| 166 Governor of Missouri, and Prince of midnight assassins and cowardly brigands, issued, in the face of high heaven, exterminating order (which was ratified by the Legislature,) against the Mormon people residing within his jurisdiction-directing his general officers, first to "drive them from the state;" second to "intercept their retreat;" and third to "exterminate them" with the weapons of war: but the Mormons threw their banners on the air, and under the proudest motto that ever blazed upon a warrior's shield-Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis; As God was with our fathers, so may he be with us-the great God of battles led his people victors, to this land of peace and plenty-the beloved Illinois-a state that has always shown one of the brightest Stars in the American Constellation-a precious glittering gem on the National Escutcheon, without spot or blemish-but no sooner had they began to build up Nauvoo a great city and resting place for the Saints scattered abroad, than does this same L. W. Boggs, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and instigated by his father, the devil, demand of his Excellency, Thomas Carlin, governor of Illinois, that a portion of this people shall be given up to the brigaad [brigand ?] authorities of Missouri, or Western Egypt, to be inhumanly [inhumanely] butchered! Look at the brutal, heathen, picture! Missouri wages war on the entire Mormon church-the church of Latter Day Saints-violates their women; shoots down, and scalps, their innocent, defenceless [defenseless], children; confiscates their property, and throws it to the four winds of heaven-brings them from affluence to beggery [beggary] in an hour; and orders them all exterminated, murdered, butchered, by an infuriated, savage, fiendish, diabolical, infernal, Missouri mob of ruthless brigands, or driven from the state-and declares them outlaws from the common family of man: and now, in the year of our Lord 1840, two years after, demands, this self-same people, whom she has wantonly outraged, violated, outlawed, prejudged, and condemned, for the slaughter, charging them with burglary, treason, arson, and murder, four of the foulest crimes in the black catalogue of hellish deeds: and all this in land of boasted liberty -and simply because the Mormons wish, and are determined, to exercise one of our greatest and most dear and sacred constitutional rights-the liberty of conscience-the inestimable privilege of worshiping [worshipping] the God of heaven in the way that they believe to be pointed out! Should they be given up into the hands of wicked men and devils in order to enable them to celebrate a kind of Auto-do-fe, by burning them to the stake, or butchering them in the shambles, at Jefferson city, to satiate Missouri's inordinate thirst for blood? No. They will not be given up. Missouri has too long bathed her hands in crimson gore, and drank the blood of the innocent; she must now be checked in her wild and mad career-she has passed from the palmy state of her political glory to the sear and yellow leaf‚ the civilized world now turns from her with horror and ineffible [ineffable] contempt-and, should it become necessary, (which may God avert,) she must be met-Missouri must be met, not only by the Mormon people, but by the states-and all the friends of liberty and equal rights should gird on their armour [armor], and sware[swear] by the everliving God that the sword shall not depart from the thigh, nor the buckler from the arm until the contest is ended. "And shall not God avenge his own elect, though he bear long with them? I tell you he will avenge them speedily," and that by the strong arm of military power. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." I tell you God will avenge the wrongs of his people. How accurately and felicitously does the Psalmist describe the situation of the Saints of light when in the hands of the marauding Missouri horde of banditti when he says: "Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me; fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me
(page 166) |
