“The Mormons. . October 16. 1842. Gen — Sir— Some time since, I addressed a letter to Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, in answer to a letter of his, introducing to my “kind attention” a friend of his from the Holy City of . In this letter I expressed my regret that the quarrel between him and should have at all found its way to the public eye, this being the sole cause of placing him in his present awkward situation. I likewise commiserated with him in his affliction, and signed myself, at the conclusion of my letter, as his friend, which I really am, and the friend of all good Mormons, as well as other good men. Why should I not be Joseph Smith’s friend? He has done nothing to injure me, nor do I believe he has done any thing to injure of . The , no doubt, under strong feelings, may have thought and believed that Smith, had preconcerted the plan for his assassination; but there is no legal—— evidence whatever of that fact. None by which an unprejudiced jury would convict any man, yet to send this man into , under the present requisition, would be an act of great injustice, as his ruin would be certain. How could any man, against whom there is a bitter religious prejudice, escape ruin, being in the circumstances of Smith? Look at the history of past ages— see the force of fanaticism and bigotry in bringing to the stake some of the best of men; and in all these cases the persecutors had their pretexts, as well as in the case of the Mormon chief. Nothing follows its victims with such deadly aim as religious zeal, and therefore nothing should be so much guarded against by the civil power. Smith I conceive, has just as good a right to establish a church, if he can do it, as Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Fox or even King Henry the Eighth. All these Chiefs in religion had their opponents, and their people their persecutors. Henry the Eighth was excommunicated, body and bones, soul and all, by his Holiness the Pope; still the Church of England has lived, as well as all the other sects. Just so, it will be with the Mormons. They may kill one Prophet, and [HC 5:170] confine in chains half his followers, but another will take his place, and the Mormons will still go ahead. One of their Elders said to me, when conversing on this subject, that they were like a Mustard plant— “If you don’t disturb it, the seed will fall and multiply; and if you kick it about, you only give the seed more soil, and it will multiply the more.” Undertake [p. 1406]