Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 719–734; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
The 15 March 1842 issue of the ’s , Illinois, newspaper, Times and Seasons, was the third issue that identified JS as editor. This issue contained four editorial passages, each of which is featured here with accompanying introductions. Several other JS texts printed in this issue, including an excerpt from the Book of Abraham and several pieces of correspondence, are featured as stand-alone documents elsewhere in this volume.
Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Times and Seasons is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents are annotated elsewhere; links are provided to these stand-alone documents.
While JS likely authored many of the paper’s editorial passages, John Taylor reportedly assisted him in writing content. No matter who wrote individual editorial pieces, JS assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February issue. (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; Historical Introduction to Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
slavery. I have done so: I gave it a full and fair investigation years ago—I swore in my youth that my hands should never be bound, nor my feet fettered, nor my tongue palsied—I am the friend of liberty, universal liberty, both civil and religious. I ever detested servile bondage. I wish to see the shackles fall from the feet of the oppressed, and the chains of slavery broken. I hate the oppressor’s grasp, and the tyrant’s rod; against them I set my brows like brass, and my face like steel; and my arm is nerved for the conflict. Let the sons of thunder speak, achieve victories before the cannon’s mouth, and beard the lyon in his den: till then the cry of the oppressed will not be heard: ‘till then the wicked will not cease to trouble, nor the weary bondman be at rest.’ Great God, has it come to this—that the free citizens of the sovereign State of can be taken and immured within the walls of a penitentiary for twelve long years, for such a crime as God would regard as a virtue! simply for pointing bondmen to a state of liberty and law! and no man take it to heart? Never!no, never!! NO, NEVER!!! Let the friends of freedom arise and utter their voice, like the voice of ten thousand thunders—let them take every constitutional means to procure a redress of grievances—let there be a concerted effort, and the victory is ours. Let the broad banners of freedom be unfurled, and soon the prison doors will be opened, the captive set at liberty, and the oppressed go free. will then remember the unoffending Mormons in the days of their captivity and bondage—when murder and rapine were here darling attributes—why, my heart is filled with indignation, and my blood boils within me, when I contemplate the vast injustice and cruelty which has meted out to that great philanthropist and devout Christian, General Joseph Smith, and his honest and faithful adherents—the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons: but the time has passed, and God will avenge their wrongs in his own good time. Dr. Dyer, put your hand upon your heart, and remember Zion. Just investigate the wrongs which our people have suffered in their unprecedented privations, the confiscation of their property, and the murder of their friends—the persecutions of the Waldenses in former ages were not to be compared to it, and history affords not a parallel. Now let us make a strong, concerted, and vigorous effort, for universal liberty, to every soul of man—civil, religious, and political. With high considerations of respect, and esteem, suffer me to subscribe myself—
Yours, Respectfully,
.
Charles V. Dyer, M. D.
P. S. Gen. Smith informs me that there are white slaves in , (Mormons,) in as abject servitude as the blacks, and we have, as yet, no means of reddress!—God grant that the day of righteous retribution may not be procrastinated.
Respected Brother:—I have just been perusing your correspondence with Doctor [Charles V.] Dyer on the subject of American Slavery, and the students of the Mission Institute, and it makes my blood boil within me to reflect upon the injustice, cruelty, and oppression, of the rulers of the people—when will these things cease to be, and the Constitution and the Laws again bear rule? I fear for my beloved country—mob violence, injustice, and cruelty, appear to be the darling attributes of , and no man taketh it to heart! O, tempora! O, mores! What think you should be done?
Yours of the 7th Inst. has been received, and I proceed to reply, without undue emotion, or perturbation. You ask “When will these things cease to be, and the Constitution and the Laws again bear rule?” I reply—once that noble bird of Jove, our grand national emblem, soared aloft, bearing in her proud beak the words “Liberty and Law,” and that man that had the temerity to ruffle her feathers was made to feel the power of her talons; but a wily archer came, and with his venomed arrow dipped in Upas’ richest sap, shot the flowing label from the Eagle’s bill—it fell inverted, and the bird was sick, and is,—the label soon was trampled in the dust—the eagle bound and caged. The picture is now before you in bold relief. “What think you should be done?” The master spirits of the age must rise and break the cage, re [p. 724]