Sir—In my last I touched upon the vested rights of the of the Saints, as they appear upon the face of the charter; and it may be proper hereafter, to go into the merits of that document, for I hold the maxim good that the “ is interested in the Union;” but at the present time I have another subject on the tapis, which more immediately concerns the wise and honest portions of the American people. I reason from facts, no matter who may cry ‘hush!’ as to Mormonism, and the ‘disgrace’ which the State of inherits from her barberous treatment, and unlawful extermination of the Mormon people. The great day has already been ushered in, and the voice of a Mormon is not only heard, setting forth his own rights, and preaching the gospel of the Son of God, in power and demonstration, incontrovertable from revelation, in every city and hamlet in our wide-spread American free states, but other realms and kingdoms hear the same tidings; even the Indians, Australia, Pacific Islands, Great Britian, Ireland, Scotland, and the Holy Land, where God himself once spoke, have heard a ‘Mormon;’ And all this in the short space of twelve or fourteen years; yea, and measures have been taken, that Russia may hear the ‘watchman cry.’

Now sir, ‘what has been done, can be done.’ I shall not be surprised if the Mormons undertake to cope with the world. Virtue and truth, are twin sisters, of such winning charms, that honest men of every nation, kindred and tongue, will fall in love with them; and what hinders the Mormons, with the Bible in one hand and humanity in the other, from Mormonizing all honest men? Nothing. The meaning of Mormon, the prophet Joe says, is ‘More Good,’ and no matter where it is, the Mormons will have it, and if they can not obtain it by exertion in the world, they will merit it by faith and prayer from the ‘old promise’ of ‘ask and ye shall receive.’ But do not think that I, even I, have been Mormonized, by what I write, for I say Nay, though I am willing to admit, and all men of sense will do the same; the more light, the more truth; the more truth, the more love; the more love, the more virtue; the more virtue, the more peace; the more peace, the more heaven; what every body wants. The Mormons believe rather too much for me. I ‘can’t come it.’

Another word on . When her Constitution was framed, they commenced the preamble as follows: ‘We the people of &c., by our representatives in convention assembled, at , on Saturday the 12th day of June, 1820 do mutually agree to establish a Free and Independent Republic, &c.’ Independent Republic! Well, some of their subsequent acts prove the truth of it, and as the broad folds of the constitution often conceals more than meets the eye, notwithstanding it is the Ægis of the people, to keep law-makers and law-breakers within and without bounds;—let me quote from the 13th article of the aforesaid constitution, the 3d paragraph; ‘That the people have a right peaceably to assemble for their common good, and to apply to those vested with the powers of government, for redress of grievances; and that their right to bear arms in defence of themselves and of the , cannot be questioned.[’] This over-wise right of gun-fence was made, as I have learned, for breachy Indians, but was used by as a sine qua non, pointed with steel and burning with brimstone, to exterminate the Mormons. Truly, we may ask, what is right, and what is law, contrary to the constitution? The Legislature of acknowledged the exterminating order of as constitutional, and appropriated more than $200,000 to pay the drivers and robbers, and I may as well say, mobbers of the Mormons, for services rendered the in 1838. O Gladius! O Crumana!

, July 26, 1843. [p. [3]]