| 593 fidelity, and eternal friendship, yet he was an adder in the path and a viper in the bosom. He professed to be virtuous and chaste, yet did he pierce the heart of the innocent, introduce misery and infamy into families, reveled in voluptuousness and crime, and led the youth that he had influenced over to tread in his unhallowed steps. He professed to fear God, yet did he desecrate his name, and prostitute his authority to the most unhallowed and diabolical purposes, even to the seduction of the virtuous, and the defiling of his neighbor's bed. He professed indignation against Missouri saying, 'My hand shall avenge the blood of the innocent;' yet now he calls upon Missouri to come out against the saints, and he 'will lead them on to glory and to victory.'
"It may be asked why it was that we would countenance him so long after being apprised of his iniquities, and why he was not dealt with long ago. To this we would answer, that he has been dealt with from time to time, when he would acknowledge his iniquity, ask and pray for forgiveness, beg that he might not be exposed, on account of his mother, and other reasons, saying he should be ruined and undone. He frequently wept like a child, and begged like a culprit for forgiveness, at the same time promising before God and angels to amend his life, if he could be forgiven. He was in this way borne with from time to time, until forbearance was no longer a virtue, and then the First Presidency, the Twelve, and the Bishops withdrew their fellowship from him, as published in the sixteenth number of this paper. The church afterwards publicly withdrew their fellowship from him, and his character was published in the seventeenth number of this paper. Since that time he has published that the conduct of the saints was bad; that Joseph Smith and many others were adulterers, murderers, etc.; that there was a secret band of men that would kill people. etc., called Danites; that he was in duress when he gave his affidavit and testified that Joseph Smith was a virtuous man; that we believed in and practiced polygamy; that we believed in secret murders, and aimed to destroy the government, etc., etc. As he has made his statements very
(page 593) |
