At a large meeting of the citizens of , convened at the stand, on the 14th day of Jan., 1845; , Mayor of the , was called to the chair, and appointed secretary; and , , , , and , were appointed a committee, to draft a preamble and resolutions, expressive of the sense of this meeting on the proceedings of the city council, and for the action of this meeting, The committee retired and in a short time, returned the following, which were adopted unanimously:

Whereas, The city council of the city of , have presented to this meeting, a preamble and sundry resolutions setting forth the fact, that enemies to the people of this , and as we believe, enemies to the common welfare of the people of this , are attempting to get up an extensive popular excitement, prejudicial to this people and the country at large; and whereas, said resolutions set forth an unqualified reprobation of all unlawful and villainous conduct whether under the false color of Mormonism, or the real guise of mobbers, blacklegs, bogus makers, thieves, wolf-hunters, or murderers; therefore, we hereby express our perfect concurrence in the said preamble and resolutions.

And whereas, The Warsaw Signal, the Alton Telegraph, and the Quincy Whig, have been, as we believe industriously engaged in circulating falsehood; disseminating discord, and the principles of mobocracy; and whereas, Mormon extermination, pillage, robbery, and murder, have received both countenance and apology in these scurrilous prints, as we be[l]ive; and whereas, the pen of murderers as we believe, has occupied the columns of these papers in order to deafend the cries of innocent blood that ascends to heaven for vengeance; and whereas, a large share of the theft spoken of and blazed through the land, are wh[o]lly without existence when traced out, as appears not only from the instance recorded in the ’s Message concerning horse stealing, but from other similar instances, too numerous to mention; and whereas, it has been zealously reported, that much stolen goods could be traced to , and that no citizen could enter our to search for thieves, and stolen goods, because the thief and goods would be screened from detection by the Mormon fraternity, and the person in search would be in jeopardy of his life; and whereas, thieves and counterfeiters have in some instances fled to our , either under the mistaken apprehension that we would screen them, or from a malignant design to palm upon us their own crimes, and thereby draw us under the lash of persecution. And whereas, it can be proved that individuals, in order to swell the list of Mormon depredations, have reported property to be stolen, which at another time they have acknowledged, they sold the same property and received pay.

And whereas, bee yards have been robbed, the hives left at the Mormons doors, to palm the theft upon us, when the honey has been found in the houses of our enemies; and whereas, an inumerable number of such infamous tricks have been played upon us, by our enemies, as we believe, for the purpose of blackening our character in the eyes of honest men; and whereas, our is nightly infested with a set of outlandish men, who, we believe, visit us for no good purpose, who do not appear to have any lawful business, but rather as we believe, are endeavoring to scatter amongst us, their bogus and counterfeits, prostitute the virtue of the place, deposit stolen goods, or steal from us, and by every means in their power, sow the seeds of discord, strife, confusion, mobocracy, and murder, that in the end, they may uproot our beautiful ; and whereas, that in some instances, when the ministers of justice, have visited our , at the dark hour of midnight, for the purpose of making legal arrests, as they say; we believe what is reported to us, that they have employed runners to steal the saddles and bridles from their own horses, while in our , for the purpose of damning us in the eyes of the community.

And whereas, the of this , after a second and protracted visit to this , and much pains taken to investigate the charge of promiscuous stealing, reports to the Legislature as follows:

And whereas, The printing office of our open and avowed enemy, , was set on fire, in this by himself, or by his instruction as we believe, to fan the flame of mobocracy, which fire was only prevented by our vigilant police.

And whereas, we fimly believe, that our enemies in this , have several times attempted to fire their own buildings and have only been prevented by the diligence of our officers.

Therefore, be it resolved, unanimously. That we will use all lawful means in our power to assist the public to prevent stealing and bogus making, and bring the offenders to justice.

Resolved, that to prevent further depredations in our , by lawless desperadoes from abroad, we approve the raising of 500 Police by this .

Resolved, unanimously, That we invite all honest men to watch closely their property, and arrest all thieves; and if they shall catch a thief in the act of stealing, challenge him to stand, and if he refuses so to do, and flees, so far as the Mormons are concerned, we will be satisfied if the owners of the property shall speedily send after him a writ of sealed with lead to arrest his progress, but after all, should the thief prove to be a mobocrat, alas! alas!! O what a pity!

Resolved, unanimously, That 50 delegates be sent to the surrounding country to inform the people of the designs of our enemies now concocting in their secret and public meetings, so that the honest part of the community, may unite with us, to prevent stealing and secure peace.

Resolved, That these proceedings be published in the papers at , with a request that other papers copy them.

, Sec’y. [p. [3]]