Vol. V.
City of Nauvoo, Ill. February 1, 1844.
No. 3.
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TO THE HONORABLE, THE SENATE AND
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF PENNSYLVANIA,
IN LEGISLATIVE CAPACITY ASSEMBLED.
Your memoralist, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and now an exile in the state of
Illinois, begs leave, most respectfully to represent to your honorable body, that he was born in the state of
Pennsylvania, on the 19th of February, A. D. 1793, in Alleghany county, and township of St. Clair,
that he continued his permanent residence in said state until the year 1826, when he moved to the state of Ohio.
In 1831, he went into the state of Missouri, and in connexion with other members of said Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, became the owner of real estate in the county of Jackson, in said state; but by reason of the
violence of a formidable mob, and the unwillingness of the authorities of Missouri to protect your memorialist, and
those connected with him, in the possession of their rights, they were forbidden the privilege of enjoying their
property, or receiving any benefit therefrom; that in the month of April, 1838, your memorialist moved with his
family into the state of Missouri, into Caldwell county, and became owner of real estate in the said county of
Caldwell, without however being privileged to enjoy the benefit of his lands in Jackson county. All the lands owned
by your memorialist and his brethren, in Jackson county, were purchased from the United States, for which payment
had been made in full; the benefits of which payment the United States now enjoy, and has, ever since the purchase.
There had large numbers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints settled in Caldwell county, at the time
your memorialist went into that county, as also in Davies county, in said state. We commenced building houses, and
improving our lands; building mills and other machinery, for our mutual benefit; quietly and peaceably enjoying our
new homes, and using much industry and economy, to render the desolate waste, whither we had been driven, a pleasant
habitation for man. The toils of the day, were followed by the sound of the hammer, the noise of the plane, and the
hum of the wheel, at night. Day and night all was bustle, all was stir; every hour of the day, and many of the night,
brought forth the fruits of industry, for the benefit of the settlers, and added additional improvement, beauty and
comfort to our new homes. Our social circles, however, were not unfrequently disturbed by the tears and sobbings of
some disconsolate widow, or the weeping of some bereaved orphan, bewailing the loss of a husband or a father, who
had fallen a victim to the violence to [sic - of?] of the Jackson and Clay county mobs. Jackson county was the place of
our choice, and nothing but violence could have caused our people to leave it. Their hearts were set upon it, and all
their feelings associated with that place, as the future home of themselves and their posterity. The location in
Caldwell and Davies counties, was only made by our people, by reason of violence and lawless outrages committed upon
them. It was always received by us as a place of exile, and not of choice, and in dispite of
all our efforts at cheerfulness, at times, the mind would be almost overwhelmed with melancholy, and we would
say in our hearts, and often with our lips, 'what availeth us that our ancestors bled. and our fathers fought for
liberty, while we are as captives in a strange land?' and like Israel along the streams of Babylon, we would be
almost ready to hang our harps on the willows, and refuse to sing the song of Zion. O where is the patrimony our
fathers bequeathed to us? Where is the liberty they purchased with their blood? Fled! alas fled!! but we hope not
forever.
But the wants of our families would dissipate our feelings; we would engage in the labors of the day, and the toils
of the night, with untiring perseverance, and struggle with all the powers of both mind and body, to render our
families comfortable, and make our homes pleasant. But alas! this privilege was not allowed us. Our quiet industry,
and untiring perseverance soon awakened the jealousy of our enemies, and the cry went forth, that if the Mormons
(as they called us) were let alone, Caldwell county would, in five years, be the most wealthy and populous county
in the state. This our enemies could not endure; and a regular system of mobocracy, of violence, and plunder, was
formed to check us in our course to wealth and greatness, as our enemies supposed: and, indeed, they had some reason
to think so; for an extent of improvement had been made in this remote and wild region, in the space of a few months,
which had no [parallel] in the history of our western settlements, and I strongly doubt whether any where else.
