| 1041 help us, when they can do it without sacrifice, with those blessings which God has bestowed upon them. I prophecy, I speak the truth, I lie not, God shall take away their talent and give it to those who have no talent, and shall prevent them from ever obtaining a place of refuge, or an inheritance upon the land of Zion: therefore they may tarry, for they might as well be overtaken where they are, as to incur the displeasure of God and fall under his wrath by the way side, as to fall into the hands of a merciless mob, where there is no God to deliver, as salt that has lost its savour [savor], and thenceforth good for nothing, but to be trodden under foot of men.
I therefore adjure you to beseech them, in the name of the Lord, by the Son of God, to lend us a helping hand; and if all this will not soften their hearts, to administer to our necessity for Zion's sake, turn your back upon them and return speedily to Kirtland, and the blood of Zion be upon their heads, even as upon the heads of her enemies, and let their recompence [recompense] be as the recompence [recompense] of her enemies, for thus shall it come to pass saith the Lord of Hosts, who has the cattle upon a thousand hills, who has put forth his Almighty hand to bring to pass his strange act; and what man shall put forth his hand to steady the ark of God or be found turning a deaf ear to the voice of his servant, God shall speak in due time, and all will be declared, Amen.
Your Brethren in the New Covenant,
JOSEPH SMITH, Jun,
F. G. WILLIAMS,
OLIVER COWDERY.
April 9th. After an impartial trial, the court decided that Doct. P. Hurlbut, be bound over under two hundred dollar bonds, to keep the peace for six months, and pay the cost, which amounted to near three hundred dollars, all of which was in answer to our prayers, for which I thank my Heavenly Father.
On the 10th, had a council of the United Order, in which it was agreed that the Order should be dissolved, and each one have his stewardship set off to him. The same day, the brethren in Clay county, Missouri, executed the following letters and petitions according to the revalation [revelation]:
Liberty, Clay co., Mo., April 10, 1834.
To the President of the United States of America:
We, the undersigned, your petitioners, citizens of the United States of America, and residents of the county of Clay, in the state of Mo., being members of the Church of Christ, reproachfully called Mormons, beg leave to refer the President to our former petition, dated in October last, and also to lay before him the accompanying hand-bill, dated Dec. 12th, 1833, with assurances that the said hand-bill exhibits but a faint sketch of the sufferings of your petitioners and their brethren up to the period of its publication.
The said hand-bill shews [shows], that at the time of the dispersion a number of our families fled into the new and unsettled county of Van Buren, but being unable to procure provisions in that county, through the winter, many of them were compelled to return to their homes in Jackson county or perish with hunger. But they had no sooner set foot upon the soil, which a few months before we had purchased of the United States, than they were again met by the citizens of Jackson county, and a renewal of savage barbarities inflicted upon these families, by beating with clubs and sticks, presenting knives and fire arms, and threatening with death, if they did not flee from the county-these inhuman [inhumane] assaults, upon a number of these families, were repeated at two or three different times through the past winter, till they were compelled at last to abandon their possessions in Jackson county, and flee with their mangled bodies into this county, here to mingle their tears and unite their supplications, with hundreds of their brethren, to our Heavenly Father, and the chief ruler of our nation.
Between one and two thousand of the people called Mormons, have been driven by force of arms from Jackson county, in this state, since the first of November last, being compelled to leave their highly cultivated fields, the great part of which had been bought of the United States, and all this on account of our belief in direct revelation from God, to the children of men, according to the Holy Scriptures. We know that such illegal violence has not been inflicted upon any sect or community of people by the citizens of the United States, since the declaration of independence.
That this is a religious persecution, is notorious throughout our county; for while the officers of the county both civil and military, were accomplices in these unparalleled outrages, engaged in the destruction of the printing office, dwelling houses, &c.; yet the records of the judicial tribunals of that county are not stained with a crime against our people. Our numbers being greatly inferior to the enemy, we were unable to stand up in self defence [defense]; and our lives, at this day, are contintinually [continually] threatened by that infuriated people, so that our personal safely forbids one of our number going into that county on business.
We beg leave to state that no impartial investigation into this criminal matter can be
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