138 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
During these trying times the prophet was moving about among his people, doing everything in his power to protect and encourage them. Late in Septem- ber he was in the southern part of Caldwell county, whence in October he passed into Carroll county, where he soon found himself hemmed in by an en- raged populace. He appealed to the people, he ap- plied to the governor, but all to no purpose. After- ward he went to Daviess county, and then back to Far West, where he was arrested and incarcerated with the others. Shortly afterward the prisoners, now
declared to be forever unalterable except by common consent, reads as fol- lows, to wit : No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly man- ner shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments in said territory. These principles I trust will ever be adhered to in the territory of Iowa. They make no distinction between religious sects. They extend equal privileges and protection to all; each must rest u^jon its own merits and will prosper in proportion to the purity of its prin- ciples, and the fruit of holiness and piety produced thereby. With regard to the peculiar people mentioned in your letter, I know but little. They had a community in the northern part of Ohio for several years, and I have no rec- ollection of ever having heard in that state of any complaint against them of violating the laws of the country. Their religious opinions I conceive have nothing to do with our political transactions. They aro citizens of the United States, and are entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that other citizens are entitled to. The foregoing are briefly my views on the sub- ject of your inquiries.'
In a memorial sent to Washington in the autumn of 1839, it was claimed by the Mormons that their property destroyed in Jackson co. was worth $120,000; that 12,000 souls were banished; that they purchased and improved lands in Clay co. , and in three years were obliged to leave there with heavy loss; that they then purchased and improved lands in Daviess and Carroll counties; that for the most part these counties were wild and uncultivated; that they had converted them into large and well improved farms, well stocked, which were rapidly advancing in cultivation and wealth; and that they were finally compelled to fly from these counties. In a petition pre- sented by Sidney Pagdou to the state of Pennsylvania, it is stated that 'Lil- burn Boggs, governor of the state, used his executive influence to have us all massacred or driven into exile; and all this because we were not lawless and disobedient. For if the laws had given them a sufiicient guaranty against the evils complained of. . .then would they have had recourse to the laws. If we had been transgressors of laws, our houses would not have been rifled, our women ravished, our farms desolated, and our goods and chattels destroyed, our men killed, our wives and children driven into the prairies, and made to suS'er all the indignities that the most brutal barbarity could inflict; but would only have had to suff"er that which the laws would inflict, which were founded in justice, framed in righteousness, and administered in humanity. . . Why, then, all this cruelty ? Answer : because the people had violated no law; and they could not be restrained by law, nor prevented from exercising the rights according to the laws, enjoyed, and had a right to be protected in, in any state of the Union. ' Mr Corrill remarks : ' My opinion is, that if the Mormons had been let alone by the citizens, they would have divided and subdivided, so as to have completely destroyed themselves and their power as a people in a short time. '
