Show HISTO historic RIt OF JOSEPH SMITH JUNE 1836 june 2nd and president phelps wrote from liberty missouri to president 0 cowd cowdery ry from which are the following extracts since I 1 returned home to missouri I 1 have been out oat on an two expeditions examining the regions of the OF far ar west soon af after ter our return bishop 0 pa partridge r and myself passed from liberty to tle the N northwest 0 corner of clay county and examined the mills and streams and country a round mr smia T ita deno 1 t re i aee yo u ul 0 W for the sake of provincialism among nations kindreds and people to nickname nick name by their religion or brov province ince or ancestry so that one can be distin distinguished gui shed by bv being beine an israelite a call canaanite ignite a ch christian ristian ris a mormon momon a methodist etc or a corn com cracker or a mighty hun hunter ter etc according to fane fancy y or favor from mr smiths we pr proceeded northeasterly through some seme timber and some prairie to Platts plattsburgh burgh the county seat for clinton county a smart little town containing from fifteen to twenty hewed log cabins and the brick body of a two story court house thirty two feet square this town is located on the west side of horse and smiths fork of the little platte contiguous to the timber on these s streams t re ams 25 miles north of liberty the timber mill and water privileges may answer a very small population but bat for a large it would be nothing there are now three stores and 8 soon con will be four clinton county is mostly prairie 1 with here and there a few fringes or of timber on the creeks that run into the little platte and grand rivers from this town we made the best beat ourse course c we co urd to the waters of grand river we had a sort of a road for a little bit towards bushy hy fork then we had to be content with naked pratlie pr atrie alrie patches of scrubby timber deep banked creeks and branches to together jether with a rainy morning and no compass but with the blessing of the lord we came to csome some house in the afternoon and passed into ray county on shoal creek where there is water there are some tolerable mill seats but the prairies those old cold clearings peering one over another as far as the eye can glance flatten all common calculation as to timber for boards rails or future wants for a thick population according to the natural reasoning of men what the design of our heavenly father was or is is as ag to these vast prairies of the far west I 1 know no further than we have revelation the book of mormon terms them the land of deo desolation JW on and when I 1 get into a prairie s so 0 large that I 1 am out of sight eight of timber just as a seaman is out of sight of land on the ocean I 1 have t to 0 exclaim what is man and his works t compared to the almighty and his hia creations who hith hath viewed his everlasting fields who hath counted his Baff buffaloes aloes who who hath seen all his deer on a thousand prairies the pinks pink variegate these wide spread lawns without the hand band of man to aid them and the bees of a thousand groves banquet anthe on the flowers unobserved and sip the honey dews of heaven nearly every skirt of timber to the state line on the north I 1 am informed has some one in it the back settlers are generally very honorable I 1 and more hospitable than any people I 1 ever I 1 saw you are in most instances welcome to the 1 I 1 best they have this was the case until they began to oppose mormonism historian W W PHELPS the high council assembled in the lords house in kirtland on the of juney june presidents S rigdon bigdon and F G williams presiding to investigate the char charge of a want of benevolence ne to thedoor the poor and charity to the church which I 1 had previously preferred against brother preserved harris and elder isaac me mc withy after a full and lengthy investigation the council decided that the charges were fully folly sustained bust against preserved harris and that I 1 the hand of fellowship be withdrawn from him until he shall see that the course he is pursuing 1 is contrary to the gospel of jesus in the pleas of the counselors in case of elder they decided that the charges had been fully sustained after which I 1 spoke in in i my turn as accuser and stated that I 1 called I 1 on the accused in company with president 0 I 1 cowdery Cow dory for money to send up to zion but 1 old could get t none afterwards saw him and asked him h if fv he e would sell his farm he at first I seemed willing and wished to build up zion he plead excuse in consequence of his liberality to the poor we offered him three thousand dollars for his farm would give him four or five hundred dollars to take him to zion and settle him there and obligation for the remainder with good security and interest he went and told father lyon that we demanded all his property and so we lost four or five hundred dollars because the accused told him such sach a story he be calculated to keep it himself the accused elder Me Mo Withy arose and said it was the first time he had been called upon to clear himself before a high council he complained of bein being g called bed contrary to the rules of the gospel before the council the president decided that as an the case was now before the council it