653 "Elder Alpheus Cutler, on the part of the Temple Committee, represented the work of the temple to be retarded for want of team work and provisions; also of iron, steel, powder, and clothing; giving as his opinion that the walls could easily be completed next season, if these embarrassments were removed, and the brethren would come forward to sustain them in the work with the means that were in their hands.
"Elder Reynolds Cahoon followed, seconding the remarks of Elder Cutler, and setting forth the importance of the saints using their utmost exertions to fulfill the revelation concerning the temple, earnestly exhorting the saints here and abroad to roll in the necessary means into the hands of the committee, that the work may advance with rapidity.
"President Hyrum Smith followed with pertinent remarks on the importance of the work-the ease with which it might be advanced to its completion; that it had already become a monument for the people abroad to gaze on with astonishment. He concluded with some advice to parents to restrain their children from vice and folly, and employ them in some business of profit to themselves, to the temple, or elsewhere.
"On motion by Elder William Law and seconded by President Hyrum Smith, conference voted, that we as a conference and individuals will use all the means, exertions, and influence in our power to sustain the Temple Committee in advancing the work of the temple."-Times and Seasons, vol. 4, pp. 329-331.
On October 24, 1843, James Arlington Bennett wrote a fawning letter to President Joseph Smith from Arlington House, New York. A friendly correspondence had been carried on between them for some time, but in this letter Mr. Bennett betrayed the design he had in view in gaining the Prophet's favor, and emphatically declared that he expected to locate in Illinois, and become Governor of the State through Joseph's influence; and intimated that he in turn would always favor the saints. 11 In connection with this he writes: "I say, therefore,
11 I may yet run for a high office in your State, when you would be sure of my best services in your behalf, therefore a known connection
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