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Source: Church History Vol. 1 Chapter 14 Page: 389 (~1834)

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389 CHAPTER 14.

1833

RETURNING to Zion we find the mob hunting down and abusing all scattered families who chanced for any cause to remain behind their brethren, destroying their property, and in some instances their lives; while the saints were using every means in their power to gain redress, and to be restored to their rights by appeal to legal tribunals.

They engaged Messrs. Wood, Reese, Doniphan, and Atchison as attorneys to bring all suits they might wish brought against the mob, for which they were to pay one thousand dollars, and for which W. W. Phelps and Edward Partridge gave their joint note. These gentlemen were among the leading members of the bar in that country.

This incident has a striking significance. Phelps and Partridge, with their business destroyed, their homes broken up, their property laid waste, and themselves exiled and charged by their former neighbors with being fanatics and disturbers of the public peace, are considered by leading lawyers, to whom all the facts are known, to be good for one thousand dollars. Does it not appear that these attorneys had confidence in the honor of these men, and hence knew that charges against, and rumors concerning them were untrue?

On Friday, December 6, 1833, six of the brethren petitioned the Governor for help to be reinstated to their possessions in Jackson County. But their petition as recorded in Times and Seasons, vol. 6, page 915, speaks for itself. It is as follows:-

(page 389)

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