He thrilled to be so near the actual moving of the hand of God, and something of the old spirit revived within him.
From Salt Lake City came news of the early fighting and of meetings for public rejoicing held in the tabernacle, with prophecies that the Gentile nation would now be rent asunder in punishment for its rejection of the divine message of the Book of Mormon and its persecution of the prophets of God.

In one of these meetings of public thanksgiving Brigham had said from the tabernacle pulpit: "What is the strength of this man Lincoln?
It is like a rope of sand.

He is as weak as water,--an ignorant, Godless shyster from the backwoods of Illinois.

I feel disgraced in having been born under a government that has so little power for truth and right.

And now it will be broken in pieces like a potter's vessel." These public rejoicings, however, brought a further trial upon the Saints.