Posted by:
Dallin Ox
(
)
Date: October 24, 2021 12:24AM
Well, no. That part of MWW about "Congress" (p. 233) was discussing the Oregon Territory (encompassing what is now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, but *not* Utah), where a senator from South Carolina bloviated in 1843, "Why, sir, of what use will this be for agricultural purposes? I would not for that purpose give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory. I wish to God we did not own it."
https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=012/llcg012.db&recNum=215Since the US didn't own the Utah area until 1848 as Mexican War spoils, the senator couldn't have possibly been referring to any part of Utah.
Further, Richards didn't write that Utah would have remained an uninhabitable wasteland. Instead, he quoted the bogus JS prophecy about the church being driven to the Rocky Mountains, then disingenuously conflated Oregon and Utah (p. 234):
"Since the Lord could make such a worthless land as described by [the senator] to 'blossom as a rose,' and the Saints could 'become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains,' surely these are even greater accomplishments than when the Lord parted the Red Sea and led Israel of old through on dry land."
See? The church settling Utah is more miraculous than Moses parting the Red Sea!
LeGrand Richards was a simple-minded fool, but there's no reason to misquote or misrepresent him. His actual words are enough to discredit him.