| 880 TIMES AND SEASONS.
"TRUTH WILL PREVAIL."
Vol. VI. No. 8.] CITY OF NAUVOO, ILL. May 1, 1845 [Whole No. 116.
HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH.
[Continued.]
About this date the brethren in Zion received the following communication from Governor Dunklin, in reply to their petition of September 28th.
City of Jefferson, Executive }
Department, Oct. 19, 1833. }
To Edward Partridge, W. W. Phelps, Isaac Morley, John Corrill, A. S. Gilbert, John Whitmer, and others:-
Your memorial soliciting my interposition against violence threatened you, and redress for injuries received by a portion of the citizens of Jackson county, has been received, and its contents duly considered. I should think myself unworthy the confidence with which I have been honored by my fellow citizens, did I not promptly employ all the means which the Constitution and laws have placed at my disposal, to avert the calamities with which you are threatened.
Ours is a Government of laws, to them we all owe obedience, and their faithful administration is the best guarantee for the enjoyment of our rights.
No citizen, nor number of citizens, have a right to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their own hands: Such conduct strikes at the very existence of society, and subverts the foundation on which it is based. Not being willing to persuade myself that any portion of the citizens of the State of Missouri are so lost to a sense of these truths as to require the exercise of force, in order to ensure a respect for them.
After advising with the Attorney General, and exercising my best judgment, I would advise you to make a trial of the efficacy of the laws; the Judge of your circuit is a conservator of the peace. If an affidavit is made before him by any of you, that your lives are threatened and you believe them in danger, it would be his duty to have the offenders apprehended and bind them to keep the peace. Justices of the peace in their respective counties have the same authority, and it is made their duty to exercise it. Take, then, this course: obtain a warrant, let it be placed in the hands of the proper officer, and the experiment will be tested whether the laws can be peaceably executed or not, In the event they cannot be, and that fact is officially notified to me, my duty will require me to take such steps as will enforce a faithful execution of them.
With regard to the injuries you have sustained by destruction of property, &c., the law is open to redress, I cannot permit myself to doubt that the courts will be open to you, nor that you will find difficulty in procuring legal advocates to sue for damages therein.
Respectfully,
Your ob't servant,
DANIEL DUNKLIN.
W. W. PHELPS, ESQ., Independence, Mo."
Immediately on receipt of the Governor's letter, the members of the church generally, (though they had lain idle since the outrage in July,) began to labor as usual and build and set in order their houses, gardens, &c.
Tuesday the 29th of October, we took our departure from Mount Pleasant, on our return to Kirtland and arrived at Buffalo, New York, on the 31st.
While we were thus pursuing our journey the brethren in Zion were busily engaged in devising means of redress for their grievances, and having consulted with four lawyers from Clay county, then attending court in Independence, they received from them the following letter on the day written; which I will copy entire, that the principle by which the lawyers of this generation are actuated may be recorded, as well as the difficulties the Saints had to encounter, in executing the Governor's letter.
"Independence, Oct. 30, 1833.
Gentlemen;-The first thing necessary to be done, under circumstances like ours, is to ascertain and fix upon the amount of fee to be paid, and to secure the payment thereof by the necessary papers; and then the responsibility of advising rests upon us. We are now laboring under all the disadvantages of an engagement, without any of its advantages; it therefore becomes us to know whether we can agree as to the fee, or not; and that we should be paid, too, according to the situation in which we place ourselves. We have been doing a practice here, among these people, to a considerable extent, and by the engagement, we must expect to lose the greatest part of it, which will be to all of us a considerable loss; besides that the amount involved must be very considerable, and the amount involved must be generally the criterion of the fee. Taking all these matters into consideration, we propose
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