General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, 21 November–circa 3 December 1843
Source Note
JS, General Joseph Smith’s Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys, [1]–7 pp.; Nauvoo, IL: Taylor and Woodruff, 1843. The copy used for transcription is held at CHL; includes docketing and archival stamp.
periods of the world, whenever a nation, kingdom, state, family or individual has received an insult, or an injury, from a superior force, (unless satisfaction was made) it has been the custom to call in the aid of friends to assist in obtaining redress. For proof we have only to refer to the recovery of Lot and his effects, by Abraham, in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah; or, to turn to the relief afforded by and Holland, for the achievement of the Independence of these : Without bringing up the great bulk of historical facts, rules, laws, decrees, and treaties, and bible records, by which nations have been governed, to show that mutual alliance, for the general benefit of mankind, to retaliate and repel foreign aggressions; to punish and prevent home wrongs, when the conservitors of justice and the laws have failed to afford a remedy, are not only common and in the highest sense justifiable and wise, but, they are also, proper expedients to promote the enjoyment of equal rights, the pursuit of happiness, the preservation of life, and the benefit of posterity.
With all these facts before me, and a pure desire to ameliorate the condition of the poor and unfortunate among men, and if possible to entice all men from evil to good; and with a firm reliance that God will reward the just, I have been stimulated to call upon my native , for a “union of all honest men;” and to appeal to the valor of the “Green Mountain Boys” by all honorable methods and means to assist me in obtaining justice from : not only for the property she has stolen and confiscated, the murders she has committed among my friends, and for our expulsion from the , but also to humble and chastise, or abase her for the disgrace she has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones for her sins.
I appeal also, to the fraternity of brethren, who are bound by kindred ties. to assist a brother in distress, in all cases where it can de done according to the rules of the order, to extend the boon of benevolence and protection, in avenging the Lord of his enemies, as if a Solomon, a Hiram, a St. John, or a Washington raised his hands before a wondering world, and exclaimed:—“My life for his!’ Light, liberty and virtue forever!
I bring this appeal before my native for the solemn reason that an injury has been done, and crimes have been committed, which a sovereign , of the Federal compact, one of the great family of “E pluribus unum,” refuses to compensate, by consent of parties, rules of law, customs of nations, or in any other way: I bring it also, because the national Government has fallen short of affording the necessary relief as before stated for want of power, leaving a large body of her own free citizens, whose wealth went freely into her treasury for lands, and whose gold and silver for taxes, still fills the pockets of her dignitaries, “in ermine and lace,” defrauded, robbed, mobed, plundered, ravished, driven, exiled and banished from the “Independent Republic of !”
And in this appeal let me say: raise your towers; pile your monuments to the skies; build your steam frigates; spread yourselves far and wide, and open the iron eyes of your bulwarks by sea and land; and let the towering church steeples, marshal the country like the “dreadful splendor” of an army with bayonets: but remember the flood of Noah; remember the fate of Sodam and Gomorrah; remember the dispersion and confusion at the Tower of Babel; remember the destruction of Pharoah and his hosts; remember the hand writing upon the wall, mene, mene, tekel, upharsin; remember the angels visit to Sennacherib and the 185,000 Assyrians; remember the end of the [p. 5]