| 515 and enduring the privation of again removing and settling in the new counties of Caldwell and Davis, where there was but few inhabitants, who were either willing to either sell out or live in the enjoyment of equal rights with us. Hoping at least, that we should be permitted to enjoy the rights of American citizens in the last mentioned counties, and still having confidence in our national government, the church, through the assistance of some of their eastern brethren, who lent them funds, again purchased lands, to a considerable amount, of the United States. Although Jackson county was the place of our choice, where also, through the labor of our own hands and the blessing of God, we had caused the earth to yield an abundance to supply our families with the necessary comforts of life whilst there, yet, while in exile from under the iron hand of oppresion, [oppression] we again commenced building houses mills and other machinery, for our mutual benefit, quietly tilling our lands to supply our returning wants. The stranger, by passing through the place of our exile, might have laudably boasted of our industry, from the sound of the axe [ax] in the woodland, the busy teams on the prairies, the clattering of the hammer and the plane, and hum of wheels. These ought to have been sufficient evidence to the world, that we were lawfully and laudably endeavoring to make our new homes comfortable, if not delightsome. In the midst of this scene and bustle, our social hours were not unfrequently [infrequently] turned into mourning, from a recollection of past sufferings and lost friends through the Jackson and Clay county mobs. The trickling tears on the cheek of the disconsolate widow, and the bursting sobs from a bereaved orphan bewailing the loss of a husband or a father-are scenes that are better felt than described, and are ever calculated to throw a gloom over all our social circles.
O where! where! is the boon of heaven so nobly won by her fathers? Fled, alas! fled!-But we hope not forever. Laudable industry and the blessing of heaven soon caused our farms to present a cheering aspect, which awakened a covetous spirit of envy in the hearts of our enemies, and the cry went forth, If the Mormons (as they called us) were let alone, Caldwell, in five years' time , would be the most wealthy and populous county in the state. Our enemies, (who depended mostly on the labor of their slaves for their prosperity,) at beholding themselves outdone by the diligence of the hard laboring sons of the Green Mountains, immediately took measures to posess [possess] themselves of our lands and effects; and a regular system of mobocracy was entered into, to rid the state of their rivals in prosperity. They formed a formidable band of marauders, under the command of a man by the name of Bogard and others, whose numbers increased until, at length, through falsehood and duplicity, they got the authorities of the state to interfere, when a number of officers were sent, with a large military force, to exterminate us and confiscate our property;-and all this by the authority of their more willing mobocrat governor, Lilburn W. Boggs. Plunder, rapine and murder immediately ensued, which would have disgraced a savage war in their wildest state. Men were shot down without provocation; women were insulted and ravished until they died in the hands of their destroyers; children had their brains blowed [blown] out while pleading for their lives; men moving into the country with their families, were shot down; their teams, wagons and loading, were taken by the plunderers as a booty, and their wives with their little ones, ordered out of the state forthwith, or suffer death, as had their husbands, leaving them with no means of conveyance but their feet, and no means of subsistance [subsistence]but begging. Soldiers of the revolution were slain in the most brutal manner, while pleading for their lives in the name of American citizens; many were thrown into prison, and , after enduring a mock trial that would have disgraced an inquisition, were confined in irons, and remained in prison until they made their escape. In these mock trials, no man was allowed to testify in favor of the Saints: and the trials undoubtedly were designed to make the distant public believe that there was an excuse for all this outrage and violence.
To give your honorable body a correct idea of the origin of those scenes of cruelty and wo, we will here transcribe the preamble to a set of resolutions passed by those plunderers at their first meeting, held in Jackson county, for the purpose of taking measures for the expulsion of our people from the county. It is as follows:
"We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson county, believing that an important crisis is at hand as regards our civil society, in consequence of a pretended religious society of people that have and are still settling in our county, styling themselves Mormons; and intending as we do, to rid our society, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must, and believing as we do, that the arm of civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least a sufficient one, against the evils which are now inflicted on us, and seem to be increasing by the said religious sect, deem it expedient, and of the highest importance, to form ourselves into a company, for the better and easier accomplishment of our purposes, which we deem it almost superfulous [superfluous] to say, is justified as well by the law of nature as by the law of self defence [defense]."
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