| Show historical DISCOURSE by y president nrc S ident GEORGE A ao suits 1 delivered I ell eli vered in the new sai sal I 1 ake lee e city juno june 00 1869 WT REPORTED TED BY DAVID W evans hyben joseph smith was about li years old pid there was in tb the e western pa part of the state of new york erable excitement upon the subject df of religion religh OIL the vari varl various ofis dano denominations nations mi in that j pait part 1 I 1 of the country were stirred up with il spirit of revival they held protract meetings and nud many were cony converted efti at the end of this excitement a ble ensued as to which of the denominations should have the proselytes prose lytes a i of the family of joseph smithy smithe ha mother his brothers hyrum and so uel and sister sophronia phronia Bo became members of the presbyterian church it 7 seph reflected much upon th the e subi subject echi religion and was astonished at the ill lil feeling that seemed to have grown outi nhe uhe the division of the spoils lowe if we MW mays use the term at the close of the refers atlon he spent much time in and reflection and in seeking the la iw he was led to pray u upon poff the suba subject jactia consequence of the declaration 4 of df tie the tt apostle james if any of you 1901 isel wisdom let him ask of god that eirew re to all men liberal liberally ay and nna bot tot JAMES iet let chap atil vs he soup soap the lord by day and b by r night and enlightened bj by the vision of j angel when this perso nerso personage personae nag r 6 App sip appeared earil earol to him one of his first inquiries ws I 1 which of the s 0 f C firis hiris 1 lians in the vicinity waa was right lie lle H j was told they badall had nil all gone one astray they toey had I 1 wandered wail wall dined dired into 1 that thao god was about tit to restore tm ti ha ads gds gospel pei pel in its simplicity and purity to td the earth not to directed he was consequently join a any bab one af 0 them teem butto but bat to be p isu humble M tib alb and seek sew the lord with hil hii all 11 his hahr heart henrt and that from time to time he should be in in relation to i the n right w way a y to s berve serve e the theford eLord th lord lora these visions continued from timeto time and arid in 1830 he liar dubi nubi published ishO to the thoi world the translation of the book now known as the book of mormon and nd on the tho ath ofa of april ril rii 0 of f that year havin having 6 received the authority aut authority gority by special revelation org organized inize d the church of jesus christ of litter latter day saints which was composed of six sly members namely joseph smith oliver cowdery Cow deri dery hyrum smith peter whitmer jun samuel H smith hand and david whitmer the family of joseph smith were in moderate circumstances they were wend were very industrious and had held a res nes respectable P act position in society but on this occasion the tongue of slander was pointed at them and very soon after the organization of the church vexatious lawsuits were commenced and joseph was arrested and taken before a magistrate and dismissed he was again arrested and taken to an adjoining county and treated contemptuously spit upon and insulted in various other ways his hia case was investigated and he was again dismissed this time the mob resolved to treat him to a coat of tar and feathers from which however he was shielded by the officers in whose custody he had been held it was looked upon by many in those days as a species of fun to treat joseph smith or the elders of the church wherever they thoy went vent in ina lna a contemptuous manner the pulpit and the tha press almost invariably joined in the outcry against the newchurch new church and the predictions were that in a few days daya it would be annihilated hi after a few months a conference was organized and missionaries started towards the west joseph having been commanded by toy revelation from the lord to establish a gathering place beai near neat the western boundary of missouri he accordingly sent missionaries in u that direction among whom were oliver 0 1 cowdery ld and parley P pratt 0 on a their way across the state of ohio they visited a society known as the camp belli belil bel bei lites tes teg led ly by sidney rigdon bigdon they preached to them and baptized rigdon and about a hundred members of his church many of whom and their children are citizens of this territory today after this they continued their journey westward to independence in of jacl jael jackson sort sott county soon after this the saints who were scattered in various parta of western new york removed part to missouri and part to kirtland in geauga geaugh now lake county ohio where they founded a city and ans bulit built a temple in jackson county missouri they purchased land built mills established a printing office the first one that was established in the western part of the state of missouri and opened an extensive mercantile house they introduced the culture of wheat and nany many other brids of grain for the inhabitants of that locality were principally new mew settlers and they cultivated chiefly indian corn the saints also commenced the culture ot bt fruit and aud although they came there with little means meane the heads of families were generally able to buy from