This banditti of marauders increased in numbers and violence, until by device and stratagem, duplicity and falsehood,
they got the authorities of the state to interfere, and aid them in their diabolical purposes; and the then Governor
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of the state, Lilburn W. Boggs, actually sent a large military force into the county, with orders to exterminate us
and confiscate our property; or such was the authority the commanders of the military array claimed, by virtue of
the order received from the governor. -- Suffice it to say, that our settlements were broken up, our towns plundered,
our farms laid waste, our crops ruined, our flocks and herds either killed or driven away, our houses rifled, our
goods, money. clothing, provisions and all we had, carried away; men were shot down like wild beasts, or had their
brains dashed out: women were insulted and ravished, until they died in the hands of their destroyers. Children were
killed, while pleading for their lives. All intreaties were vain and fruitless; men, women and children, alike, fell
victims to the violence and cruelty of these ruffians. Men moving into the county with their families, were shot
down; their waggons, teams and loading, taken by the plunderers as booty, and their wives, with their little ones,
ordered out of the state forthwith, or suffer death, as had their husbands; leaving them no means of conveyance but
their feet, and no means of subsistence but begging. Soldiers of the revolution were slain in the most brutal manner
while pleading for their lives, in the name of American citizens. Many were thrown into prison to endure the insults
of a mock trial, that would have disgraced an inquisition. This last part of the scene, was doubtless designed to
make the distant public believe, that there was some excuse for all this outrage and violence. Among the number of
those cast into prison, was your memorialist, who had to endure four months imprisonment, part of the time in chains.
To give your honorable body a correct idea of the origin of these scenes of cruelty and woe, we will here transcribe
the preamble to a set of resolutions passed by these plunderers, at their first meeting held in Jackson county,
for the purpose of taking measures for the expulsion of our people from that county. It is
as follows:
"We the undersigned, citizens of Jackson county, believing that an important crisis is at hand, as regards our
civil society, in consequence of a pretended religious society of people that have settled and are still settling
in our county, styling themselves Mormons; and intending as we do, to rid our society, peaceably if we can, forcibly
if we must, and believing as we do, that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least, a
sufficient one against the evils which are now inflicted on us, and seem to be increasing by the said religious sect,
deem it expedient and if the highest importance to form ourselves into a company for the better and easier
accomplishment of our purpose, which we deem it almost superfluous to say, is justified as well by the law of
nature, as by the law of self defence."
Your honorable body will see by the above, that the reason assigned for the formation of the
company (and this was the first that was formed,) was the want of power in the civil law to enable them to effect
their object. Hear their own words -- 'And believing as we do, that the arm of civil law does not afford us
a guarantee, or at least a sufficient one against the evils which are now inflicted upon us.' What were the evils
complained of? Strange must be the answer, themselves being judges; the existence of a religious society among them;
a society too against which even envy and malice themselves could not find an accusation, or ferret out a lawless
impropriety, or one act which the lawless recognized as crime. For, says the complainants, we form ourselves into a
company, because the laws do not provide for the evils which afflict us; or this in effect is what they say. If any
individual or individuals of said society, or the society as a body, had transgressed the laws, had not the state
power to lawfully inflict the punishment due to said offence? The sequel shows they had. What are the facts of the
case, our enemies being the judges themselves? They are, that our people had so deported themselves, as to be
justified by the laws; claiming no right but such as the laws guaranteed; exercising no power beyond the limits set
for them by the laws of the country; and this was the reason why our enemies formed themselves into a company for
our expulsion, or at least, they so say. If our people had been transgressors of the laws, no need then for the
people of Jackson county to form themselves into a company to drive us from our homes; they could have done this
lawfully; no need of a companys' being formed, all could have been done without, that humanity could have demanded.
By virtue then of the unholy determination, as stated above, our people were attacked, indiscriminately, men women
and children: their houses were rifled; the inmates driven out into open fields or wild prairies; their farms
desolated; their crops all destroyed; their goods, and chattels carried off or otherwise destroyed; men were caught,
tied up, whipped, until some died in their hands, others had to tie handkerchiefs round their bodies to keep their
bowels from falling out: others were shot down; their wives and little ones driven from their habitation! and this
often in the night, having nothing but their night clothes on; their
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houses would be set on fire, and all consumed, leaving hundreds of women and little children thus destitute and
naked. wandering bare-footed and nearly naked, in the darkness of the night and dead of winter, in the fields and
open prairies, without any covering but the heavens, or any bed but the earth; and their condition so terrible that
they might be followed by their blood, which flowed from their lacerated and bleeding feet. Females in this heart
rending condition, gave birth to children, in the open air, and exposed to the inclemencies of the winter. The
consequences were that many sickened and many died. And if we ask, why all this abuse? the answer must be, because
the people had not transgressed the laws; if they had, their persecutors would have punished them by the laws: but
they had not done it, and for this cause they must suffer all the cruelties which the most inhuman barbarity could
invent. The lands which your memorialist and his brethren had purchased from the general government, and on which
large improvements were made, were thus taken possession of by our persecutors, and the same are held by them till
this day, and we are forbid the privilege of enjoying them or any benefit arising from them, I mean the lands in
Jackson County.
