[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 106 (Thursday, July 24, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8005-S8007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
UTAH SESQUICENTENNIAL
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, it is a unique privilege and distinct honor
for me to recognize, today, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, the 150th
anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers in the Valley of the
Great Salt Lake on July 24, 1847.
It was spring, by the calendar, in late March of the year 1846, as
some 3,000 people in 400 wagons struggled west across the rolling hills
of Iowa, through snow and drizzling rain. The muddy track was nearly
impassable as they lumbered on, far behind schedule and nearing
exhaustion. Behind them lay the last few villages of organized
territory; before them, the great unknown. Somewhere, over the horizon,
beyond the sheltering forests and the waving grasslands, lay the Rocky
Mountains. Previous maps showed the way into the wilderness, while
scouting reports told of the romantic landscape ahead: Black clouds of
buffalo sweeping across the prairie swells, great rivers and snow-
capped peaks, the endless sky, and the lonely stars. Most of these
wagons had never been this far West; perhaps a few had reached
Missouri--Independence or Clay County. But that was no comfort. Few
people in this wagon train cared to think much of Missouri--where the
stench of massacre and betrayal had but recently overwhelmed the sweet
scent of fresh gardens and new-mown hay. Now, as history repeated
itself, their last refuge--their beautiful Nauvoo--was besieged by
hateful mobs, and there seemed no other solution than to flee, yet
again. These wagons were the vanguard; hundreds were on the road behind
them, and thousands more, gathered on the banks of the Mississippi,
were making ready to follow.
Barely 26 years before, young Joseph Smith, by his own account, had
entered the woods near his father's farm to pray, when ``Suddenly, a
light descended, brighter far than noonday Sun, and a shining, glorious
pillar o'er him fell, around him shone, while appeared two heav'nly
beings, God the Father and the Son.'' Now, scarcely grown to the
fulness of his prophetic calling, this towering leader lay dead in a
martyr's grave, and the faithful who had responded to the restored
Gospel entrusted to him were scattered and driven, with only one hope,
expressed in the hymn that would become their inspiration and epitaph:
``We'll find the place, which God for us prepared, far away in the
West, where none shall come to hurt, or make afraid. There, the Saints
will be blessed.''
They came from everywhere, these honored pioneers--New England, Old
England, the lands of the North--wherever believers could spread the
word. Some were already crusty pioneers--the likes of Daniel Boone or
the Green Mountain boys --whose ancestors had settled the Tidewater
counties or landed at Plymouth Rock. Others had only recently left the
coal mines of Wales and the sweatshops of Manchester to take their
first draught of fresh air in the New World. A few were professionals,
who could doctor, or teach, or play music to ease the rigors of the
trail; many were artisans--carpenters, wheelwrights, shoemakers--whose
skills were sorely needed. But for all their skills and preparations,
far too few were ready for the bone-deep weariness, the numbing cold,
or birthing in the open air.
Critics might say that they brought their misery upon themselves--
through blind faith and foolhardy dreams. Such was the litany of those
who mobbed and burned and killed without mercy. Yet the saints were
moved by a destiny their detractors could not have understood. It came
from the lips of their fallen prophet:
I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much
affliction * * *, many would apostatize, others would be put
to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in
consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live
to go and assist in making settlements and build cities, and
see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of
the Rocky Mountains.
As summer came to western Iowa the vanguard paused to build and plant
for those who would follow, and, thus further delayed, found it
necessary to spend the winter of 1846-47 on the banks of the Missouri,
upriver from Council Bluffs, in Indian territory. Here, at winter
quarters, they gathered and regrouped. On the 7th of April 1847, the
advance company, led by Brigham Young, was once more on the move,
followed in June by approximately 1,500 people organized after the
Biblical model as the ``Camp of Israel.'' By July 21, after nearly 4
months on the trail, a scouting party reached the Valley of the Great
Salt Lake, followed on the 22d by the main body of the advanced
company. Two days later, Brigham Young himself reached the foothills at
the edge of the Great Basin. Surveying the valley before him, as if in
a vision, he finally spoke the now-famous words of approbation: ``This
is the right place. Drive on.''
[[Page S8006]]
Over the next 150 years, the vision was verified and the prophecy
fulfilled. Upward of 70,000 people crossed the plains in wagons and
handcarts. Many a journey started from Liverpool where the faithful
from throughout Europe embarked for Zion, fulfilling, as they believed,
the words of the prophet Isaiah:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and
all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his
ways, and we will walk in his paths * * *.
