GLORIOUS PERSECUTION. 133
There was no help for them; they must leave the state or be killed; of this they were assured on all sides, publicly and privately.
And now iDegins another painful march — painful in the thought of it, painful in the telling of it. It is midwinter; whither can they go, and how? They have homes, but they may not enjoy them; land which they have bought, houses which they have built, and barns and cattle and food, but hereabout they are hunted to death. Is it Russia or Tar- tary or Hindostan, that people are thus forced to fly for opinion's sake? True, the people of the United States do not like such opinions; they do not like a religious sect that votes solid, or a class of men whom they look upon as fools and fanatics talking about taking the country, claimed as theirs by divine right; but in any event this was no way to settle the diffi- culty. Here are men who have been stripped in a moment of the results of years of toil — all that they have in the world gone; here are women weighed down with work and care, some whose husbands are in prison, and who are thus left to bear the heavy burden of this infliction alone; here are little chil- dren, some comfortably clad, others obliged to en- counter the wind and frozen ground with bare heads and bleeding feet.
Whither can they go? There is a small following of the prophet at Quincy, Illinois; some propose to go there, some start for other places. But what if they are not welcome at Quincy, and what can they do with such a multitude? There is no help for it, however, no other spot where the outcasts can hope for refuge at the moment. Some have horses and cattle and wagons; some have none. Some have tents and bedding; some have none. But the start is made, and the march is slowly to the eastward. In the months of February and March**
- 'On the 20th of April, 1839, the last of the society departed from Far
West. Thus had a whole people, variously estimated at from ten to fifteen