After wandering about for a length of time, those that were thus unlawfully deprived of their earthly all and cruelly
driven from their homes, got into Clay county in said state of Missouri; and again began to get homes; but in a
short time, the same scenes began to be acted in Clay, as had been in Jackson county, and the people were again
driven, and got into Caldwell or what was afterwards Caldwell county, and into Davies county, or a large majority of
them, and here again purchased lands from the general government.
To give your honourable body a correct idea of how those who had been thus driven and stripped of their all, were
enabled again to purchase, it is only necessary to say, that there was a constant emigration into the country of the
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; many of those had money, and they loaned part of what
they had to those who had none, and enabled them to purchase homes. The land soon began to rise in value, and the
first purchasers were enabled to sell part of what they had purchased for enough to pay for the whole, and save
themselves a home: some more and some less. There were few, if any who did not in this way get homes, but were
privileged only a very short time to enjoy them. We were followed into Caldwell and Davies counties, by the same
relentless spirit, and by the same persecutors who had desolated our people in Jackson county, under the command of
Major General Lucas, of Independence, Jackson county seat of the first mob, and the place where the first company
was formed for our destruction. He was joined on his way hither by many of other counties, and invaded our towns and
settlements, laid all waste and drove us into exile.
Lilburn W. Boggs, who was Lieutenant [Governor] of the state, when the persecution first [commenced], and one of
the principal actors in the persecution, was now (1838) Governor of the state, and used his executive influence to
have us all massacred or driven into exile; again taking all we had, and holds it till this day; and all this because
we were not lawless and disobedient. For if the laws had given them a sufficient guarantee against the evils
complained of by the existence of our religious society among them, then would they have had recourse to the laws.
If we had been transgressors of law, our houses would not have been rifled, our women ravished, our farms desolated,
and our goods and chattels destroyed; our men killed, our wives and children driven into the the prairies, and made
to suffer the indignities that the most brutal barbarity could inflict, but would only have had to suffer that which
the laws would inflict, which were founded in justice, framed in righteousness and administered in humanity. But
scourged by this banditti, without the forms of law, and according to their own declaration, in violation of all law,
or the principles of humanity, we were doomed to suffer all kinds of cruelty which barbarity or inhumanity could
invent. And they have gravely told the world that they deem it almost superfluous to say that their cause was
justified, as well by the law of nature as by the law of self defence. Now, in the name of all humanity, what law of
nature justified, or law of self defence required the infliction of such shameless cruelties? In so saying they show
most assuredly but very little respect to the intelligence of humanity of American citizens, and in the eyes of the
civilized world have cast a shade, and a dark one too, on the character of the sons of a noble ancestry, for they
have virtually said that Americans look upon such cruelties as the acts of virtue and the fatherly chastisements of
humanity.
During the whole progress of those scenes of cruelty, from the beginning, we petitioned the authorities of Missouri
for protection and redress. In the name of American citizens, we appealed to their patriotism, to their justice,
to their humanity, and to their sacred honors; but they were deaf to our entreaties, and lent a listless ear to our
petitions. All attempts at
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redress or protection were vain, and they heeded us not, until we were exiles in a strange land, though one (and
to its honor be it spoken) where we found both friends and a home. But since our residence in Illinois, Missouri
has followed us with the same relentless spirit of persecution. Warrants have been sent by the governor of Missouri
to the governor of Illinois, demanding the body of your memorialist, and a number of others; for that of Joseph
Smith three several warrants have been sent, all of which have been set aside by the legal authorities of Illinois;
and yet they cease not their persecution. Our people are kidnapped, and carried into Missouri, and there are insulted
and whipped (as many have been) and cast into prison, and left to get out as they could. All this without the forms
of trial. Missouri is by these brutal means endeavouring to make the public think that they have cause for this
barbarity. But, let me ask your honorable body, what excuse can be pled for such inhuman barbarity and brutal
recklessness? Let me further ask the attention of your honorable body to the fact, that all the before described
outrages were committed by a body of men calling themselves militia, called out by order of the governor for the
professed object of seeing that the laws were kept, and their supremacy maintained. Such was their pretended object,
and under this cover they put at defiance the laws of both God and man; of nature, humanity, and decency; and in
these unhallowed abuses of all the laws of civilized society in the world, they were upheld by the authorities of
the state, and actually paid by the state, for committing theft, robbery, rapine, violence rape, and murder, with
innumerable cruelties, painful to mention. And when we made application to the authorities for redress, we were
insulted instead of receiving common civilities. The constitution of the United States provides, that the United
States shall give to each state a republican form of government. Is it a republican form of government where such
outrages can be committed in the face of the authorities, and yet no redress can be had; where all law is suspended
to give place to cruelty, barbarity, and inhumanity? Let your honorable body answer.
