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Source: Times and Seasons Vol. 1 Chapter 12 Page: 177

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177 TIMES AND SEASONS

"TRUTH WILL PREVAIL"

Vol. 1. Whole No. 12.] NAUVOO, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER, 1840 [Whole No. 12

A HISTORY, OF THE PERSECUTION, OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, OF LATTER DAY SAINTS IN MISSOURI.

The following address, was delivered at Far West, by Maj. Gen. Clark, to the Mormons, after they had surrendered their arms, and themselves prisoners of war:

"Gentlemen-You whose names are not attached to this list of names will now have the privilege of going to your fields to obtain corn for your families, wood, &c. Those that are now taken, will go from thence to prison; be tried, and receive the due demerit of their crimes-but you are now at liberty, all but such as charges may be hereafter preferred against. It now devolves upon you to fuffil [fulfill] the treaty that you have entered into, the leading items of which I now lay before you. The first of these you have already complied with, which is, that you deliver up your leading men to be tried according to law. Second, that you deliver up your arms-this has been attended to. The third is, that you sign over your properties to defray the expenses of the war-this you have also done. Another thing yet remains for you to comply with, that is, that you leave the State forthwith, and whatever your feelings concerning this affair-whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. Gen. Lucas, who is equal in authority with me, and made this treaty with you. I am determined to see it executed. The orders of the Governor to me, were, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to continue in the State, and had your leader not been given up and the treaty complied with before this, you and your families would have been destroyed, and your houses in ashes.

There is a discretionary power vested in my hands which I shall try to exercise for a season. I did not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season or of putting in crops; for the moment you do, the citizens will be upon you. I am determined to see the Governor's Message fulfilled, but shall not come upon you immediately-do not think that I shall act as I have done any more-but if I have to come again, because the treaty which you have made here shall be broken, you need not expect any mercy, but extermination-for I am determined the Governor's order shall be executed. As for your leaders, do not once think-do not imagine for a moment-do not let it enter your mind, that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed, their die is cast-their doom is sealed.

I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are;-and oh! that I could invoke the spirit of the unknown God to rest upon you, and deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound. I would advise you to scatter abroad and never again organize with Bishops, Presidents, &c, lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you. You have always been the aggressors-you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being subject to rule-and my advice is that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable ruin.

[CONCLUDED.]

COMMUNICATIONS.

TO THE SAINTS SCATTERED ABROAD.

BELOVED BRETHREN: We address a few lines to the church of Jesus Christ, who have obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine which has been delivered to them by the servants of the Lord, and who are desirous to go forward in the ways of truth and righteousness,

(page 177)

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