B. H. Roberts

“ I ask the citizens of this vast Republic, whether such a state of things is to be suffered to pass unnoticed, and the hearts of widows, orphans and patriots to be broken, and their wrongs left without redress? No! I invoke the genius of our Constitution. I appeal to the patriotism of Americans, to stop this unlawful and unholy procedure; and pray that God may defend this nation from the dreadful effects of such outrages.
Is there not virtue in the body politic? ”

“ No citizen, nor number of citizens, have a right to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their own hands. Such conduct strikes at the very existence of society, and subverts the very foundation on which it is based. I am not willing to persuade myself that any portion of the citizens of the State of Missouri are so lost to a sense of these truths as to require the exercise of force, in order to insure respect for them. ”

“ Murder when it has completed its work leaves its victim senseless and peaceful in death; "after life's fitful dream is over," he may sleep well. But what damning torments must that breast suffer which is robbed of its peace by brutal force! How deep the woe that bears the burden of an outraged modesty! How agonizing to be an object of pity! How much more cruel the living tortures of a life so humiliated than the calmness and the peace of death! When devils would with their direst terrors shake a people they say ”

“ Thus ended the only effort that was ever made by the officers of Missouri to bring to justice these violators of the law. One class of citizens had conspired against the liberties of another class, and being the stronger had, without the authority of law, or shadow of justification, driven twelve hundred of them from their possessions, and there was not virtue enough in the executive of the State and his associates to punish the offenders. The determination of the mob to resist the law was stronger than the determination of the State officers to execute it and make it honorable. ”

“ They have the right constitutionally guaranteed to them, and it is indefeasible, to believe and worship JOE SMITH as a man, an angel or even as the only true and living God, and to call their habitation Zion, the Holy Land, or even Heaven itself. Indeed there is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that they have not a right to adopt as their religion so that in its exercise they do not interfere with the rights of others. ”

“ The forests along the water courses put forth their tender buds, and the birds that had migrated to the south in the autumn, to escape the severity of the winter, joyfully returned to build their nests in the same old woods, and make the wilderness glad with their sweet songs. All nature rejoiced, and the saints who had gathered to that land to build up Zion rejoiced with her. ”

“ They seem not to have learned that those who would preserve their own rights and freedom must insist upon the rights and liberty of every man being respected and assured. It is vain, and especially in a republic is it vain, for any man to suppose that the freedom of any citizen or class of citizens, however humble or even unpopular they may be, can be infringed without endangering the rights and freedom of all. ”

“ Instead of being a farm with scarcely sufficient ruins to mark the spot where once it stood, there would have been a rich, populous city, along the streets of which would be pouring the wealth of the world; and instead of an old dilapidated farmhouse, there would have been magnificent temples to which the devout saints from the further corners of the world would have made their yearly pilgrimage. But the bigotry and intolerance of the saints towards the gentiles, and especially toward dissenters from the new revelations of Joe Smith, rendered such a consummation impossible! ”

“ The sun has just sunk behind the western horizon as Joseph and the standard bearer are choosing the place for their night's encampment They have paused on the summit of one of the gentle swells of prairie so common in their line of travel. A short distance to the south is a small wooded stream. To the north and east, as far as the eye can see, is nothing but the broad, rolling prairie; looking west, the horizon is bounded by a view of the heavy forests which marked the meandering course of the Illinois. ”

“ The land being thus beautiful in its products when only partially developed, the mind naturally inquires what will it be when its resources are fully developed—when the idleness and indifference of its people shall be banished—when it shall be possessed by the saints of the Most High, who will consecrate their substance for the building of Zion; and all their exertions will be to glorify God, and benefit mankind—when covetousness is subdued and virtue and righteousness shall reign in every heart—and when under the blessings of Jehovah the land shall yield in its strength! ”

“ Standing on an eminence that overlooks these alternate prairie and timber lands, extending as they do as far as the eye can reach—with here and there a crowning hill ornamented with a pretentious farm house, or some more humble dwelling half hidden from your view by the thick foliage of the trees, with cattle feeding on a thousand hills—all this is very likely to make the beholder imagine himself in some enchanted realm. ”

“ Standing on this consecrated ground and viewing the few relics that are left to remind us that the saints once lived here, one naturally falls into a sad reverie. It is true we are not surrounded by the fallen columns of ruined temples; or the ruins of splendid palaces, or massive walls, such as one would meet with at Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome or Athens. It is not the ruins of an antique or celebrated civilization that inspires one's sadness over Far West. ”

“ Some day, however, when a parallel shall be drawn between the introduction of the gospel in this dispensation, and that in which John figured, it will appear that the men who have been chosen of the Lord in this age to perform his work, possess the same simplicity of character as those whom he chose in Judea, nineteen hundred years ago—the same guileless honesty of purpose; the same child-like confidence in God, and the same unwavering fidelity to their Master's cause; as willing to undergo privations, hunger and cold, and toil and nakedness ”

“ They knew the saints could not sell their lands without surrendering many of their rights as free men and citizens of the United States; and without being untrue to their God, by virtually denying their faith in the revelations he had given regarding the building up of Zion in Jackson County. This the old settlers knew the Mormons would not do. They had tried to whip and frighten too many of them into a denial of their religious convictions, to think for one moment that money would be any inducement for them to deny that faith. ”

“ In a few days the other elders of this mission through the western states began to arrive. These men had suffered all the hardships incident to a long journey performed for the most part on foot through a sparsely settled country and in the hot summer months; but the consciousness that they were seeking the place of the city of Zion; that they had been promised, on condition of their faithfulness, that its location would be revealed to them; that it should be the land of their inheritance—sustained them in every trial and made the journey pleasant to them. ”

