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Source: Times and Seasons Vol. 5 Chapter 16 Page: 632

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632 TIMES AND SEASONS.

CITY OF NAUVOO

SEPTEMBER 2, 1844

Great excitement prevails throughout the world to know "who shall be the successor of Joseph Smith?"

In reply, we say, be patient, a little, till the proper time comes, and we will tell you all. "Great wheels move slow." At present, we can say that a special conference of the church was held in Nauvoo on the 8th ult., and it was carried without a discenting [dissenting] voice, that the "Twelve" should preside over the whole church, and when any alteration in the presidency shall be required, seasonable notice will be given; and the elders abroad, will best exibit [exhibit] their wisdom to all men, by remaining silent on those things they are ignorant of.-Bishops Whitney and Miller have been appointed trustees, to manage the financial concerns of the church, and will soon enter on the duties of their calling.

EXTERMINATION

From the Boston Investigator.

LIBERALITY OF A PRIEST.-The last Jonesboro (Tennessee) Whig, edited by the Rev. Mr. Brownlow, contains the following editorial expression:-

"Our opinion is, that there is to be no peace in this country, till the Mormons and Catholics are exterminated."

The above is extracted for a text, without an idea of abridging the freedom of thought, or freedom of the press: for the Deist and the Priest exhibit in words what they would be ashamed of in deeds. The Hottentots of Africa; the Cannibals of the islands of the sea, the wild Arabs of the desert, the Pirates of the Ocean, or wild Indians of the mountains, have never, to our knowledge, settled down on the deadly conclusion to 'exterminate' their neighbors, but a CHRISTIAN PRIEST AND A LIBERAL DEIST HAVE!.

To take the text as a whole, as the fair position of the author; 'there is to be no peace in this vast country, till the Mormons and Catholics are exterminated!,-which is rather a vast calculation, allowing each term to express what it means, and mean what it expresses. 'This vast country,' about comprises the habitable globe, and in nearly all places where there is people, there are 'Mormons and Catholics,' as well as priests in Jonesboro,' or Deists in Boston. Again, 'in this vast country,' among all nations, 'the Mormons and Catholics' are a constituent part of the community, government, and greater or lesser power, with as many natural rights, privileges, immunities and claims, on earth and in heaven, as the classical dictator of Tennessee, or the pontifical free-thinker of Massachusetts; and who, as a righteous judge, ought to say to Moses; blot out Amalek? Has the powers that be, set up a negro driving priest of the south, and a speculating Yankee of the north, as Aaron and Hor, to bolster up public opinion, and 'utterly put the remembrance of Mormons and Catholics from under heaven?'

But this is not all. The absence of one thing often substitutes another, and, as there 'is to be no more peace,' till this priestly prophecy is fulfilled, war, calamitous WAR! must be prosecuted by the whole Protestant world, against the 'Mormons and Catholics' till their blood, booty and utter 'extermination, whitens a peace; pure as the crystal fountains of the untrodden valley, or gushing spring of the mountains. Really we, that is the 'Mormons and Catholics' of the enlightened nineteenth century, have 'fallen on evil times,' for the great men of the south, and the wise men of the north, have taken counsel tegether [together] to war for the whole world, and we must be 'exterminated' or kiss the priest's toe, and black the Deists boots.

There is certainly a good deal of old fashioned religion embraced in the limits of our text: i e; if the priest of Jonesboro' is that prophet spoken of as being raised up among his brethren, which, every soul that would not hear him, should be cut off from among the people; and that the patriotic, philanthropic infidel, (pardon the expression, it only means trusting in fidelity,) of Boston, is the spirit of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest the Lord comes out and smites the whole earth with a curse! There is, too, an immense appearance of the milk of human kindness, and charity for the honor and glory of christianity, and the reason and wisdom of free-thinking, couched in the manly idea of 'exterminating' the 'Mormons and Catholics'-by universal war! It savors so much of the millennium; the instruction of Jesus, and the prayers of pious, praying men! It must be that we, i e: the 'Mormons and Catholics,' have waked up on the wrong planet, for the pious and pompous of the north and south, of this boasted 'asylum of the oppressed' of all nations, have decided that we have no right here in 'this vast country,' and must be exterminated

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