| 71 of self-defense; and in this case not to give the offense or provoke their fellow men to acts of violence,-which we have no doubt they will observe, as they ever have. For you may rest assured, gentlemen, that we would be the last to advise our friends to shed the blood of men or commit one act to endanger the public peace.
"We have no doubt but our friends will leave your county, sooner or later, they have not only signified the same to us, but we have advised them so to do as fast as they can without incurring too much loss. It may be said that they have but little to lose if they lose the whole. But if they have but little, that little is their all, and the imperious demands of the helpless urge them to make a prudent disposal of the same. And we are highly pleased with a proposition in your preamble, suffering them to remain peaceably till a disposition can be made of their land, etc., which if suffered our fears are at once hushed, and we have every reason to believe that during the remaining part of the residence of our friends in your county the same feelings of friendship and kindness will continue to exist that have heretofore, and that when they leave you, you will have no reflection of sorrow to cast that they have been sojourners among you.
"To what distance or place they will remove we are unable to say; in this they must be dictated with judgment and prudence. They may explore the Territory of Wisconsin, they may remove there, or they may stop on the other side; of this we are unable to say. But be they where they will, we have this gratifying reflection, that they have never been the first in an unjust manner to violate the laws, injure their fellow men, or disturb the tranquility [tranquillity]and peace under which any part of our country has heretofore reposed. And we cannot but believe that ere long the public mind must undergo a change, when it will appear to the satisfaction of all that this people have been illy treated and abused without cause; and when, as justice would demand, those who have been the instigators of their sufferings will be regarded their true characters demand.
"Though our religious principles are before the world, ready for the investigation of all men, yet we are aware that
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