“ The line of march led the camp through Indiana and the central part of Illinois. The journey was undertaken, too, at a time of year—May and June—when nature appears in her most lovely attire—when the forests were in full leaf, and filled with the resonance of birds, the hum of bees and insects; when the great prairies, which quite bewilder one with their vastness, are clothed in their variegated garments of grass and wild flowers ”

“ As it was desirable on the part of the saints to obtain a location where they would be the principal settlers and occupants of the lands, where they would be free from injustice and violence of mobs, where they might quietly gather together and be taught to observe the principles of truth in the Gospel of Christ, that they might be prepared in all things for the redemption of Zion—upper Missouri, with its boundless prairies, wooded streams, and sparse population, seemed admirably adapted for their home until Zion could be redeemed. ”

“ Our hearts are greatly grieved at the spirit which is breathed both in your letter and that of Brother G——'s; the very spirit which is wasting the strength of Zion like a pestilence; and if it is not detected and driven from you, it will ripen Zion for the threatened judgments of God. Remember, God sees the secret springs of human action, and knows the hearts of all living.
Brother, suffer us to speak plainly, for God has respect for the feelings of his saints, and he will not suffer them to be tantalized with impunity. Tell Brother G——that low insinuations God hates ”

“ If I am called here again in case of a non-compliance of a treaty made, do not think that I shall act any more as I have done, you need not expect any mercy, but extermination, for I am determined the governor's order shall be executed.
As for your leaders do not once think—do not imagine for a moment—do not let it enter your mind, that they will be delivered or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed—their die is cast. Their doom is sealed. I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation you are ”

“ But if the execution of law must be abandoned because the violators thereof threaten to resist its execution, or because a reckless mob led by desperate men threaten that if the law is enforced they will plunge the country into civil war—what a burlesque on government it would be to refrain from the execution of law on that account! ”

“ From these two revelations we learn that Zion is to be redeemed by power. "I will raise up unto my people," said the Lord, "a man who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel, for ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage, with power, and with a stretched out arm: and as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be. Therefore, let not your hearts faint, for I say not unto you as I said unto your fathers, mine angel shall go up before you, but not my presence ”

“ His home will no longer be isolated, and his family denied the benefits of society, which has been, and always will be, the great educator of the human race; but they will enjoy the same privileges of society, and can surround their homes with as much refinement as will be found in the home of the merchant or banker.
"When this square is thus laid off and supplied, lay off another in the same way," said Joseph to those to whom the city plat was sent, "and so fill up the world in these last days, and let every man live in the city, for this is the city of Zion." ”

“ Yes! in this land, a mob, regardless of those laws for which so much blood had been spilled, dead to every feeling of virtue and patriotism which animated the bosom of free men, fell upon a people whose religious faith was different from their own, and not only destroyed their homes, drove them away, and carried off their property, but murdered many a free-born son of America—a tragedy which has no parallel in modern, and hardly in ancient, times ”

“ We have not only when smitten on one cheek turned the other, but we have done it again and again, until we are wearied of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon. We have proved the world with kindness, we have suffered their abuse, without cause, with patience and have endured without resentment until this day, and still their persecutions and violence do not cease. ”

“ All that can be said, then, against some of the early saints of this dispensation is that they manifested some of the sinfulness common to humanity, and much of that weakness which is the heritage of the sons of Adam; and some of them—many of them if you will—were not quite equal to the great task of overcoming that sinful nature, that human frailty. Meantime, their future is in the hands of God, and he alone will judge them. To the world we may say: "Who art thou that judgeth another man's servants? ”

“ What do constitutions amount to if they are not recognized as conservators of liberty, by acting as restraints upon these rash acts of injustice, so frequently prompted by the frenzy of popular sentiment—a sentiment often manufactured by a misrepresentation of the principles and motives of those against whom the injustice is levelled? In popular governments constitutions are adopted for the express purpose of restraining the majority in the exercise of its power, and to guarantee the enjoyment of rights and liberties to the minority—to those out of favor with the popular sentiment of the hour. ”

“ The clay, of which there is unlimited quantities, makes a fine quality of brick. Stone quarries which supply a good quality of light-colored sand-stone, are abundant, so that substantial building material may be said to be plentiful. Such is the land of Zion as I found it—a land with resources well-nigh unlimited, a land yielding an abundance of all useful products though but indifferently cultivated by the husbandmen who possess it—a land of surpassing loveliness, though its beauties are often marred rather than increased by those who inhabit it ”

“ A trace of wandering, a track of blood and temple building are the principal features in the history of this deluded people, deluded by a film so thin that even sense might see beyond. Taking their rise in the south of New York they soon migrated to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Jackson county, Missouri, then to Clay County, then to Daviess and Caldwell, then to Nauvoo, Illinois, and thence across the plains to Salt Lake, and even now there are rumors of another removal. ”

“ In their scattered condition no regular discipline could be enforced. Many of them were beyond the reach of their spiritual teachers; and being surrounded by wickedness, their hopes blighted, and witnessing the apparent triumph of the wicked, is it any wonder if, in their despair, many of them committed sins, and were chargeable with follies unbecoming people of their profession? But in the main the saints were immovable as the everlasting hills in their righteousness, and in their integrity. They were willing to count all things as dross for the excellency of the knowledge of God. ”

“ The people had learned of the massacre at Haun's Mill; they knew the murderous intentions of the mob forces encamped within two miles of their homes, and outnumbering the people of Far West by more than four to one, and clothed with a seeming authority by the highest officer in the State, to resist which, however outrageous or barbarous the conduct of the mob might be, would give further excuse for their extermination. ”