| 560 in our State prison. We (the Editors of the Saturday Courier) state unequivocally our firm belief that this is their true character, because none other than precisely such men would ever be willing to unite in a piece of VILLANY [villainy] like Mormonism." Now your caldron of venom must have been heaped and running over when you penned the above wholesale calumny.
There are not less, from the best data that the writer can collect, than 10,000 of our fellow citizens members of the same great political family, subject to the same laws and government, connected with us by ties of blood, denounced as THEAVES [thieves] AND ROBBERS; and all those persons too, from the most wealthy and respectable citizens, to the poorest among us, professing to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. And where is the evidence to justify such sweeping denunciations?-Yours is indeed the evidence of things not seen. For, after stigmatizing the sect by every epithet that Billingsgate vocabulary furnishes, you conclude by saying that you unequivocally and firmly believe that this is their true character, because none other than precisely such men would ever be willing to unite in a piece of villany [villainy] like Mormonism." And has it come to this, that men and women hitherto of spotless fame, and unblemished reputation, may be stigmatized as Villains, Thieves and Robbers, by the Editor of a Newspaper on his simple belief of their guilt, without a jot or tittle of testimony to sustain the charge? There are some of the Mormon Sect in the vicinity of this city that will not passively submit to be coupled with Thieves and Robbers, or the writer much mistakes their character.
I will merely notice the letter from your correspondent of Ohio, who you say "so truly describes the Mormons," to show how malignant and false are his accusations. The writer of that letter says that the "leaders and all the heads of the Church have a great desire for riches-that they scoured the Branches of the East for money, and that they resorted to the most culpable and criminal means to obtain it; now, instead of this being the case, abundant evidence is at hand to prove that the leaders of the church are as poor as Lazarus-the clothing upon their backs is in many instances procured by subscription, and that they have frequently been seen in our streets wandering about, without a place to lay their heads, culpably indifferent to the accumulation of wealth, and are especially so, to the perishable honors of this world-preferring rather the things that pertain to the Kingdom than the mammon of this world, which Theologians esteem of paramount importance.
I deem it unnecessary to notice further the base slanders of your Ohio letter writer, whose every word (however inconsistent with truth in relation to the circumstances he pretends to detail) the Editors of the Courier swallow as a precious morsel, and vomit forth again, charged with increased venom.
I have not time nor inclination to notice the remarks of a Mr. Lee, said to reside somewhere in the neighborhood of Frankford, made at a Mormon meeting held in that place; indeed I would not notice him at all, were it not for the manner you are pleased to introduce that GENTLEMAN. You say that he was very plain and much to the purpose, that he cam directly to the point-what point? For, as Lee says he would not attempt to expose the Mormon imposture (refute the Mormon doctrine) or combat the creed. You say that though his remarks "WERE harsh in his terms, they appear fitting to the occasion, and contain facts not generally known as they should be." I perfectly agree with you that he was very plain and harsh in his terms, but that he came directly to the point and that his remarks were fitting to the occasion, I utterly deny. We are led to the conclusion that Lee went to the meeting to hear what would be said in favor of the tenets of Mormonism, and when requested, with others, to refute, if he could, what he had heard from the preacher, he commences a tirade of abuse, only equalled [equaled] by your own published account of the Leaders of the Mormons before referred to. In his simile, Mr. Lee has shown himself an apt scholar, at least so says the Courier, and who shall gainsay such high authority? His comparing the Minister who had just ceased speaking to a "pliant cat's paw" must have produced a ludicrous scene, highly interesting to Mr. Lee's accomplices. The manner, too, with which he interlarded his speech with the word Liar, Imposters [impostors] , Swindlers, Villains, Hypocrites, &c., is an evidence of a great lack of wit and very weak intellect, to say nothing of common courtesy, a characteristic of a true gentleman
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