| 532 The following letters from Elder A. H. Smith, giving an account of an interview with President Brigham Young, will be read with interest and profit:-
"SALT LAKE CITY, July 18, 1869.
"I have had many trials in my short life, of my powers of control over my passionate temper; but never in my short life did I have need of strength more than I did yesterday.
"David gave you an account of our trip and arrival. We met many who were anxious to see us and hear us, and asked us if we were going to speak in the Tabernacle. We of course did not know, but were desirous of so doing; and to leave no stone unturned in our favor, David, myself, John Smith, Samuel Smith, George A. Smith, and John Henry Smith, (George A.'s son,) called on President Young yesterday morning, and I plainly stated our mission, and asked for the use of the Tabernacle to speak to this people.
"My statement that we differed from them in principles and points of doctrine called forth some questions, all of which I endeavored to answer in calmness, with respect and courtesy to all present. President Young then favored us with an account of how the marriage ceremony became inserted in the Book of Covenants, directly in opposition to all father could say on the matter. I told him we did not come to argue the matter there; that our reasons for differing were many-and among them, the fact that the principle he was endeavoring to sustain was contrary to all the former revelations of God, and that, in this view of the matter, we could not accept the testimony of any man or set of men that came in opposition to God's holy words in the Book of Covenants and Book of Mormon.
"Brigham then took me to task about what I had said in the garden three years ago, and denied that the Twelve ever did anything to embarrass mother in any way; but, to the contrary, that they had done everything in their power to help her in her time of trouble. I, of course, differed with him, and told him so; and then he called mother 'a liar, yes, the damnedest liar that lives,' said that she tried to poison father, that she stole Uncle Hyrum's portrait and large ring.
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