[Footnote D: Ether 12:27.]
[Footnote E: Rom. 14:4.]
The charge of idleness comes with a bad grace from the slave-holders of Missouri. Especially so since the charge is made against people chiefly from New England; who, whatever other faults they may possess, can never be truthfully charged with idleness. In addition to the saints who settled in Missouri having been trained from childhood to habits of industry in their former homes, they had received an express command from God to labor, and the idler was not to eat the bread nor wear the garment of the laborer,[F] and unless the idler repented, he was to be cast out of The Church.[G]
[Foonote F: Doc. & Cov. Sec. 42:42.]
[Footnote G: Ibid, Sec. 75:28.]
The saints in Missouri, it is true, claimed to receive revelations from God through the Prophet Joseph Smith; and they also enjoyed the gifts of tongues, and of healing the sick through the anointing with oil and the prayer of faith, in fulfillment of the promises of the Lord;[H] but how all this can be "derogatory of God and true religion," when these blessings of revelation and the enjoyment of the spiritual gifts enumerated are the same as those that were possessed by the primitive Christians, which they were encouraged to "desire," [I] and have ever been regarded as a crowning glory of the early Church; or how they could be "subversive of human reason," can only be comprehended by a Missouri mob, seeking a vain excuse for the destruction of an unoffending people.
[Footnote H: St. James 5:14, 15.]
[Footnote I: 1 Cor. 14:1.]
The charge of sowing dissensions and inspiring seditions among the slaves, and inviting free people of color to settle in Jackson County, has no foundation in truth. The July number of the Evening and Morning Star, for 1833, contains an article on "Free People of Color," and publishes the laws of Missouri relating to that class of people. "Free people of color" were negroes or mulattoes who were set free through the kindness of their masters, or who, by working extra hours, for which they were sometimes allowed pay, were able at last to purchase their liberty. Concerning such people the Missouri laws provided that: If any negro or mulatto come into the State of Missouri, without a certificate from a court of record in some one of the United States, evidencing that he was a citizen of such State, on complaint before any justice of the peace, such negro or mulatto could be commanded by the justice to leave the State; and if the colored person so ordered did not leave the State within thirty days, on complaint of any citizen, such person could be again brought before the justice who might commit him to the common jail of the county, until the convening of the circuit court, when it became the duty of the judge of the circuit court to inquire into the cause of commitment; and if it was found that the negro or mulatto had remained in the State contrary to the provisions of this statute, the court was authorized to sentence such person to receive ten lashes on his or her bare back, and then order him or her to depart from the State; if the person so treated should still refuse to go, then the same proceedings were to be repeated, and punishment inflicted as often as was necessary until such person departed.
And further: If any person brought into the State of Missouri a free negro or mulatto, without the aforesaid certificate of citizenship, for every such negro or mulatto the person offending was liable to a forfeit of five hundred dollars; to be recovered by action of debt in the name of the State. The editor of the Star commenting upon this law said: