| 163 where the biggest crowd of good people will be the old settlers.
"To see such a large body of men, women, and children, compelled by the inefficiency of the law and potency of mobocracy to leave a great city in the month of February, for the sake of the enjoyment of pure religion, fills the soul with astonishment, and gives the world a sample of fidelity and faith brilliant as the sun and forcible as a tempest and as enduring as eternity.
"May God continue the spirit of fleeing from false freedom and false dignity, till every saint is removed to where he 'can sit under his own vine and fig tree' without having any to molest or make afraid. Let us go-let us go."-Ibid., p. 1114.
This indicates that preparation for an exodus was fast maturing, and also the number of adherents to the faith who were thus destined to be exiled.
With the issue of February 15, 1846, the Times and Seasons was discontinued.
Early in February, 1846, the first wagons crossed the Mississippi River, destined for the western exodus. They could not all go, however. Some must remain behind to dispose of property and to await a more propitious season for traveling. In fact, it was a concession for any to go in the winter, as the agreement with which all should have complied permitted them to remain until spring. But in the vain hope of appeasing the wrath of their enemies, and proving that their agreement would be carried out in good faith, some consented to leave in the most inclement season of the year and to subject themselves and families to cold and privations incident to moving over a storm-swept prairie. All through the spring and summer they continued to move, as fast as possible, sacrificing in almost every instance material interests into the hands of their covetous enemies.
Whether the "Mormons" could have avoided this dire calamity by a different course of procedure, is a question which does not belong to the historian to determine. Whatever may truthfully be said in regard to the improper
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