Her statesmen in the national councils may attempt to plead excuses for these diabolical outrages, but all they can
do is stamp infamy on their own characters, and engrave disgrace on the urn that contains their ashes after they
sleep. What, I ask your honorable body, can be pled in extenuation of crimes so barbarous, cruelties so infamous,
and outrages so violent. What crime can any man commit, it matters not how flagrant, which can, according to the
laws of the civilized world, subject his wife to insult, his daughters to rape, his property to public plunder, his
children to starvation, and himself and family to exile. The very character of the outrage is all the testimony I
think your honorable body can ask -- that it was without provocation on the part of the sufferers; for if there had
been provocation then would the transgressors have had to suffer the penalty of broken laws, but their punishment --
if such it can be called -- was not the penalty inflicted for the breach of any law, for no law in existence knows
such a penalty or penalties. Why then all this cruelty? Answer, because the people had violated no law; nor
prevented from exercising the rights, which they, (according to the laws,) enjoyed, and had a right to be protected
in, in any state in the union.
Being refused redress by the authorities of Missouri, to whom shall your memorialist look? He answers, to the people
of his native state, and through them to the general government, and where can he look with more confidence, than
to the patriots of Pennsylvania, the state of his nativity, and the place of the sepulchers of his fathers. Yes,
your memorialist says in his heart, "I will tell you my wrongs and grievances and that of my brethren, in
Pennsylvania; I will publish them in the streets, high ways and high places of the 'Key Stone State,' that her
statesmen may plead the cause of suffering innocence in the halls of the National Legislature; her matrons may
arise in the strength of patriotism; her fair ones in virtuous indignation, and their united voices cease not, until
the cause of the innocent shall be heard, and their most sacred rights restored." To your honorable body then, the
representatives of the people of his native state, your memorialist utters his complaining voice; to you he tells
the tale of his wrongs, and his woes, and that of his brethren, and appeals to your honorable body, as one of
Pennsylvania's native sons, and asks you in the name of all that is patriotic, republican and honorable, to instruct
the whole delegation of Pennsylvania in congress, to use all lawful and constitutional means to obtain for us redress
for our wrongs and losses. Believing as your memorialist does, that the general government has not only the power
to act in the premises, but are bound by every sacred obligation by which American citizens are bound to one another,
in our national compact, to see that no injury is inflicted without redress being made.
Weak indeed must be our republican institutions, and as contemptible our national capacity,
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if it is a fact, that American citizens, after having purchased lands from the government, and received the government
guarantee to be protected in the enjoyment of them, they can be lawlessly and causelessly driven off by violence
and cruelty, and yet the government have no power to protect them, or redress their wrongs. Tell not this
in Pennsylvania, publish it not in the streets of Harrisburg, for surely, the sons of the 'Key Stone State' will feel
themselves insulted.
Well may the nations of the old world ridicule the weakness, and impotency of our free institutions, a government
not able to protect its own citizens! A government, it must be famous indeed in the annals of history, and a pattern
to the world, which is so governed as to admit the most flagrant abuses known to the civilized world, and acknowledged
by all to be such; and yet no power to redress them. Hear it O ye barbarians! Listen to it O ye savages!! and hasten,
yea hasten all of you to America; there you can glut your avarice by plunder, and riot in the blood of innocence,
till you are satisfied, and the government has no power to restrain, nor strength to punish, nor yet ability to
redress the sufferers at your hands.
