Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839, as Published in Times and Seasons
Source Note
JS, , , , and , Letter, , Clay Co., MO, to the church and , , Adams Co., IL, 20 Mar. 1839. Version published in “Copy of a Letter, Written by J. Smith Jr. and Others, While in Prison,” Times and Seasons, May 1840, 1:99–104. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
abused the saints, and had been as desirous of peace as we were, there would have been nothing but peace and quietude to this day and we should not have been in this wretched place and burthened with the society of demons in human form and compeled to hear nothing but oaths and curses, and witness scenes of drunkenness and debaucheries of every description; neither would the cries of orphans and widdows have ascended to God or the blood of the saints have stained the soil, and cried for vengeance against them. But “we dwell with those who hated peace” and who delighted in war and surely their unrelenting hearts,— their inhuman and murderous disposition—and their cruel practices, shock humanity, and defy description! It is truly a tale of sorrow,lamentation and woe, too much for humanity to contemplate. Such a transaction cannot be found where Kings and Tyrants reign, or among the savages of the wilderness, or even among the ferocious beasts of the forest. To think that man should be mangled for sport, after being cruelly put to death. Women have their last morsel stolen from them, while their helpless children were clinging around them and crying for food— and then, to gratify the hellish desires of their more than inhuman oppressors, be violated, is horrid in the extreme.
They practice these things upon the saints who have done them no wrong, had committed no crime, and who were an innocent and virtuous people; and have proved themselves lovers of God by forsaking and enduring all things for his sake. “It must needs be that offences come, but wo to those by whom they come.”
O God! where are thou? and where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? how long shall thy hand be stayed, and thy pure eyes behold from the heavens, the wrongs and sufferings of thy people and of thy servants; and thine ears be penetrated with their cries? How long, O Lord! shall they thus suffer, before thine heart shall be softened towards them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion towards them? O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them is, and who controleth and subjecteth the devil and the dark and benighted dominions of Shaole. Stretch forth thy hand, let thine eye pierce, let thy pavilion be taken up, let thy hiding place no longer be uncovered, let thine ear be inclined, let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion towards thy people; and let thine anger be kindled against our enemies, and in thy fury let fall the sword of thine indignation, and avenge us of our wrongs. Remember thy suffering saints, O our God! and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever.
Dearly beloved brethren, we realize that perilous times have come, as have been testified of in ancient days, and we may look with certainty and the most perfect assurance, for the rolling in of all those things which have been spoken of by all the holy prophets: lift up your eyes to the bright luminary of day, and you can say, soon thou shalt veil thy blushing face, for at the behest of Him who said, “let there be light, and their was light,” thou shalt withdraw thy shining. Thou moon, thou dimmer light, and luminary of night, shalt turn to blood. We see that the prophecies concerning the last days are fulfilling, and the time shall soon come when the “Son of man shall descend in the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory.”
We do not shrink, nor are our hearts and spirits broken at the grevious yoke which is put upon us. We know that God will have our oppressors in derision, that he will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh. We think we should have got out of our prison house, at the time got a writ of , had not our own lawyers interpreted the law contrary to what it reads, and against us, which prevented us from introducing our witnesses before the mock court, they have done us much harm from the beginning; they have lately acknowledged that the law was misconstrued, and then tantleized our feelings with it, and have now entirely forsaken us, have forfeited both their oaths, and their bonds, and are coworkers with the mob. From the information we received, the public mind has been for some time turning in our favor, and the majority is now friendly, and the lawyers can no longer browbeat us by [p. 100]