Six thousand died along the way. Some lost heart and turned back, or
shrank before the daunting task of taming the harsh land and moved on
to the greener pastures of Oregon and California. But more than 300
settlements in Utah and surrounding States, as well as colonies in
Canada and Mexico, testify to the courage and determination of that
vast majority who persevered.
Today, the desert blossoms with the fruits of their labor, while
their descendants continue to build upon their firm foundation. A
yearlong celebration, with the theme ``Faith in Every Footstep,'' is
now in progress to honor their memory. Well-wishers and admirers in
towns and cities along the trail and throughout the world have joined
with Latter-day Saints in commemorating this milestone of human
history--with the dedication of buildings and monuments in hallowed
places, with theater and music, historical displays, and a vivid
reenactment of the trek itself. It has been, and continues to be, a
joyful celebration, as befits the memory of those whose sacrifice has
indeed given birth to ``a mighty people.''
Mr. President, I would like to add my tribute by quoting the words of
a Mormon hymn which reflects--I think, appropriately--the joy and the
guiding faith of those marvelous Saints who, 150 years ago, put their
fate in the hands of God and turned their faces West:
The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!
The latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
And angels are coming to visit the earth.
We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven,
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
Henceforth and forever, Amen and amen.
Mr. President, my forebears were part of these pioneers who came
across this vast territory, who suffered untold privations. My great-
great-grandfather was killed by a mob. I have to say that when they
came to Utah, they followed the leadership of Brigham Young and went
wherever they were told to go. They believed in what they believed.
They had faith in what they had faith in. And they lived up to the
principles that literally made Utah such a great State and much of the
West greater than it would have been.
So I am very grateful for these pioneers. I am grateful for those who
made that commemorative trip this year and have gone through the
deprivations and privations to show just a little bit what some of
these early pioneers had gone through.
Last but not least, a number of them expressed themselves and said
that this experience of going on that pioneer trek, walking it, riding
in covered wagons, riding horses, and pulling handcarts was one of the
greatest experiences of their lives. Unfortunately, it wasn't perhaps
the greatest experience for our early forebears, the pioneers, because
of the many travails and problems they had. These trails they had to
break themselves, in many respects, and they did it and I am grateful
for it.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, like my
colleague, I may be allowed to proceed as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I had not expected to be here in the
Senate today. I had made plans to be in Salt Lake City where the
celebrations are going on for a historic event marking the 150th
anniversary of the entry of Brigham Young into the Salt Lake Valley. As
Senate business has been pressing, combined with a bad cold that you
can hear in my throat, I decided wisdom meant that I should stay here,
even though my heart is in Utah.
Mr. President, we have heard a lot from the senior Senator,
appropriately, about the trek and what went on. Like him, I have
forebears who were part of that great movement, which began with
Brigham Young in 1847, but continued until the coming of the railroad
in 1869. My grandfather, John F. Bennett, was 3 years old when his
parents and his grandparents took him out of the slums of Liverpool,
where they were born and raised in what would be considered the lower-
lower class, walked across the great American plains to try to find a
new life and a new religion in a new place. Out of that family that
came from that little boy, who had no education, no hope, and in the
class-ridden status of England at the time, no chance of opportunity
for advancement, have come two United States Senators, a number of
successful businessmen, a series of college graduates, and a tremendous
family of achievement and family happiness of which I am a beneficiary.
There was indeed something magic about that trek that called people
not only from the United States, but from all over the world, to go
forward in the name of their religion and their faith to a place that
was picked because no one else wanted it. Indeed, their leader chose
this place because he had been literally driven out of the United
States--some say solely because of his religion, others say because of
political problems, and others say because the Mormons weren't good at
getting along with their neighbors in Missouri, Illinois, and the other
places where they tried to settle permanently.
I won't try to rehash that history because it doesn't really matter.
What matters is that they stayed together, they traveled together, they
spread their version of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the
world, and they called their adherence from all over the world to join
with them in that tremendous sacrifice, to find a place where they
could be left alone to flourish.
They were not successful. They were not left alone. Within 2 years
after Brigham Young arrived, gold was discovered in California and the
world started going through Utah on its way for riches. Not everyone
found their way to riches, but they did help, economically, build a
State--an ironic twist of events for Brigham Young, who wanted to be
alone.
