I have heard a deal said about the Mormon’s being a warlike people, and surely present appearences indicate the truth of the remark; but ’tis not a sure sign that a man is a murderer, merely because he was seen to go out of a house, where a murder had been committed, with a bloody knife in his hand; he might have been a butcher or a larderer, and blooded his knife lawfully; in total ignorance of the house hold slaughter. Thus it may be with the mormons, for ought I know. Though they appear to take the liveliest in Military affairs of any people in the west, yet they say they “will not fight except it be for peace,” and that every body has a right to do, for self p[r]eservation is the first law of nature.

They profess a great regard for the constitutions of our and say they wish to be “prepared to defend her rights, should th[e]y be invaded by a foreign foe; and for self defence in case of unbearable oppression and Mobocracy.” This is laudable and would be so in any people. History, of the past, goes far to prove their assertion, for which <​when​> they were driven from , by Mobocracy, they submitted without defence, because the Mob assumed the color of legal operations, under the powers that then existed, and absolutely left the , rather than fight under such circumstances. This is a matter of history which I have not seen contradicted, & why this people should be hanged for treason, because they have a more powerful, or better disciplined corps Military than their neighbors, any more than the lardener or butcher without proof, I do not know. Not because there is blood on their knives [p. [2]]