| 823 I am not Nauvoo, nor the people of Nauvoo, and therefore, cannot say what they will do.-But my own feelings are: Sooner be the prophet's fate my own, than suffer the pride and dignity of my character to be so humbled as to ask any favor of those hands that are now reeking fresh with my brothers' blood, and by the strongest proofs in their power to give, have decreed my own ruin and extermination. They have not only acknowledged, but even justified the murderous deed, and have also fathered the crime, by wresting from the hands of the officer and retaining in the Senate, the man who stands indicted for killing the Lord's anointed. Had you, dear sir, been indicted for a like offence [offense] against an Anti-Mormon, how long would you have retained your seat in the House? I presume to say, that you would have been hurled from your seat, and that justly too, as quick as was Lucifer when he rebelled in heaven: For me to ask favors of the hands that have been raised to justify the shedding of my brothers' blood, would be a violation of every principle that dwells in my heart. Were I to do it, I should consider myself unworthy of my country and my God. You are the representative of a noble race. I am but one obscure person, and for you to be influenced in your capacity by the private views of a humble female, would not be to honor your high and responsible trust.
If the legislature of Illinois are disposed to strip us of our covering, (the charter) and leave us naked, exposed to the chilling blasts of mobocratic fury which already begin to blow-if "it must needs be," we hope to die like noble spirits, and live again to see the robes of state dripping with the blood of innocence, and those who wear them appear before us to receive their final sentence, when "the saints shall judge the world" But I assure you, sir, that if the people of Nauvoo do not get a new charter till I ask for it, they will never have one, unless my mind should materially alter: for from past examples, I could go to the gates of perdition and ask mercy from that department, with just as much hopes of success, as I could go to the legislature of Illinois, to ask a favor for the Latter-day Saints. They very well know the wrong and injustice they have done us, and the evil and calamity to which they have exposed us by repealing our charter; and now if they have no more honor, feeling, or humanity, than to leave us in this situation, without our coming like abject slaves to plead and implore for that which every noble and generous spirit would scorn to with-hold, though never asked; namely, our just rights, let the consequences be on their heads. I would gladly have our people show to the legislature and to the world, that we possess feelings too exalted and spirits too noble to bow with deference to such unequal measures. Do they wish to secure our loyalty? Let them give us equal rights. Do they wish to drive us to desperation? Let them rob us of every inducement to honor our country's laws, that in after years when the elements of excitement and strife have retired within their own natural borders, let the disgraceful transactions be echoed from every state and civilized government under heaven, and then let them meet us face to face before that tribunal where truth and justice must have their claim.
Very Respectfully,
ELIZA R. SNOW.
To A. W. BABBITT, ESQ.
TIMES AND SEASONS.
CITY OF NAUVOO,
MARCH 1, 1845.
THE ANGELS.
In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, is some of the wonderful wisdom of Jesus Christ, put forth in parables: and, with all the rest, this question and answer:-
"Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."
This, like all the revelations of God, is a specimen of Mormonism: to bring forth things new and old. But what can be brought forth concerning the angels that will interest the saint; leaving the world to enjoy a belief that angels have entirely quit the earth, and that a man sins to talk about seeing them? Why, in the first place, we will see how many kinds of angels there are, and what their duties are before the Lord.
According to the best understanding we have of the scripture, there are three, perhaps four, kinds of angels:-the archangels of which Paul and Jude make mention, first in order or highest in authority; the angels, which are resurrected bodies, like those mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, who ate and drank with Abraham, and also with Lot: and the angels which are ministering spirits; and it may be a matter of investigation to determine
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