forty acres to a section bf liuda pd in a few fe months by their untiring industry they began begaii to prosper and flourish in a manner almost astonishing in about two years bo however wever they imet met with opposition a mob assembled and tore flown their printing office broke open apen their mercantile house scat peat feied their goads to the four winds thess also seized thel their rein bishop and presiding reir elders and inflicted upon trew trem them personal abuse such as whipping and daubing them with tar and an feathers while others were mutilated and killed W H A finally resulted in the month Novem Ko november vember ber 1833 in the tife expulsion from the county of jackson of about 1500 people about three hundred of their houses bouses were burned to ashes dabes during the period of the residence the saints luthi in this county counts there them badner had never been a lawsuit lawsuit of instituted ed agai agal riat any of them if li hau hao been benzi any W angs them there were ample ampie means to had the I 1 law dw enforced because the ota ora oth civil and malli military tary the but the real roal lacta of casts caa tyes Were erg eri the saint we were re regarded led idd fanatics anu ancone one of tho bhain points in hi a di declaration elir atlon published against them was that ahat they tiley blasch blasphemously emous ly professed to heal the bick C with holy holk bil accord accordance ansewi with th the instructions of st jamed contained in his C epistle chaband cha eha chap and verse it has his ever eve r been practice in the church of jesus of latter day saints from its tiou tion when ab any giak among them bend send for the Eldera of the church to tonni tonn an ani i isiach with oil ati all aud abd d pray for the them m believing the apostle james that the tha prayer a y arof of faith w will 11 laveo sa the bicki this fe hem e m 0 of fl baith balth faith falth Is 19 still abill practiced id alithe aishe bi ranches branches dathe and thousands and and tens of thousands bear testimony at the dhe the miraculous healings beatings tha been effected by the power of gud gad through these ad administrations minis trat ions lons kotc yet at that period it IL was made a crime and was one of f the prin p rin cipal ch charges argeson on which the latter latten day saints were expelled from jackson county 11 i 1 from this coti county nty the saints werd word driven tb clay cou county nty and most of them remained there about three years during which walh time they performed a grea great greab amount of labor labors for the people of clay conaty for the inhabitants were mostly y new settlers nothing seemingly in the way of property save indian corn hogs and cattler they hired the saints to labor who made brick built fine houses and enlarged their farms erected mills and id in fact acquired considerable property by industry in laboring for the people in clay county the mob of jackson county endeavored to stir up the people of clay against the saints which culminated in a request lowthe on the part of the people of clay that the latte rd saints would leave they accordingly hunted hunte dout out a new county without inhabitants and almost without timber called caldwell county and moved into it purchasing land and occupying it of which they were the sole inhabit tants tanta they also spread out into the adjoining new counties on to the unoccupied land and purchased and improved it from the best of my recollection the latter day saints paid the united states government some for land in the state of missouri but yet in the winter and early spring of 1839 they were expelled from that state with the entire loss of their lands and and ampro improvements cements and most of their personal property under an fari exterminating order from lilburn W boggs bogga governor of that ng them to leave under pain of extermination but they were them who would re renounce ounce their religion would be permitted to stay the result wa wab waa that about fifteen thou thousand gand persons were expelled from missouri and their property to most of which they still hoid hold the titles anid arid when the day arrives that the Cons titu tion lion odthe united states becomes absolutely thes the supreme law of the land so go th that atall all ail men mien can ba protected in their civil and rell reli religious gidus rights they and their children will go back and enjoy their cherished d homes in the state of miss ouri afier after leaving ilis Alfs Misso missouri bourl url uri they located themselves in the state seato of illinois there was a town known as commerce noted for being unile unhealthy althy thelora the location wa was afy very beautiful but the place was surrounded with swamp swamp lands to a considerable extent attempts had L been made to settle it but there were a great many graves in the burying ground ind but very few living people in the vicinity the saints went there and puron ased proper property They drained the swamps tidd and cleaned them out and converted the whole vicinity into gardens garder arid and continued to improve and enlarge the place until feb 1816 the commencement men cement of the tho settlement in commerce hancock county lila ilia was in the summer mummer of 1 1839 june jube 27 1844 joseph and hyrum smith the Prophet allu and aud