| 585 False brethren, or to call them by their right name, "apostates," have retarded the work more, and combined more influence to rob him of life, than all christendom: for they having mingled in his greatness, knew where and when to take advantage of his weakness. Their triumph, however, is one that disgrace their state and nation, ruins them in time and in eternity. They cannot out grow it: they cannot outlive it: and they cannot out die it: from him that winked at it, to him that shot the fatal ball, whereever [wherever] there is a moral honesty, humanity, love, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there the breath of indignation, the whisper of "those murders"-the story of mobocracy and the vengeance of God, will haunt the whole gang and their offspring and abettors with a fury like Milton's gates of hell:
"-- grating harsh thunder."
In thus descanting upon the glory of General Joseph Smith and the cowardly disgrace of his assassins, let his noble minded brother Hyrum have no less honor shown him: he lived so far beyond the ordinary walk of man, that even the tongne [tongue] of the vilest slanderer could not touch his reputation. He lived godly and he died godly, and his murderers will yet have to confess that it would have been better for them to have a mill-stone tied to them, and they cast into the depths of the sea, and remain there while eternity goes and eternity comes, than to have robbed that noble man of heaven, of his life. If there be such a thing as the greatest and least crimes, among the archives of the better world, the wilful [willful] murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith will be first and worst, without forgiveness in this world or the world to come;-"for no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."
The Savior said, wo unto the world because of offences [offenses], but offences [offenses] must needs come; but wo unto him by whom they come! Prophets have been sent, according to the sacred history, which all enlightened nations use as a guide to morality here, or for a rule to obtain heaven hereafter, to instruct and lead the people according to the pure purposes of God, and yet from Cain, down to two or three hundred Americans, Illinoians, Missourians, Christians even freemen, the lives of mostly all these good men, the servants of God, not omitting his own Son, have been taken from them by those who professed to be the most wise, enlightened, intelligent, and religious, (that is nationally) that were on the earth when the hellish deeds were done. But what has the next generation said? Ah! time, thou art older and abler to tell the story, than they did the solemn act. No wonder the heathen nations will be God's in the day of his power: they have not killed the prophets.
When Gen. Smith went to Carthage just as the cavalry met him for the purpose of obtaining the 'State Arms,' he said to a friend, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter: but I am calm as a summer's morning: I have a conscience void of offence [offense] toward God, and toward all men: I shall die innocent. Now ye great men who boast of great wisdom, what think ye of the prophet's last prediction? How glorious! How mild! How god like! No wonder the sympathies of all honest men, are kindled in his behalf: the goodness of his deeds merit them.-The want of a perfect knowledge of the servants of God, of the Son of God, in all ages, down to this last, horrid, heart sickening butchery of those two unoffending American freemen, must have been the great first cause of taking life contrary to the law of God or man.
Leaving religion out of the case, where is the lover of his country, and his posterity, that does not condemn such an outrageous murder, and will not lend all his powers, energies and influence to bring the offenders to justice and judgement [judgment]? Every good man will do it when he remembers, that these two innocent men were confined in jail for a supposed crime, deprived of any weapons to defend themselves: had the pledged faith of the State of Illinois, by Gov. Ford, for their protection, and were then shot to death, while, with uplifted hands they gave such signs of distress as would have commanded the interposition and benevolence of Savages or Pagans. They were both Masons in good standing. Ye brethren of "the mystic tie" what think ye! Where is our good master Joseph and Hyrum? Is there a pagan, heathen, or savage nation on the globe that would not be moved on this great occasion, as the trees of the forest by a mighty wind? Joseph's last exclamation was "O Lord my God."
If one of these murderers, their abettors or accessories before or after the fact are suffered to cumber the earth, without being dealt with according to law, what is life worth, and what is the benefit of laws? and more than all, what is the use of institutions which savages would honor, where civilized beings murder without cause or provocation? Will the Americans look over the vast concerns that must, sooner or later, touch their welfare at home and abroad, and exalt or disgrace them among the kingdoms of the great family of man, and learn whether anarchy, mobbery, and butchery are not swiftly hurrying the constituted
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