could not now be urged but should have bave been made in the bebin beginning he plead that he had relieved the wants rif 14 the poor and did so BO man many good things at he was wa astonished that he be should hear such things as aa he had hwd hemd to daty h fao ct not give all he had got to one man if he had done wrong he asked forgiveness of god and the church t inuring aring the quarter ending the 3rd ard of june 1836 two hundred and four elders eleven priests three teachers and five deacons licenses license were recorded in the license records in kirtland ohio jane 1836 my father and uncle john smith started on a mission to visit the branch es cf the church in the eastern states to set then thein in order and confer on the brethren their patriarchal Pattia rebal blessings I 1 took my mother and ann P clarissa my uncle johns wife in a candage and accompanied them to Pains ville whee we procured a bottle of wine and broke bread ate and drank and parted after the ancient order with the blessings of god of a pub public lic meeting at liberty missouri on the a respectable number of the citizens met b being eing i previously asly notified of the samo sam at the court house in the town of liberty missouri on motion john bird was called to tho th chair and john F doherty appointed secretary the object of the meeting was by request of the chair explained in a few appropriate remarks by col wood when on motion of col wm win T wood a committee of nine nilie was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of this meeting 0 where upon the following gentle gentlemen m en where chosen namely john thornton esq peter rogers esq andrew roberts robertson Eo bertson on esq james T V esq col wm T wood doctor woodson J moss james M hughes esq y david R atchison esq and A IV doniphan Es esq who retired and in a short time returned and a nt made through their chairman col john thornton the following unanimous report which was wa q read it is apparent to every reflecting mind that a crisis has arrived in this bounty that requires ires the deep cool consideration and immediate action of every lover of peace harmony and good order we cannot conceal fi I 1 m O 0 f f that th f ita itma it ma M a A n t tie the c clouds inaptly ou s 0 of I 1 deiv civil ir war are tolling rolling up WE their air fearful masses and hanging over our devoted county solemn dark and terrible this painful state of things has been produced tria mainly by the rapid and increasing emigration I 1 ef cf that people co commonly called mormons cormons Mor mons during the last few months it is known to all that in november 1833 these people were expelled from their homes in jackson county without money without property without the means of subsistence for themselves their wives and their children and like noahs dove without a resting place for their feet they came to our county thus friendless and penniless penny less seeking as they said but a temporary asylum from the storm of persecution I 1 by which they were then buffet ted their destitute and miserable id brable condition at that inclement season of the year ear excited the deep sympathies of the phiT philanthropic and hospitable citizens iti zens of this county and notwithstanding the thousand reports that were borne on the wings of the wind charging them with almost every crime known to the laws of our country yet et our feelings of kindness and sympathy for human uman suffering prevailed over every obstacle oba I 1 and they were received with friends friendship hip and treated with toleration and often with marks of 01 peculiar p peculiar kindness they always declared th that t they looked not upon this th is county as their home but as a temporary asylum and that th at whenever a respectable portion of the citizens cit i e of this county should request it they would i promptly leave us in in peace as aa they found us i that period has now arrived duty to ourselves I 1 to our families and to the best beat interest 1 of our county require at our hands to demand the fulfillment fulfilment of that pledge they tho y are charged by those who are opposed to them t h em with an unfriendly determination to violate that pledge their rapid emigration their large purchases and offers to purchase lands the remarks of f the ignorant and imprudent portion t on of them that this country is destined tor bv heaven h ia aven to be theirs are received and looked upon by a large portion of this community as strong and convincing proofs that the they KO I 1 intend i nm to make this county their permanent home e the centre and general rendezvous of this people these are some of the reasons why these people have become objects of the deepest hatred and detestation to many of our citizens they are eastern men whose manners habits customs and even dialect are essentially different from our own they are non a slave lave holders and opposed to slavery which in this peculiar period when its ag deformed and hagard visage in our land is well calculated to excite deep and abiding prejudices judi ce in any community where slavery I 1 is tol tolerated ertan ert Tn and protected 0 in addition to all this they are arc charged as they have heretofore been with keeping up a constant communication with the indian tribes on our frontier with declaring even from the