We have had a great deal said during this sesquicentennial year about
the tremendous physical sacrifice involved in that trek. As I think of
my 3-year-old grandfather, I can barely identify with how physically
difficult that must have been for him and for his parents and his
grandparents. I have just gone across country with a 5-year-old
grandchild, courtesy of Delta Airlines, and it was a whole lot easier
than taking him in a covered wagon for hundreds, if not thousands, of
miles.
So I pay tribute today to the legacy that I owe to those people and
what they did and what they endured. I have been back to England and
have looked at my relatives who stayed there and compared what happened
to those of us who are descendants of the people who were willing to
make that trek with what happened to those who stayed in what they
thought would be the comfort of the British Isles. It is one of the
things I offer thanks for in my personal prayers, that I am descended
from that branch of the family that endured that trek.
I want to make one final point about this, which I think is the
important point out of this entire experience as we pay tribute to the
people and who they were and what they did. As impressive as their
physical sacrifice and performance was, there is something else that I
want to mention that I think, in many ways, is more distinctive and
more instructive for us today in our world. This was a group of
people--at least the core group--who had been physically driven from
their homes several times. They had been physically driven from Ohio.
They sought refuge in Missouri; they did not find it. They were
physically driven from Missouri and ended up penniless, with nothing
but the clothes on their backs, in the State of Illinois. They started
over again. They built the largest and, by some accounts, most
beautiful city in Illinois. They were physically driven from there and,
again,
[[Page S8007]]
started out with very little to go someplace where they could be left
alone.
In today's world, when we see articles in books constantly written
about how we are all victims, we could expect that they would have
spent their time lamenting over that which they lost and focusing on
their resentments and their bitterness and that which other people owed
them. They did not. Oh, I am sure that there was some of that. It would
only be human that there would be some regrets and tears shed for homes
left. But that was not their focus. That was not their driving force.
They were not driven by hatred, a desire for revenge, a sense of
victimhood and petitions to get everything back that had been taken
away from them.
Instead, their focus was on the future. Senator Hatch has already
quoted the third verse of the hymn that they wrote and sang to
themselves again and again as they endured the physical difficulties. I
want to repeat it here in this context. It was not a hymn of mourning
or longing for the past.
They said:
We'll find a place which God for us prepared,
Far away in the West, where none shall come to hurt,
or make afraid.
There, the Saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King, above the rest.
This tale will tell, all is well, all is well.
Mr. President, we look around the world today in Bosnia, in Northern
Ireland, in the Middle East, and we find people who have suffered
ancient wrongs, sometimes terrible, unforgivable wrongs, at the hands
of their fellow men, in the name of politics or religion, or just plain
ethnic hatred. We find people in the Middle East who remember the
Crusades and feel offended by something that happened a thousand years
ago and are sworn to set right those ancient grievances.
I say to them and to all of us that those who made their way across
the plains 150 years ago had reason to hold grievances, but they looked
not to the past but to the future. And as I rise today to pay tribute
to their memory, I pay tribute not only to their physical courage in
undergoing that trek and express my gratitude for the privilege of
being descended from them, but I express my greater gratitude for what,
in my view, is a greater legacy: that I have grown up in a circumstance
where these people, however much they talk about the history of the
past, are willing to forgive the past; that they are not viewing
themselves anymore as that first generation, as victims, as obsessed
with redressing old wrongs or attacking old antagonists. The legacy
that is of greatest value to me and to the people of my State that came
from those who were engaged in that great trek was their legacy of hope
and optimism and a willingness to forgive and forget and look to the
future.
That is what we are celebrating today as we look back on 150 years
since the time they finally found their place faraway in the West,
which God had in fact for them prepared, where they have indeed been
blessed. Senator Hatch and I would like to be with them today, but we
cannot because of our duties here in the Senate. But we thank the
Members of the Senate for their indulgence in allowing us to take the
time of the U.S. Senate and make this recognition of significant events
in American history.
I yield the floor.
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, before I proceed with the formal business
of the Senate, I just want to congratulate and acknowledge the Senators
from Utah in their extraordinarily moving and thoughtful and brilliant
statements on the importance of today and the history of Utah and the
Mormon Church, which has so reflected effectively the history of this
country. The tempo and culture of that experience has been one which
has been intertwined with our Nation's strengths and, unfortunately,
some of our Nation's failures.
Their statements today, I think, as well as anything that I have ever
heard, reflect the energy and enthusiasm and vitality and warmth that
that church presents to its parishioners and which makes it such a
dynamic force in the faith of many people across this country and
across the world. So I congratulate them for their truly extraordinary
statements.
____________________