patriarch of ot the church of jesus christ of latter day saints were murdered in carthage jail jali in hancook hancock county munty illinois while under tho th pledge of the Governor Thos ford who had plighted the ofa oti the state at ht the time of thein their arrest that they should be bei protected from mob violence and have a fair trial lff iff the daw fully constituted courts of tho the state they were confined in jail on a trumped up charge of treason upon the affidavit ofa of a drun kerd beri vagabond they were murdered by about persons with blackened faces some of them persons pUsi position tion in society 1 will here say that thab in all these trans transactions aei aci T T refer tb the mhd outrages com commit fuit fult ted by liy the mobs on the Latten batt Latt erday enday saints the there fe never was a single I 1 instance u bf the guilty parties ibeling br brought 0 u ilu lit to justlee justice eurid under er the law laws of the we state liere biere rethe the tho transpired the eity btty f nauvoo and vicinity had P probably about they were industry indus sud und the afy liy for peace quietness and good derand or order deraud and for the tha rapid manner in which improvement h had a been made they continued to bull buil build d up the city alty though they were con f i t it I 1 11 stant scantly ely ily harassed by and warned from time to time that they should be driver driven away they finished the temple which was one of the most beautiful structures structure in the western states ettes and dedicated it unto the lord they were progressing with oiher other large buildings establishing factories and making many runny improvements when the efFort efforts of culminated in their expulsion from their thein beautiful city ana and temple that they might not act apt hastily or ok unadel unadvisedly sedly a committee of batjer latter day saints prepared a petition and sent aitto it to the governor of every state in a the union except the governor of missouri i and arid also to the president 0 of f the U united nitea states asking them for an asylum and to ta afford them em that protection which was extended to other religious bodies all the states except one treated their application with silence governor drew of arkansas wrote them a respectful letter in which he advised them to seek a home in oregon previous to the death of joseph smith ho he had selected twenty five men most of whom now reside here to explore the rocky mountains with the view of finding a place where they could make a location that would be out of the range and beyond the influence of mobs where they could enjoy the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution of our common country the premature death of joseph and hyrum smith 1 however prevented their departure le the result was that during the year 1845 1915 it devolved upon the tile twelve to carly early out this design but in the course of that year the mob broke upon them with more than thau their usual fury they commenced by burning the farm hou houses in the vicinity of lima they burned houses without the least resistance on the part of the inhabitants the sheriff of hancock co issued orders for fur the citizens who were not mormons cormons Mor mons to turn out and stop the burning but none obeyed his order he then issued a proclamation calling upon all irrespective of sector sect seeb or party to turn out and stop the burning burnings the burning was accordingly stopped but there was a general outcry against the mormons cormons Mor mons 1 and immediately nine counties assem bled in convention and passed a decree that the mormons cormons Mor mons should leave the state governor ford said it was impossible top the people of nau nauvoo th tho the 0 H hon 0 S stephen t e ph on A A L douglass gen john J 71 hardin rd in and several other gen tiemen repaired thither and madea kind hind of a treaty with them in winch it was agreed that mob violence and vex ailous lawsuits were vere to cease on condition that ahe fhe people of N nauvoo would leave the state and thau thai they would assist the saints in the disposal of their property it was also agreed that if a majority would leave the remainder should be permitted to remain until they thay by the sale of their property were able to get away the saints then organized themselves into companies of a hundred families each and established wagon shops for every fifty they took the green timber out of the woods and boiled it in brine and made it into wagons their supply of iron iron was very limited but with what little means moans they could control they purchased iron and dx exhausted hausted the supply of alithe aalthe all nil the towns on the upper mississippi missi tp lal IAL and made up the with law raw hide bide and hickory withes ou the jath of february 1946 1846 the saints crossing the river river niver they crossed first on ou flat boats but in days dass the up and something like a th thousand ousa lla tid wagons crossed over on the lee ice movi moving dg out west into the 1 i e L sparsely settled fettled district on the as eastern 1 t ajl bordel a of iowa the thie settlements g back frow fifo fifty to seventy fauler from that point it was a wilderness without roads toads bridges orani or im OC auy puy eind lind they moved ot j no this wilderness |
