| 852 to inflict on our society an injury that they know would be to us entirely insupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from the county; for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a cast amongst us, would corrupt our blacks and instigate them to bloodshed.
They openly blaspheme the most high God, and cast contempt on his holy religion, by pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak unknown tongues, by direct inspiration, and by diverse pretences [pretenses] derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter subversion of human reason:
They declare openly that their God hath given them this county of land, and that sooner or later they must and will have the possession of our lands for an inheritance, and in fine they have conducted themselves on many other occasions in such a manner, that we believe it a duty we owe ourselves, to our wives and children, to the cause of public morals, to remove them from among us, as we are not prepared to give up our pleasant places, and goodly possessions to them, or to receive into the bosom of our families, as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded and corrupted free negroes and mulattoes, that are now invited to settle among us.
Under such a state of things even our beautiful county would cease to be a desirable residence, and our situation intolerable! We, therefore, agree, that after timely warning, and receiving an adequate compensation for what little property they cannot take with them, they refuse to leave us in peace, as they found us, we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove them, and to that end we each pledge to each other our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors.
We will meet at the court house at the town of Independence, on Saturday, next, 20th inst. to consult ulterior movements.'
Among the hundreds of names attached to the above document were:-
Lewis Franklin, jailor [jailer]; Samuel C. Owens, county clerk; Russel Hicks, deputy clerk; R. W. Cummins, Indian agent; Jones H. Flournoy, Post Master; S. D. Colonel and Judge of the court; Henry Chiles, Attorney at Law; N. K. Olmstead, M. D.; John Smith, J. P.; Samuel Weston, J. P.; William Brown, Constable; Abner F. Staples, Captain; Thomas Pitcher, deputy Constable; Moses G. Wilson, and Thomas Wilson, merchants.
On Saturday the 20th of July last, according to the foregoing document, there assembled suddenly in the town of Independence at the court house, between four and five hundred persons, who sent Robert Johnson, James Campbell, Moses Wilson, Joel F. Childs, Richard Fristoe, Abner F. Staples, Gan Johnson, Lewis Franklin, Russel Hicks, S. D. Lucas, Thomas Wilson, James M. Hunter, and Richard Simpson, to some of your petitioners, namely, Edward Partridge, A. S. Gilbert, John Corrill, Isaac Morley, John Whitmer, and W. W. Phelps, and demanded that we should immediately stop the publication of the Evening and Morning Star, and close printing in Jackson county, and that we, as elders of said church, should agree to remove out of the county forthwith. We asked for three months, for consideration-They would not grant it-We asked for ten days-They would not grant it, but said fifteen minutes was the longest, and refused to hear any reasons: of course the conversation broke up.
The four or five hundred persons, as a Mob, then proceeded to demolish or raze to the ground, the printing office and dwelling house of W. W. Phelps & Co. Mrs. Phelps, with a sick infant child and the rest of her children, together with the furniture in the house, were thrown out doors: the press was broken, the type pied-the book work, furniture, apparatus, property, &c., of the office were principally destroyed and the office thrown down, whereby seven hands were thrown out of employment and three families, left destitute of the means of subsistence.
The loss of the whole office, including the stoppage of the Evening and Morning Star, a monthly paper, and the Upper Missouri Advertiser, a weekly paper, was about six thousand dollars, without the damages, which must result in consequence of their suspension.
The mob then proceeded to demolish the store house and destroy the goods of Gilbert, Whitney & Co.; but Mr. Gilbert assuring them that the goods should be packed by the 23rd inst: they then stopped the destruction of property and proceeded to do personal violence. They took Edward Partridge; the bishop of the church from his dwelling house by force, and a Mr. Allen, and stripping them of their coats, vests and hats, or caused them to do it themselves, tarred and feathered them in the presence of the mob before the court house.-They caught other members of the church to serve them in like manner, but they made their escape. With horrid yells and the most blasphemous epithets, they sought for other leading elders, but found them not. It being late, they adjourned until the 23rd inst.
On the 23rd inst., early in the day, the mob again assembled to the number of about five
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