“ June 30. 1842— Dear Sir— I have received by the last mail your letter of the 24th. instant in which you have thought proper to give me a statement of charges against the Conduct and character of General . I can say that I regret that any individual should so far disregard his obligations to his God, and to his fellow man as to condescend to the commission of the crimes alleged in your letter to have been perpetrated by . It is however in accordance with representations [HC 5:49] of his character, made to me more than two years since, and which I then felt constrained to believe were true, since which time I have desired to have as little intercourse with him as possible. No resignation of his commission as Major General of the Nauvoo Legion has reached me, some weeks since I read a short note from him stating that you had reason to believe that a Conspiracy is getting up in the State of for the purpose of mobbing the Mormons at , and kidnapping you, and taking you to that , and requested to be informed in case of such mob, whether you would be protected by the authorities of this &c to which I replied that as all men were held amenable to the Laws, so in like manner the rights of all would be protected, and the dignity of the maintained, to the letter of the Constitution and Laws; the above is in substance the contents of his note to me and my reply to him; having destroyed his letter, as I considered it of no use should it be retained. You state that you have heard that I have “of late entertained unfavorable feelings towards you (the Mormons) as a people, and especially so with regard to yourself &c &c If this should be true, you would be pleased to know from me the reasons of such hostile feelings.” In reply I can in truth say that I do not entertain or cherish hostile or revengeful feelings, towards any man or set of men on Earth, but that I may have used strong expressions in reference to yourself, at times when my indignation has been somewhat aroused, by repeated admonitions of my friends (both before and since the attempt to assassinate ) to be upon my Guard, that you had prophesied that should die a violent death, and that I should die in a ditch, all this however if true, I looked upon as idle boasting until since the assassination of and even since then in reference to myself, I cannot view it in any other light, because what ever your feelings may have been towards , the mere discharge of an official duty on my part, enjoined upon me by the Constitution and Laws, of this , and of the could not possibly engender feelings of such deep malignity. Be assured that this matter gives me no uneasiness, nor would the subject now have been mentioned, had you not requested a reply to your enquiries. I have <​seen​> your denial published in the Wasp of the prediction attributed to you of the death (or assassination) of , be that true or false, nothing has contributed more towards fixing the belief upon the public mind, that. you had made such prediction, than the repeated statements of a portion [p. 1351]