[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.

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