| 306 law-breakers within and without bonds;-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 [defense] of themselves and the State, CANNOT BE QUESTIONED. This over-wise right of gun-fence was made, as I have learned, for breachy Indians, but was used by Gov. Boggs, 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 Missouri acknowledged the exterminating order of Boggs 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 in the state in 1838. O Gladius! O Crumena!
VIATOR.
Nauvoo, July 26, 1843.
There is something so very novel and interesting in the communication of "Viator," that we cannot let is pass without making a few remarks. Whoever the gentleman is who is the author of the following translation, he is evidently a man of great tact and genius, and of no mean literary attainments.
By comparing this translation with the translation of James, we shall find a very material difference exists between them. How far our Mormon friend may be correct, time must determine. He has given the literati an opportunity to investigate and correct, if they can. It is evident that a great deal of obscurity is removed from this hitherto mysterious chapter, by the translation of our friend; and we would respectfully invite him to proceed with his researches, whether his interpretations are orthodox or not. ED.
(From the Boston Weekly Bee.)
SIR:-In my last communications I briefly touched upon the rights of the Habeas Corpus law in Nauvoo, and the peculiar constitutional powers, &c., of Missouri. In this I propose to hint at the literary Spirit of Nauvoo, as it seems to be rising upon that scale of notoriety, which of what was and is, in after years, make up "the history of the times." There are many Common Schools in Nauvoo, where the germs of greatness are planted; and if they, as the Mormons seem very apt to do, nourish and cherish them, in a masterly manner, the world may witness the blessing of a harvest, rich, abundant, yielding even an hundred fold, of the good things of the intellect.
From one of the Literati, not the Prophet, I have taken the liberty to send you a new translation of the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah, which he made, not long since, from the Hebrew text of "Michaelis." It appears to me that it will compare with any of the Catholic, Church of England, or other "sectarian" translations, in point of clearness of expression, sublimity of thought, or literal application.-Perhaps Professor Stewart of Andover, and the renowned Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, or the Sophomores of Harvard or Yale, or some "legate of the skies," will come forth to the help of the mighty, and show still a better; if so, I doubt not, Nauvoo will be ready; so here it is:-
ISAIAH, CHAPTER XVIII.
1. "Ho land, spread out as wings, which is beyond the passing of the waters of Ethiopia;
2. The sending by sea, ambassadors, and, with instruments of paper, upon the faces of the waters, go ye swift messengers unto a nation from being strong and active, was terrible unto the people, from which he was far removed; a nation measured by measure, but will tread down, whose land waters divide.
3. All ye dwellers on parts of the globe, and ye inhabitants of the earth, when he lifts up a standard on the mountains, ye shall see, and when he sounds a trumpet, ye shall hear.
4. For thus saith the Lord unto me, I will yet rest, and, in my place, I will spread forth light like a serene heat on leaves, as the dew of darkness in the heat of harvest.
5. For before the harvest, when the perfect sprout and the sour grapes are ripening, he will flower, and cut down the shoots with pruning knives; and with the twigs will he cut off the thorn.
6. And they shall be left together for the fowls of the mountains and for the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall go up to end it, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon it.
7. In that time she shall prevail to bring the gift to the Lord of hosts, of a people from being strong and active and terrible to a portion of the people, from whom he was far removed; A nation measured by measure, but will tread down, whose land waters divide, unto the gathering place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, to Mount Zion."
This translation appears very plausible from what Esdras and the Mormons say of the ten tribes being carried into a country where mankind had never dwelt, which occupied a year and a half for the journey; and that there were gathered in the last days; "the land spread
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