| 367 think proper of this letter, and remain your sincere friends and brethren.
"JOSEPH SMITH, JR.
"HYRUM SMITH.
"SIDNEY RIGDON.
"ELDER R. B. THOMPSON."
-Millennial Star, vol. 17, p. 231.
This will serve to show that the troubles in Missouri had no partisan significance, and that it is unwise to charge them upon any political party or religious organization.
May 25, William Smith was restored to fellowship in the Quorum of the Twelve.
On June 4, Joseph and Hyrum Smith each made a statement regarding the Missouri troubles, to present before the general government. Each also, made a statement of damages they had sustained, estimating the damage at one hundred thousand dollars each, including actual loss and damages for illegal imprisonments.
Regarding Commerce at the time the church went there, we quote from Joseph Smith. He states:-
"Tuesday, [June] 11. I commenced dictating my history for my clerk, James Mulholland, to write. About this time Elder Theodore Turley raised the first house built by the saints in this place; it was built of logs, about twenty-five or thirty rods north northeast of my dwelling, on the northeast corner of lot 4, block 147 of the White purchase. When I made the purchase of White and Galland, there were one stone house, three frame houses, and two block houses, which constituted the whole city of Commerce. Between Commerce and Mr. Davidson Hibbard's, there was one stone and three log houses, including the one that I live in, and these were all the houses in this vicinity, and the place was literally a wilderness. The land was mostly covered with trees and bushes, and much of it so wet that it was with the utmost difficulty a footman could get through, and totally impossible for teams. Commerce was so unhealthy, very few could live there; but believing that it might become a healthy place by the blessing of heaven to the saints, and no more eligible place presenting
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