the saints can stop as they travel to refresh themselves. If the Saints will take council we can send companies as fast as we have a mind to and by the time we all get our endowment, there will still be as many left here to take our places and carry on the work as there is now.
Coun. said it appears there is a measure proposed for our consideration, and alluded to in the letter written to the governors to obtain a grant from government for a tract of land for the benifit of this people exclusively. Now would it not be better to crowd forward that measure and endeavor to enlist the principal men of the to urge Congress to give us a grant of land somewhere to ourselves, and let us come into the so far as to come within the constitution [p. [143]]
The draft letter to the state governors urged them to “exert your influence to establish us a people in our civil and religious rights, where we now are, or in some part of the United States, or at some place remote therefrom, where we may colonize in peace and safety” and specifically requested that they express their “views concerning what is called the GreatWesternMeasure.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Mar. 1845, underlining in original.)