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THE DESERET WEEKLY.

President Wilford Woodruff

next addressed the assemblage, the
following being the substance of what
he said:

It was his duty as a leader of this
Church, as a Prophet, Seer and Reve-
lator as he was called, to bear his tes-
timony to what President Cannon had
just said; for he had told the truth. He
himself realized the delicate position
which any of them were placed in
when they touched upon political mat-
ters; at the same time he was very
glad that Brother Cannon had touched
upon that subject so far.

There were the Twelve Apostles. One
part of their number—he did not know
how many—were Democrats, the other
Republicans; and it was so with every
quorum in this Church and kingdom.
He confessed that the spirit which he
had seen manifested towards some of
the Twelve, and that by other
men of high standing in the
Church had pained him ex-
ceedingly. It might be asked in
what way? In the first place, every
man had as much right—Prophets,
Apostles, Saints and sinners—to his
political convictions as he had to his
religious opinions. There was no
necessity for quarreling one with an-
other, but there had prevailed a spirit,
since the political division, among the
Latter-day Saints which was greatly
to be deplored. As Brother Cannon
had said, that spirit would lead them to
ruin, to sorrow and affliction, unless a
different course was taken. He had
seen some good men in the
Church come together on these politi-
cal matters and display a spirit that
they had no business to. A good deal
had been said about Brother John
Henry Smith, and why he was
a Republican. He took it up,
and gave his views to the public. The
question arose and was put straight
out, "Is he going to apostatize? because
a man cannot be a Latter-day Saint
and a Republican!" That was the
feeling. Others might think that a
man could not be a Latter-day Saint
and a Democrat as well. Now, a man
could be both, and if we behaved our-
selves and did what was right as
Latter-day Saints they would not have
any trouble. He, however, wanted to
say to the congregation before him that
all the devils in hell and on earth were
united together to destroy this Church
and Kingdom. Whether it was one in-
dividual or a hundred, they labored to
that end, and the Saints had to be
careful to watch their position in
these things. There was an election
held recently in the North—the town
of Logan—where the Republicans were
victorious. They (the Presidency)
were accused of guiding, directing and
ordering, as it were, the operation
of this; but such was untrue. He
himself had sons who were both
Republicans and Democrats, but he
had never once in his life told either
of them how to vote. God knew he
had allowed them to do as they liked.
He wanted the Apostles to do as they
liked, also every other man in Israel;
"but for God's sake don't quarrel;
don't throw filth and dirt and non-
sense at one another, because of any
difference on political matters." Let
all present give heed to this. Let them
go about their business and attend to
their political affairs as they pleased;
but do not quarrel. If there were any
people on the face of this earth that
ought to be full of unity, of faith, of
the Holy Ghost and the revelations of
heaven it was the congregation before
him today.

He thanked God from the bottom of
his heart that he had lived to see this
day—to see such a vast congregation
as this in the valleys of these moun-
tains. He had grown up and lived
with the Church almost from its organ-
ization, and when he remembered how
few were now living in the flesh of
those whom he knew in Kirtland or
even Nauvoo, and who associated with
the Prophet Joseph, he marveled that
his own life had been preserved so
long. When they passed behind the