From the acquaintance which your memorialist has with the history of his native state, he has been induced to make
his appeal to your honored body -- a state whose people are noted for their civic virtues and zealous attachment to
the principles of civil and religious liberty; a people venerable from the beginning of our national existence; whose
virtuous efforts to the sacred principles of freedom, religious, civil, and political, have obtained for themselves
imperishable laurels in the history of our country's glory; a people whose colonial organization was based upon the
holy principles of equal rights and equal privileges; a people whose national escutcheon has never been stained with
the martyrs blood; a state whose statesmen, divines and heroes, labored in the cabinet, the desk and the field, to
secure, and hand down to their posterity, in all succeeding ages, the boon of heaven, the sacred rights of freemen.
It was in the honored metropolis of Pennsylvania, the seat of the first colonial congress, when the principles of
liberty were matured, from whence emanated the voice of independence, whose echoes rolled and reverberated, till it
reached the circumference of the colonial settlements, and inspired the sons of freedom, until there was but one
voice heard "Freedom or death." It was there when the leaders and heroes of the revolution, pledged their lives,
their fortunes and their sacred honors, to each other, to be scourged by a tyrant's scepter no longer, until all
they had, and all they were, were offered on the altar of freedom.
Not only were the principles of equal rights inscribed in legible characters on the flags which floated on her towers,
in the incipient stages of our national existence, but they were engraven on the hearts of the people, with an
impression which could not be obliterated. All who collected in her towers, or fought under her banners, could
contend and fight for freedom only. Her teachers of religion, whose influence in the pulpit, and eloquence in public
assemblies, wielded an overwhelming influence in the pulpit, and eloquence in public assemblies, wielded an
overwhelming influence in forwarding the cause of liberty; did they use this influence in securing to themselves
governmental patronage, or religious preferences? All acquainted with the history of the times answer no. They were
citizens of Pennsylvania, and the immortal Penn had inscribed on every pot and bell in the colony, 'Civil
and Religious liberty.' The patriotism of Pennsylvania's religious teachers was pure. They threw in their whole
weight of character and influence to promote a cause which made others equal with themselves; for the glorious
privilege of seeing a people free. Her heroes bore the horrors of war, not to sway the tyrant's scepter, or enjoy
a lordling's wealth, but to found an assylum for the oppressed, and prepare a land of freedom for the tyrant's slave.
-- Her statesmen, while in the councils of the nation, devoted all their wisdom and talents to establish a government
where every man should be free; the slave liberated from bondage, and the colored African enjoy the rights of
citizenship; all enjoying equal rights to speak, to act, to worship, peculiar privileges to none. Such were
Pennsylvania's sons at the beginning; and surely their sons and successors must have degenerated, lamentably
degenerated, from the purity and patriotism of their fathers and predecessors, if crimes and cruelties, such as
your memorialist complains of, go unheeded and unregarded. Honorable regard for the people of my native state
forbids the thought.
In confidence of the purity and patriotism of the representatives of the people of his native state, your memorialist
comes to your honorable body, through this his winged messenger, to tell you that the altar which was erected by
the blood of your ancestors, to civil and religious liberty, from whence ascended up the holy incense of pure
patriotism and universal good will to man, into the presence of Jehovah, a savior of life, is thrown down and the
worshipers thereat, have been driven away, or else they are laying slain at the place of the altar. --
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He comes to tell your honorable body, that the temple your fathers erected to freedom, whither their sons assembled
to hear her precepts and cherish her doctrines in their hearts, has been desecrated; its portals closed, so that
those that go up hither, are forbidden to enter.
He comes to tell your honorable body, that the blood of the heroes and patriots of the revolution, who have been
slain by wicked hands for enjoying their religious rights, the boon of heaven to man, has cried, and is crying in
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, saying, 'redress, redress our wrongs, O Lord God of the whole earth.
He comes to tell your honorable body, that the dying groans of infant innocence, and the shrieks of insulted and
abused females -- and many of them widows of revolutionary patriots have ascended up into the ears of Omnipotence,
and are registered in the archives of eternity, to be had in the day of retribution, as a testimony against the
whole nation, unless their cries and groans are heard by the representatives of the people, and ample redress made,
as far as the nation can make it, or else the wrath of the Almighty will come down in fury against the whole nation.
Under all these circumstances, your memorialist prays to be heard by your honorable body, touching all the matters
of his memorial; and as a memorial will be presented to congress this session, for redress of our grievances, he
prays your honorable body will instruct the whole delegation of Pennsylvania, in both houses, to use all their
influence in the national counsels, to have redress granted.
And, as in duty bound, your memorialist will ever pray.
SIDNEY RIGDON, P. M.
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