Avard was shrewd enough to make heresy against the presidency the most heinous crime in the church. This won him complete freedom of action and blinded the prophet to the more barbarous implications of his scheming. Avard told his men that they “should support the presidency in all their designs, right or wrong.” He did not mince words. “If I meet one damning and cursing the presidency, I can curse them too, and if he will drink I can get him a bowl of brandy and after a while take him by the arm, and get him one side in the brush when I will into his guts in a minute and put him under the
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