| 460 "Resolved, that W. W. Phelps should be received into fellowship.
"'Come on, dear brother, since the war is past,
For friends at first, are friends again at last.'
"Yours as ever,
"JOSEPH SMITH, JR."
-Millennial Star, vol. 18, p. 85.
About this time Gen. J. C. Bennett, "Quartermaster General of the State of Illinois," began a series of letters of a friendly and complimentary character, which finally resulted in his uniting with the church. He became quite prominent as an officer of the Nauvoo Legion and as mayor of the city, but held no high position of trust in the church. He afterward became disaffected and was expelled from the church, and in 1842 published a Book entitled "Mormonism Exposed." By the church he was accused of gross immorality, and he by way of retaliation accused the leaders of the church with serious wrongdoing. A minute tracing of his career would be unprofitable; nor is he, according to his own testimony, worthy of it. Whatever of wrong or error, if any, may have been committed by Joseph Smith or his colleagues, the evidence of it must rest upon other testimony than that of Mr. Bennett. When a man confesses, as Mr. Bennett did, that at one time in life he was a hypocrite and liar, fair-minded men will discard his testimony, whether favorable to their own views or not. Mr. Bennett has this to say of himself:-
"It at length occurred to me that the surest and speediest way to overthrow the impostor, and expose his iniquity to the world, would be to profess myself a convert to his doctrines, and join him at the seat of his dominion. I felt confident that from my standing in society, and the offices I held under the State of Illinois, I should be received by the Mormons with open arms; and that the course I was resolved to pursue would enable me to get behind the curtain, and behold, at my leisure, the secret wires of the fabric, and like wise those who moved them."-Mormonism Exposed, pp. 6, 7.
Again he says:-
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