| 242 Joseph Smith in his letter of January 2, 1844, to John C. Calhoun. (See volume 2, page 710.) The letter read as follows:
PHILADELPHIA, September 16.
To His Excellency the President of the United States: The conviction grows deeper with thoughtful men that "the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land." On the very threshold, as we had flattered ourselves, of returning prosperity, we find the whole country plunged into mourning, and the wished-for revival of business seriously delayed by the alarming pestilence that ravages our Southern borders. This is but the last in a long series of calamities which reaches back to the very beginning of our Civil War. That these facts attest the displeasure of the Supreme Ruler of the world against this nation we are profoundly convinced, and also that our only hope of escape from still sorer retributions lies in a diligent inquiry into the causes of God's anger, and in speedy and heartfelt repentance and reformation. That the mind of the people may be turned to these momentous considerations, and that united prayer for the grace of repentance and for the removal of his heavy judgments may ascend to the Father of Mercies through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we, citizens of Philadelphia and vicinity, respectfully ask you to appoint, in your wisdom, an early and convenient day to be observed by the whole nation as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.
JOHN Y. DOBBINS, President M. E. Preachers' Meeting.
NATHAN B. DURELL, Sec. of the Preachers' Meeting.
R. JOHNS, Moderator Presbyterian Ministerial Assn.
CHARLES BROWN, Sec. Presbyterian Ministerial Assn.
R. G. MOSES, President Baptist Ministerial Conference.
J. NEWTON RITNER, Sec. Baptist Ministerial Conference.
JOHN ALEXANDER, Chairman Ex. Com. Sabbath Alliance.
JAMES POLLOCK, Superintendent U. S. Mint.
O. C. BOSAYSHELL, Coiner U. S. Mint.
J. C. BOOTH, Melter and Refiner U. S. Mint.
Wm. E. DuBois, Assayer U. S. Mint.
GEORGE H. STUART.
JOSHUA L. BAILY.
AMOS R. LITTLE, and many others.
-The Saints' Herald, vol. 25, p. 345,
The Herald prefaced this letter with the following comments:
We have had the following on the hook some time, but it has been omitted for want of preparation and room. It is very suggestive, that such a conviction should have seized these men; but to those who have been waiting and watching, these are but the beginning of sorrows, and have been prophesied of by Latter Day Saints. Famine in China, in India, and lack of rain in a large district of Brazil, causing a famine
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