| 48 should come. Therefore the council restored to him full; fellowship, and all official standing the same as if not such suspension had taken place. H. G. SHERWOOD, Clerk.
Nauvoo, Oct. 20, 1839.
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PRATT'S DEFENCE. [DEFENSE]
As down a lone dungeon, with darkness o'er-spread The mob soon dispersed, to the Rulers appealed,
In silence and sorrow I made my lone bed, Saying, lend us your aid, and the Mormons will yield,
While for from my prison my friends had retired. For surely they never were known to resist
And joy from this bosom had almost expired. A mob when commissioned by rulers and priests.
From all that was lovely, constrained for to part, This soon was considered by far the best plan;
From wife and from children so dear to my heart; And orders were issued for ten thousand men;
While foes were exulting, and friends far away, Including the Wilson's and Gillum's of course,
In half broken slumbers, all pensive I lay. And all the mob forces, for better, for worse.
I thought upon Zion-her sorrowful doom:- These soon were forthcoming, in dreadful array;
I thought on her anguish-her trouble and gloom, Some painted like Indians, all armed for the fray;
How for years she had wandered, a captive forlorn, The Mormons soon yielded without the first fire,
Cast out and afflicted, and treated with scorn. And the mobers accomplished their utmost desire.
I thought on the time when some five years ago, Some females were ravished-and cattle and grain
Twelve hundred from Jackson, were driven by foes, Became a free booty-and one pris'ner slain.
While two hundred houses to ashes were burned:- Some twenty or thirty were murderd [murdered] outright,
Our flourishing fields to a desert were turned. And ten thousand others were BANISHED THE STATE:
I remembered these crimes still unpunished remained, By what LAW of the Statute to me is unknown;
And the life oft repeated-again, and again, But it must be by law all these great things were done,
From counties adjoining, cempelled [compelled] to remove. For the next Legislature the expense to defray,
We purchased in Caldwell, prairie and grove. Voted two hundred thousand, the soldiers to pay.
And there 'mid the wild flowers, that bloomed o'er the plain: To resist THIS oppression-THESE excellent laws,
Our rights and our freedom, we thought to maintain: Was murder; and treason; (in technical clause.)
Nor dreamed that oppression would drive us from thence, While women and children were driven away,
The laws of our country we claimed for defence. [defense] Their husbands and fathers in prison must stay.
But soon as kind autumn rewarded our toil So now to the Jury and Judge I submit;
And plenty around us began for to smile, I'm not learned in such laws.-they may hang or aquit [acquit]-
Our foes were assembled-being tempted with gain: But though they; should hang me, or keep me in jail,
To ravage and plunder, and drive us again. The spirit of Freedom and Truth will prevail.
When many were driven, and plunderd [plundered] and rob'd,
And some had been murdrd [murdered] by this dreadful mob,-
When cries for redress and protection were
We arose in our strength, our own rights to maintain.
OBITUARY.
DIED-In this place, on the 10th Inst. Stephen Shumway, in the 34th year of his age.--In this place, on the 1st Inst. Moroni, Son of John D. and Hariet Parker, aged 4 years 3 months and 4 days.
THE TIMES AND SEASONS,
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