I heard Joseph Smith Jr in a speach to the mormon troops say, That he did not care any thing about the coming of the troops, nor about the laws, that he had tried to please them— If they lived together it wouldn't please them.— if they scattered it wouldn't please them & that he did not intend to try to keep the laws or to please them any longer. that they were an damned se[c]t, and God should damn them, so help him Jesus Christ.— That he meant to go on then as he had begun, and take his own course, and kill & destroy— and told the men to fight like angles [angels]. that heretofore he had told them to fight like devils, but now told them to fight like angles, that angles could whip devils.— I think in this speach it was that he said that what they lacked in number the Lord would make up by sending angles, and send two angles where they lacked one man. He swore considerably and observed that they might consider think that he was swearing, but that God Almighty would not take notice of him in cursing such a damned set as they were. He further stated that they pretended to come out as militia, but that they were all a damned set of mobs.— He stated at that or some other time that as they had commenced consecrating in county, that he intended to have the surrounding counties consecrated to him, that the time had come when the riches of the Gentiles should be consecrated to the saints— Of the prisoners While the last expedition was in progress in — A portion of the troops returned to , to whom & to the people assembled I understoon had read a letter from Jos Smith Jr— I asked him to read it to me, which he did, and it was as near as I can recollect as follows That the enemy was delivered into their hands, and that they need not [p. [34]]