pulpit pulp that the indians area are a part 0 of gods chosen chose pi le and are destined by heaven to inherit this land in common with themselves we do not vouch for the correctness of these statements but bat whether they are true or false their effect has been the same in exciting our community in times of greater tranquility such ridiculous remarks might well be regarded as the offspring of fanaticism but at this time om cup def de defenseless fenceless en celess situation on the frontier the bloody disasters of our fellow citizens in florida and other parts of the south all tend to make a portion of our citizens regard 0 such sentiments with horror if not alarm these and many other ca causes e have combined to raise raise a p prejudice ri aga against i n s t them and feeling of hostility that the first spark may Y and we deeply fear will ignite into I 1 all the and desolations of a civil war the worst evil e v i ll 11 that can becal any an y country we therefore feel it our duty to come forward O Hedia totS and use every means in our power to prevent the occurrence of so great ap avil As the most efficacious means to arrest the evil we urge on the mormons cormons Mor mons to use every means to put an immediate stop to the emigration of their people to this county we earnestly urge them to seek some other abiding place placey bif where merethe the manners the habits and customs of the people will be more consonant co n with their own for or t this I 1 i s purpose w we e would advise them to eipl explore e the territory of wisconsin chis c country t is peculiarly suited to their condition and their ir wants it is almost entirely unsettled I 1 they can there procure large bodies of land together where there are no settlements and none to interfere with them it is a territory v in which slavery is prohibited and it is settled entirely with emigrants from the north and east the religious tenets teneta of et this thia people are so ao ighut aubow AW feliu il keive ah U that they always have and abw always alff will excite 1 deep prejudices against them in in any populous country where they may locate we t therefore aplous in in a spir spirit it of frank and friendly kindness do advise them to see a home abode where obtain 0 tain large and separate bodies ba dies of land and have a community of their own we f further arther say to them if they regard their own safety and welfare if they regard the welfare of their families their wives and children they will ponder with deep and solaman reflection on anthis this friendly id admonition monition if I 1 f they the Y have b a ve one spark of gratitude ay they will not willingly willi b 0 ly plunge a people into civil war who hel held d out to them the friendly hand of assistance in that hour of dark distress when there was few to say god save them we can only say to them if they still persist in the blind bad course they have heretofore followed in flooding the co county un w with it h t their heir people that we fear and firel firmly y believe beai eve that an immediate civil war is the inevitable consequence we know that there is not one among us who thirsts for the blood of that people we do not contend that we have tile the least tight right under the constitutions and laws of the country to expel them beforce by force but we would indeed be blind if we did not foresee that the first blow that is struck at this moment of jeep deep excitement must and will speedily involve every i individual in in a war bearing bearin q ruin I 1 wo and de desolation in its course IT MATTERS BUT BOT HOW OS OR BY WHOM THE WAR MAY BEGIN when the work of destruction comen commences ces W WE MUST ALL be borne onward by the stor crushed ben beneath eath its jury in a civil war when our theatre on which it is fought there can be no neutrals let our opinions be what they may we must fight in self defence we want nothing we ask nothing we would have nothing from this people we only ask them for their own safety and fo for r ours to take the least of the two evils mo most A of them are destitute of land have but little property are late emigrants to this cod country without relations friends or endearing ties to bind them to this land at the risk of such ij jm r wv bruu W are at aie to leave v e u us s w when he n the their i r c crops a are gathered gathered their business settled and they have made every suitable preparation to remove those who have forty acres of land we are willing should remain until they can dispose of it without loss if it should require ire i years ja but ut we urge most str strongly 01 angly urge that emigration cease and cease immediately as nothing notting not bing C else can or will allay for a moment the deep excitement cit ement that is now unhappily agitating this community if the mormons cormons will comply with these friendly requisitions we will use every exertion among a mo ng our own citizens to arrest this evil before it is forever for ever too late but if they are am disregarded we can promise neither them or ourselves a long continuation of the blessings of peace c and harmony 1st ast therefore ep be it resolved by this meeting that th they 97 view view I 1 wi with ith feelings of the deepest regret the present unhappy situation of our country 2nd and that it is the fixed |