| 397 you! If I do anything I shall come in contact with the whole State of Missouri.'
"But we were not to be intimidated; and demanded a hearing, and constitutional rights. Before we left him he promised to reconsider what he had said, and observed that he felt to sympathize with us on account of our sufferings.
"Now we shall endeavor to express our feelings and views concerning the President, as we have been eyewitnesses of his majesty. He is a small man, sandy complexion, and ordinary features; with frowning brow, and considerable body, but not well proportioned as to his arms and legs; and to use his own words, is 'quite fat.' On the whole we think he is without body or parts, as no one part seems to be proportioned to another; therefore instead of saying body and parts, we say body and part, or partyism if you please to call it. And in fine, to come directly to the point, he is so much a fop or a fool (for he judged our cause before he knew it) we could find no place to put truth into him.
"We do not say the saints shall not vote for him, but we do say boldly, (though it need not be published in the streets of Nauvoo, neither among the daughters of the Gentiles,) that we do not intend he shall have our votes.
"We have spent the remainder of our time in hunting up the representatives, in order to get our case before the House; in giving them letters of introduction, etc., and in getting acquainted. A meeting of the delegation of the State of Illinois was appointed to-day, to consult for bringing our case before Congress. The gentlemen from Illinois are worthy men, and have treated us with the greatest kindness, and are ready to do all that is in their power; but you are aware, brethren, that they with us have all the prejudices, superstition, and bigotry of an ignorant generation to contend with; nevertheless we believe our case will be brought before the House, and we will leave the event with God; he is our Judge, and the avenger of our wrongs.
"For a general thing there is but little solidity and honorable deportment among those who are sent here to represent the people; but a great deal of pomposity and show.
(page 397) |
