| 140 believe; and whereas, the pen of murderers, as we believe, has occupied the columns of these papers in order to deafen the cries of innocent blood that ascends to heaven for vengeance; and whereas, a large share of the thefts spoken of and blazed through the land are wholly without existence when traced out, as appears not only from the instance recorded in the Governor's message concerning horse stealing, but from other similar instances, too numerous to mention; and whereas, it has been zealously reported that much stolen goods could be traced to Nauvoo, and that no citizen could enter our city to search for thieves and stolen goods because the thief and goods would be screened from detection by the Mormon fraternity and the person in search would be in jeopardy of his life; and whereas, thieves and counterfeiters have in some instances fled to our city, either under the mistaken apprehension that we would screen them, or from a malignant design to palm upon us their own crimes, and thereby draw us under the lash of persecution; and whereas, it can be proved that individuals, in order to swell the list of Mormon depredations, have reported property to be stolen, which at another time they have acknowledged, they sold the same property and received pay;
"And whereas, bee yards have been robbed, the hives left at the Mormons' doors, to palm the theft upon us, when the honey has been found in the houses of our enemies; and whereas, an innumerable number of such infamous tricks have been played upon us, by our enemies, as we believe, for the purpose of blackening our character in the eyes of honest men; and whereas, our city is nightly infested with a set of outlandish men, who, we believe, visit us for no good purpose, who do not appear to have any lawful business, but rather, as we believe, are endeavoring to scatter amongst us their bogus and counterfeits, prostitute the virtue of the place, deposit stolen goods, or steal from us, and by every means in their power sow the seeds of discord, strife, confusion, mobocracy, and murder, that in the end they may uproot our beautiful city; and whereas, that in some instances, when the ministers of justice have visited our city, at the dark hour of midnight, for the purpose of making legal arrests, as they say, we
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