Letter to the Church in Caldwell County, Missouri, 16 December 1838, as Recorded in “General” Record Book
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Clay Co., MO, to the church in , MO, 16 Dec. 1838. Version copied [between 16 Dec. 1838 and ca. 30 Oct. 1839] in “General” Record Book, 1838, pp. 101–108; handwriting of ; CHL.
in fine all the beasts of the forest were awfully alarmed and catching the scent of innocent blood, they sallied forth with one tremendous howl and crying of all sort, and such a howling and such a tremendous havoc never was known, Such a piece of inhumanity and relentless cruelty and barbarity cannot be found in all the annals of history,
These are the characters who would make the world believe that we had commited murder by making an attack upon this howling wolf while we were at home and in our beds and asleep, and knew nothing of the transaction, any more then we know what is going on in China while we are within these walls. Therefore we say again unto you in these things they have represented us falsely. Was it for committing adultry, we are aware that false slander has gone abroad for it has been reiterated in our ears. These are falsehoods also.
Renegade Mormon Dissenters run abroad into the world and spread various false and libelous reports against us thinking thereby to gain the friendship of the world because they know that we are not of the world, and that the world hates us, therefore they make a toast of these characters, by them try to do all the injury they can, and after that they hate them worse then they do us, because they find them to be base traitors and sycophants.
Such characters God hates, we cannot love them, the world hates them, and we sometimes think that even Satan ought to be ashamed of them.
We have heard that it is reported by some, that some of us should have said that we not only dedicated our property but our families also to the Lord, and Satan taking advantage of this, has transfigured it into licentiousness such as a community of wives, which is an abomination in the sight of God— When we our property to the Lord, it is to administer to the poor and the needy for this is the law of God. It is not for the purpose of the rich those who have no need. And when a man consecrates or dedicates his wife and children he does not give them to his neighbour nor to his brother, for there is no such law, for the law of God is that thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt <not> covet thy neighbour’s wife, He that looketh on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery <already> in his heart. Now for a man to consecrate his property and his wife and children to the Lord is nothing more or less, than to feed the hungry clothe the naked visit the widow and the fatherless, the sick, and the afflicted and do [p. 105]