<​20 Joseph Smith’s Letter in ​> “ Clay County Mo. March 20. 1839 To the Church of Latter Day Saints at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular Your humble servant Joseph Smith Jr. prisoner for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the Saints taken and held by the power of mobocracy under the exterminating reign of his Excellency the Governor in company with his fellow prisoners and be[HC 3:289]loved brethren , , and , send unto you all greeting. May the grace of God the Father and of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rest upon you all and abide with you for ever. May knowledge be multiplied unto you by the mercy of God. And may faith and virtue and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and Godliness, and brotherly kindness and Charity be in you, and abound, that you may not be barren in any thing nor unfruitful— Forasmuch as we know that the most of you are well acquainted with the wrongs and the high toned injustice and cruelty that is practised upon us. Whereas we have been taken prisoners charged falsely with every kind of evil, and thrown into prison inclosed with strong walls, surrounded with a strong guard, who continually watch day and night, as indefatigable as the devil is in tempting and laying snares for the people of God. Therefore dearly and beloved Brethren we are the more ready and willing to lay claim to your fellowship and love. For our circumstances are calculated to awaken our spirits to a sacred remembrance of every thing, and we think that yours are also, and that nothing therefore can separate us from the love of God. and fellowship one with another and that every species of wickedness and cruelty practiced upon us will only tend to bind our hearts together and seal them together in love, we have no need to say to you, that we are held in bonds without cause, neither is it needful that you say unto us, we are driven from our homes and smitten without cause. We mutually understand that if the Inhabitants of the State of had let the Saints alone, and had been as desirable of peace as they were, there would have been nothing but peace and quietude in this unto this day. we should not have been in this hell surrounded with Demons, if not those who are damned, they are those who shall be damned, and where we are compelled to hear nothing but blasphemous oaths, and witness a scene of blasphemy, and drunkenness [p. 900]