After an article entitled, "A Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo," was read, Brigham Young addressed in the afternoon the assemblage. "I wish to speak on the duties of lawyers," he said, "classing myself with the lawyers in the house of Israel. When any man who is a lawyer takes a course to break peace instead of promoting it, he is out of the way of his duty. A doctor of law should be a peacemaker. The great object we have before us is the completion of the Temple this season. We have felt the effects of slander and want a cure, or balm for it. I carry one with me all the time, and I want you to do the same. I will tell you what it is. It is to mind our own business and let others alone, to suffer rather than to do wrong. If anyone will take your property away let him alone and have nothing to do with him. A spirit intended to divide the Saints has been manifested in this city. We have built up this city. Would steamboats have landed here if the Saints had not come, or would speculators make anything out of our lands if we had not come to give them value? Israel is to be the head, and not the tail. All who have gone from us have gone from the head to the foot. Oppose this work and it will roll over you. When since it began did this work ever stop? What the Saints need to know is what the Lord wants of them and then have the courage to do it. If the Saints will keep the law of God, the hypocrites and the scoundrels will not be comfortable in their presence."
Closing the meeting the Prophet said, "I care but little for politics; I would not give much for the presidential chair in comparison with the office I now hold; but as men in the world have used the powers of government to oppose and persecute us, it is proper for us to use those powers for our own protection and rights. Were I President of the United States I would never say to an oppressed people, 'Your cause is just but I can do nothing for you.'"
Continuing, he spoke of the annexation of Texas, and he further believed that the United States should receive all the territory that it could. He was in favor of paying for the slaves and further believed that steps should be taken to give freedom to all colored { 203} children after a fixed period. By these means he believed that much bloodshed would be averted and that in the end it would be less expensive to the country at large. "This government," he said, "will receive no suggestions from me. Those who hold the responsible places are controlled by a spirit of self-sufficiency, but they will have to meet with fear and trembling in a day to come the false position they have taken."