Letter to the Church in Caldwell County, Missouri, 16 December 1838, as Recorded in “General” Record Book
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Clay Co., MO, to the church in , MO, 16 Dec. 1838. Version copied [between 16 Dec. 1838 and ca. 30 Oct. 1839] in “General” Record Book, 1838, pp. 101–108; handwriting of ; CHL.
ed by some; but it is reported falsely. Was it because we have committed treason against the state in , or of burglary or of larceny or Arson, or any other unlawful act in . We know that Priests and certain lawyers, and certain Judges who are the instigators aiders and abettors of a certain gang of murderers and robbers who have been carrying on a scheme of Mobocracy to uphold their against the saints of the last days for a number of years, and who have by a well contemplated and premeditated scheme to put <down> by physical operation a system of religion that all the world by all their mutual attainments and any fair means whatever were not able to resist. Hence mobbers were encouraged by Priests and Levites, by the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and Essinees and the Herodians and every other E and ite agging on the most ruthless, abandoned, and debauched and lawless & inhumane and beastly set of men that the earth can boast of and indeed a parallel cannot be found any where else, to gather together to drive to steal and to plunder to starve and to exterminate and burn the houses of the Mormons.
These are the characters that by their treasonable and overt acts, have desolated and laid waste These are the characters that would fain make all the world believe that we are guilty of the abovenamed acts, but they represent us falsely, We stood in our own defence and we believe that no man of us acted only in a just a lawful and righteous retaliation against such marauders. We say unto you that we have not committed treason, neither any other unlawful act in . Was it for murder in against Mob Militia who was a wolf in sheeps first instance, Hide and hair, teeth legs and tail, who afterwards put on a Militia sheep skin well tanned with the wool on, who could sally forth in the day time into the flock & snarl and show his teeth, and scatter and devour the flock and satiate himself upon his prey, and then sneak back into the brambles in order that he might conceal himself in his well tryed skin with the wool on. We are well aware that there is a certain set of Priests and satellites and mobbers that would fain make all the world believe that we are the dogs that barked at this howling wolf that made such havoc among the sheep, who when he retreated he howled and blated at such a rate desperate rate, that if one could have been there he would have thought that all the wolves whether wrapped up in sheep skins or in goat skins or in any other skins, and [p. 104]