“How is the Lord going to empty the earth? Will it be done in a week or a year? No. He has begun to do it. President [Abraham] Lincoln called out soldiers for three months, and was going to wipe the blot of secession for the escutcheon of the American Republic … Now they are beginning to enlist men for three years … they have begun to empty the earth, to cleanse the land, and prepare the way for the return of the Latter-day Saints to the centre Stake of Zion … When I left the State of Missouri, I had a deed for five pieces of as good land as any in the State, and I expect to go back to it … There are also a few others in the Territory who received theirs. A few will remain and receive their inheritance. Will we return and receive an inheritance there? Many of the Saints will return to Missouri, and there receive an inheritance.”

Brigham Young – 28 July 1861, Journal of Discourses – Volume 9 (Liverpool, England: George Q. Cannon, 1862), 142.