| 319 shot if they stirred, and also, some of our houses have been stoned or brickbatted.
"Also, that since some publications have appeared in the Western Monitor and other papers, censuring the conduct of the mob, the leaders have begun to threaten life, declaring that if any of the Mormons attempted to seek redress by law or otherwise, for character, person, or property, they would die!
"Now therefore, for ourselves, as members of the church, we declare, with the exception of poverty, which has not yet become a crime, by the laws of the land, that the crimes charged against us (so far as we are acquainted) contained in the documents above written, and those in the proceedings of the mob, as published in the Western Monitor of August 2, are not true. In relation to inviting free people of color to emigrate to this section of country, and other matters relative to our society, see the l09th, 10th, and 11th pages of the Evening and Morning Star, and the Extra accompanying the same, dated July 16, which are annexed to this petition. Our situation is a critical one; we are located upon the western limits of the State, and of the United States-where desperadoes can commit outrages, and even murder, and escape, in a few minutes, beyond the reach of process; where the most abandoned of all classes from almost every State may too often pass to the Mexican states, or to the more remote regions of the Rocky Mountains to escape the grasp of justice; where numerous tribes of Indians, located by the general government amid the corrupting influence of midday mobs; might massacre our defenseless women and children with impunity.
"Influenced by the precepts of our beloved Savior, when we have been smitten on the one cheek we have turned the other also; when we have been sued at the law and our coat been taken, we have given them our cloak also; when they have compelled us to go with them a mile we have gone with them twain. We have borne the above outrages without murmuring, but we cannot patiently bear them any longer according to the laws of God and man we have borne enough. Believing, with all honorable men, that whenever that fatal
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