area of country larger than all the northern States; when they have unflinchingly maintained the possession thereof, for twenty years, and braved the dangers of the tomahawk and scalping knife of the red man, and have established in an immense desert, the most frightful in appearance, a line of permanent settlements some 400 miles in extent, they certainly have manifested, a degree of wisdom and skill in government, far in advance of anything known in modern times. If a people who have accomplished all this, in the incredible short time of twenty years, are not prepared for self-government in a State capacity, then manhood never was ordained for self-government.

5th.—Utah should be admitted as a State, because she has maintained the most unflinching loyalty to the general government and to the Constitution, during the late rebellion. When States were dividing against States, and were withdrawing from the national compact, Utah, instead of receding, earnestly petitioned Congress to be admitted into the Union, that she might bear her share both in soldiers and expense in suppressing the rebellion but her petition was unheeded, although she voluntarily assumed to pay her proportion of taxes. When James Buchanan was stirred up by two or three corrupt lying demagogues, to send an army against Utah, for the sake of filling the pockets of some unprincipled speculators, did not the Federal Governor of Utah, and hosts of others, undeceive the nation, and prove beyond all controversy that the people of Utah were, in every respect, loyal to the government, and that there was not even a shadow of difficulty, nor the least foundation for the false rumors which had so violently prejudiced the chief Magistrate of the nation? Indeed, from first to last, there has not been a moment, when the people of that mountain Territory have deviated in the least degree from that perfect loyalty which every American citizen owes to his country and government. While other Territories have organized vigilance committees, carrying terror and anarchy throughout the country, involving the lives of both the innocent and the guilty, without law, judge, or jury, Utah has most scrupulously regarded the laws and administered legal justice to all classes or parties, without partiality. While political demagogues and the press have vilified every officer of government, and published falsehoods and slanderous reports by the wholesale, Utah has quietly attended to her own business, and sought to set good and worthy examples of loyalty to the whole nation. The unanimous wishes of a unanimously loyal people should not be disregarded by Congress, but they should be rewarded for their inflexible fidelity with a State government.

6th. One of the most important reasons why Utah should be rewarded with a State government, is the high degree of elevation to which she has attained in her social relations. Every American State and Territory is, at the present time, cursed with an overflowing flood of prostitution. This great social evil