him, or his brother Oliver, about 160 acres of land, to pay a note, which he said I had given to Oliver, for 165 dollars. Such a note I confess I was, and still am, entirely ignorant of; and after mature consideration, I have to say, that I believe it must be a forgery.

"These circumstances, with the afflicting situation of my family, served greatly to heighten my grief; indeed, it was almost more than I could bear up under. I traversed my prison-house for hours, thinking of their cruelty to my family, and the afflictions they brought upon the Saints of the Most High. They forcibly reminded me of the children of Edom, when the Jews were destroyed by their enemies; and the language of the prophet Obadiah to Edom is, I think, so very much in point, that I cannot refrain from inserting it :

"For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

"In the day thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast' lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

"But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

"Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldst not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. Neither shouldst thou have stood in the crossway, to cut, off those of his that did escape; neither shouldst thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the city of distress.'

"After being in the hands of our enemies for about six months, the time of our deliverance at length arrived. You may judge what my feelings were when I escaped from those whose feet were fast to shed blood, and when I was again privileged to see my beloved family, who had suffered so many privations and afflictions, not only while in Far West, but likewise in moving away in that inclement season of the year.

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Thus, I have endeavoured to give you a short account of my sufferings while in the state of Missouri; but how inadequate is language to express the feelings of my mind while under them, knowing that I was innocent of crime, and that I had been dragged from my family at a time when my assistance was most needed; that I had been abused and thrust into a dungeon, and confined for months on account of my faith, and the testimony of Jesus Christ.' However, I thank God that I felt a determination to die rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled, and which I

had borne testimony to, wherever my lot had been cast; and I can assure my beloved brethren, that I was enabled to bear as strong a testimony when nothing but death presented itself as ever I did in my life. My confidence in God was likewise unshaken. I knew that He who suffered me, along with my brethren, to be thus tried, could, and would, deliver us out of the hands of our enemies; and in His own due time He did so, for which I desire to bless and praise His holy

name.

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"From my close and long confinement, as well as from the sufferings of my mind, I feel my body greatly broken down and debilitated, my frame has received a shock from which it will take a long time to recover. Yet, I am happy to say that my zeal for the cause of God, and my courage in defence of the truth, are as great as ever. My heart is fixed;' and I yet feel a determination to do the will of God, in spite of persecutions, imprisonments, or death. I can say with Paul, None of these things move me, so that I may finish my course with joy.'

"Your brother in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, "HYRUM SMITH."

"Dec. 1839."

A document of still more interest was issued by the two brothers while in prison, and signed by them and three other members of the church. The unflinching courage of Joseph while surrounded with difficulties and perils of no ordinary kind, and his firm reliance upon the ultimate triumph of his doctrine, compel admiration, and would almost justify the supposition, that he had taught his imposture so long, and lived so thoroughly in it, by it, and with it, as to have ended by believing it. The document ran as follows::

"Liberty Jail, Clay Co., Missouri. "To Bishop Partridge, and to the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints, in Quincy, Illinois, and to those scattered abroad, throughout all the regions round about.

"Your humble servant Joseph Smith, jr., prisoner for Christ's sake, and the Saints, taken and held by the power of mobocracy under the exterminating reign of his excellency Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, in company with his fellow-prisoners and beloved brethren, Caleb Baldwin, Lyman Wight, Hyrum Smith, and Alexander McRae, send unto you greeting: May the grace of God the Father, and the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, rest upon you all, and abide with you for ever; and may faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity, dwell in you and abound, so that you may not be barren and unfruitful.

"We know, that the greater part of you are acquainted with the wrongs, high-toned injustice, and cruelty which are practised upon us ; we have been taken prisoners, charged falsely with all kind of crimes, and thrown into a prison enclosed with strong walls, and are surrounded with a strong guard who are as indefatigable in watching us, as their master is in laying snares for the people of God. Therefore, under these circumstances, dearly beloved brethren, we are the more ready to claim your fellowship and love. Our situation is cal

culated to awaken our minds to a sacred remembrance of your affection and kindness; and we think that your situation will have the same effect; therefore, we believe, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and our fellowship one with another; and that every species of wickedness and cruelty practised upon us, will only tend to bind our hearts and seal them together in love.

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It is probably as unnessary for us to say, that we are thus treated and held in bonds without cause, as it would be for you to say, that you were smitten and driven from your homes without any provocation; we mutually understand and verily know, that if the citizens of the State of Missouri had not 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 compelled to hear nothing but oaths and curses, and witness scenes of drunkenness and debaucheries of every description ; neither would the cries of orphans and widows 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 hate peace ; and who delight 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, and that women should 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, have committed no crime, and who are an innocent and virtuous people; and who 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.'

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"O God! where art 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 controlleth and subjecteth the devil and the dark and benighted dominions of Satan, 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.

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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 there 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 grievous 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 Elder Rigdon got a writ of habeas corpus, 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 tantalized 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 favour, and the majority is now friendly, and the lawyers can no longer browbeat us by saying, that this or that is a matter of public opinion, for public opinion is not willing to brook all their proceedings, but is beginning to look

with feelings of indignation upon our oppressors. We think that truth, honour, virtue, and innocence, will eventually come out triumphant.

"We should have taken out a writ of habeas corpus, and escaped the mob in a summary way, but unfortunately for us, the timber of the wall being very hard, our auger handles gave out, which hindered us longer than we expected. We applied to a friend for assistance, and a very slight uncautious act gave rise to suspicion, and before we could fully succeed, our plan was discovered. We should have made our escape, and succeeded admirably well, had it not been for a little imprudence, or over anxiety on the part of our friend.

"The sheriff and jailor did not blame us for our attempt; it was a fine breach, and cost the county a round sum; public opinion says we ought to have been permitted to have made our escape, but then the disgrace would have been on us, but now it must come on the State. We know that there cannot be any charge sustained against us, and that the conduct of the mob-the murders at Haun's Mill, the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, and the one-sided, rascally proceedings of the Legislature, have damned the State of Missouri to all eternity. General Atchison has proved himself to be as contemptible as any of our enemies. We have tried a long time to get our lawyers to draw us some petitions to the supreme judges of this State, but they have utterly refused; we have examined the laws, and drawn the petitions ourselves, and have obtained abundance of proof to counteract all the testimony that is against us, so that if the judges do not grant us our liberty they have got to act contrary to honour, evidence, law, or justice, merely to please the mob; but we hope better things, and trust that before many days, God will so order our case, that we shall be set at liberty, and again enjoy the society of the Saints. We received some letters from our friends, last evening, one from Emma, one from D. C. Smith, and one from Bishop Partridge, all breathing a kind and consoling spirit; we had been a long time without information from our friends, and when we read those letters they were refreshing to our souls, as the gentle air and refreshing breeze; but our feelings of joy were mingled with feelings of pain and sorrow on account of the sufferings of the poor and much injured Saints, and we need not say unto you that the flood-gates of our hearts were open, and our eyes were a fountain of tears. Those who have not been inclosed in the walls of a prison, without cause or provocation, can have but little idea how sweet the voice of a friend or one token of friendship is, from any source whatever, and awakens and calls into action every sympathetic feeling of the human heart; it brings to review everything that has passed, it seizes the present with the velocity of