gdon was loudly cheered; and when
he closed his oration I believed the Mormons could successfully
resist the world. But this feeling of confidence faded away as
soon as a second thought entered my mind. I then feared that the
days of liberty for our people had been numbered. First, I feared
the people would not give up all their worldly possessions, to be
disposed of by and at the will and pleasure of three men. In the
second place, I doubted the people being so fully regenerated as
to entitle them to the full and unconditional support and favor
of God that had been promised through the Revelation to Joseph
Smith, in favor of the Latter-day Saints. I knew that God was
able and willing to do all He had promised, but I feared that the
people still loved worldly pleasures so well that God's mercy
would be rejected by them, and all would be lost.

About three days after the proclamation of Rigdon had been made
there was a storm of rain, during which the thunder and
lightnings were constant and terrible. The liberty pole in the
town was struck by lightning and shivered to atoms. This evidence
from the God of nature also convinced me that the Mormon people's
liberties, in that section of the country, were not to be of long
duration.

CHAPTER IV - THE SAINTS BESET WITH TROUBLES

The Saints did not consecrate their possessions as they had
so recently voted they would do; they began to reflect, and the
final determination was that they could manage their worldly
effects better than any one of the apostles; in fact, better than
the Prophet and the Priesthood combined. Individual Saints
entered large tracts of land in their own names, and thereby
secured all of the most desirable land round about Far West.
These landed proprietors became the worst kind of extortionists,
and forced the poor Saints to pay them large advances for every
acre of land that was settled, and nothing could be called free
from the control of the money power of the rich and headstrong
Mormons who had defied the revelations and wishes of God.

So things went from bad to worse, until the August election at
Gallatin referred to. The troubles of that day brought the Church
and Saints to a standstill; business was paralyzed; alarm seized
the stoutest hearts, and dismay was visible in every countenance.
The Prophet issued an order to gather all the people at Far West
and Adam-on-Diamond, under the leadership of Col. Lyman White,
for the purpose of