The captain of the steamer Osprey called upon me.
Charge of Threats Against Foster's Life.
About 11 p.m. a negro came into my office with an open letter, without any date or name, and said that Dr. Foster gave it to him at Madison to give Henry O. Norton. In that letter Foster said that Dunham and Richards swore in my presence that they would kill him (Foster) in two days, and that there was a man in Madison would swear he had heard them say so at my house.
I closed the issuing of orders about 12 at night, ready to retire to rest. Pleasant weather.
To refute the lying slanders of the Warsaw Signal, as published in the proceedings of a meeting held at Carthage an the 13th instant, I insert the following certificate.[[1]]
TO THE PUBLIC.
We, whose names are undersigned, having seen in the Warsaw Signal, containing the proceedings of a meeting held at Carthage on the 13th instant, many statements calculated to arouse the indignation and wrath of the people against the citizens of Nauvoo, do certify that Hyrum Smith did not make any threats, nor offer any reward against the Signal or its editor in the City Council.
John Taylor, George W. Harris, Aaron Johnson, Phinehas Richards, William Boles, Thomas Smith, George P. Stiles, Edward Hunter, W. W. Phelps, Moses F. Clark, Alanson Ripley, Levi Richards, Orson Spencer, Addison Everett, John P. Greene, Philip B. Lewis.
NAUVOO, June 17, 1844.
A Nauvoo Neighbor extra was issued with the following editorial:
TO THE PUBLIC.
As a soft breeze on a hot day mellows the air, so does the simple truth calm the feelings of the irritated; and so we proceed to give the proceedings of the City Council relating to the removal of the Nauvoo Expositor as a nuisance. We have been robbed, mobbed and plundered with impunity some two or three times; and as every heart is more apt to know its own sorrows, the people of Nauvoo had ample reason, when such characters as the proprietors and abettors of the Nauvoo Expositor proved to be before the City Council, to be alarmed for their safety.
The men who got up the press were constantly engaged in resisting the authority or threatening something. If they were fined, an appeal was taken, but the slander went on; and when the paper came, the course and the plan to destroy the city was marked out. The destruction of the city charter and the ruin of the Saints was the all-commanding topic.
Our lives, our city, our charter and our characters are just as sacred, just as dear, and just as good as other people's; and while no friendly arm has been extended from the demolition of our press in Jackson county, Missouri, without law, to this present day, the City Council with all the law of nuisance, from Blackstone down to the Springfield charter, knowing that if they exceeded the law of the land a higher court could regulate the proceedings, abated the Nauvoo Expositor.
The proceedings of the Council show, as sketched out, that there was cause for alarm. The people, when they reflect, will at once say that the feelings and rights of men ought to be respected. All persons otherwise, who, without recourse to justice, mercy or humanity, come out with inflammatory publications, destructive resolutions, or more especially extermination, show a want of feeling a want of respect and a want of religious toleration that honorable men will deprecate among Americans as they would the pestilence, famine, or horrors of war. It cannot be that the people are so lost to virtue as to coolly go to murdering men, women and children. No; candor and common sense forbid it!
Dr. Richards and Thomas Bullock sat up all last night writing the proceedings of the City Council for the press.
Tuesday, 18.—At 8 a.m. the Legion assembled according to orders, and organized at 9 a.m., under Acting Major-General Jonathan Dunham. The first cohort under the command of Colonel Stephen Markham, acting Brigadier-General, and the second cohort under Colonel Hosea Stout, acting Brigadier-General.