Affidavit: Alvah Tippetts—Violence of John Williams Upon.

STATE OF ILLINOIS,

HANCOCK COUNTY. ss

CITY OF NAUVOO. June 20th, 1844.

Personally appeared before me, Aaron Johnson, a justice of the peace in and for the said county, Alvah Tippetts, of Warsaw, in Hancock county and state aforesaid; and being first duly sworn, deposeth and saith that on Wednesday, June 12th, at Green Plains, one Col. Levi Williams came to your deponent about sunrise, and ordered me out of the house that very day.

I replied he was very hasty. He again ordered me out of the house, and said, if I spoke a word, he would put me out of the house immediately.

I then took away part of my goods and left the house accordingly, because I was afraid to stay there another night.

The next day I went back after the remainder of my property, and called at the house of Col. Levi Williams for some things belonging to me.

When I arrived there John Williams, the son of said Levi Williams, aged about twenty-eight years, abused me for placing confidence in Joseph Smith and the people of Nauvoo. He then took me by the back of my neck and pushed me away, and said he would not have such stuff in his house. The second time he pushed me by the neck, and his foot to my back. He pushed me several times and kicked me. Again, when in the street, he kept kicking and pushing me, and abusing me with his tongue. I am sixty-one years old. I did not say anything to him to cause this abuse; but it was all on account of my believing that Joseph Smith and the people of Nauvoo would do nothing but what was according to law.

ALVAH TIPPETTS.

[Seal]

Subscribed and sworn to this 20th day of June, 1844, before me,

AARON JOHNSON, J. P.

Reinforcement for Nauvoo from Ramus.

I had sent orders to Captain Almon W. Babbitt, commander of the company at Ramus, to come immediately with his company to Nauvoo, and help to defend the place; and this morning my brother-in-law, William McLeary, informs my that when the letter was read to the company, Babbitt refused to come, and said it was a foolish move, and objected to any of the company coming. The company was marshaled into line, when Babbitt said, "If any of you go, not one will ever get to Nauvoo alive," when immediately my Uncle John Smith stepped in front of the line and said, "Every man that goes at the call of the Prophet shall go and return safe, and not a hair of his head shall be lost; and I bless you in the name of the Lord."

The company immediately threw the command upon Uriah B. Yager, who accepted of it, and started for Nauvoo, although many of them were destitute of boots or shoes. The company had not traveled five miles before they suddenly came upon double their number of the mob, who had two red flags flying, and who had paraded their company and taken a position in a wood that commanded the road. The company from Macedonia opened file about ten feet apart and marched past them within rifle shot, while the mob fired several guns at them, the balls whizzing past their heads. They came here at daybreak this morning, and I directed the quartermaster to furnish those who needed with shoes.

I wrote the following letter:

Letter: Joseph Smith to Ballantyne and Slater—Advice on moving into Nauvoo.

NAUVOO, June 20th, 1844.

BROTHERS BALLANTYNE AND SLATER:—On information from you by J. McIllrick, I would advise that your families remain where they are and be quiet, as the mob will not be likely to disturb them; but any amount of wheat or provisions you may have you had better remove without delay to Nauvoo, as it will be better for you to bring it here and have your pay than to leave it for the mob to consume and destroy.

I remain your brother in Christ Jesus,

JOSEPH SMITH.

BALLANTYNE AND SLATER, Doyles Mills, near Plymouth, Ill.

I here insert the affidavit of John P. Greene and John M. Bernhisel:

Affidavit: Greene and Bernhisel—Threatened Invasion from Missouri.

STATE OF ILLINOIS,

COUNTY OF HANCOCK, ss.

CITY OF NAUVOO.

On the 20th day of June, 1844, personally appeared before me, Aaron Johnson, a justice of the peace within and for said county, John P. Greene, marshal of said city, and John M. Bernhisel; and after being duly sworn, depose and say that a body of citizens, in a mass meeting convened on the 13th instant at Carthage, resolved to exterminate the Latter-day Saints of the said city of Nauvoo, and for that purpose, according to the purport of the Warsaw Signal extra, dated June 14, 1844, bodies of armed men are coming from the State of Missouri, and also from the territory of Iowa, and the cannon and ammunition are being transported from the state of Missouri to Illinois for the purpose of utterly exterminating the Latter-day Saints. And your affiants would further state that these bodies of armed men, cannon, arms, and munitions of war are transported in steamboats navigating the waters of the United States, and that the name of one of these boats is the Die Vernon.

JOHN P. GREENE,

JOHN M. BERNHISEL.

[Seal]

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 20th day of June, 1844.

AARON JOHNSON, J. P.

Dr. Richards wrote the following:

Letter: Willard Richards to Jas Arlington Bennett—Affairs in Nauvoo—Western Movement.

MAYOR'S OFFICE, NAUVOO, June 20th, 1844.

DEAR GENERAL.—Yours of the 14th of April was received at a late date. A multiplicity of business on account of the peculiar state of affairs, has prevented a reply till now. Your views about the nomination of General Smith for the Presidency are correct. We will gain popularity and external influence. But this is not all: we mean to elect him, and nothing shall be wanting on our part to accomplish it; and why? Because we are satisfied, fully satisfied, that this is the best or only method of saving our free institutions from a total overthrow.

You will discover by this day's extra Nauvoo Neighbor, and previous papers which I shall forward with this, that we are already being surrounded by an armed mob; and, if we can believe a hundredth part of their statements we have no alternative but to fight or die. All the horrors of Missouri's murders are crowding thick upon us, and the citizens of this county declare in mass-meetings, "No peace till the Mormons are utterly exterminated from the earth." And for what?

A band of thieves, counterfeiters, bogus-makers, gamblers, debauchers, murderers, and all that is vile, established a printing-press in this city for the purpose of carrying on all their hellish plans and overthrowing every principle of righteousness; and after publishing one number, called the Nauvoo Expositor, filled on every column with lies and libel the most dark and damnable it were possible for men or demons on the earth or in the shades of Gehenna, calculated to destroy every chartered right to our peaceful city, and constitutional principles to our nation, being destitute of every vestige of truth, and without one redeeming quality, either in the paper or the characters of its publishers.

The City Council, on the 10th instant, ordered the press and fixtures to be abated as a nuisance which order was executed by the proper authorities without delay, without noise, tumult or confusion.

The proprietors immediately evacuated their houses and the city, and the night following fired one or more of their buildings, just as they did in Missouri, thinking to raise a hue-and-cry that the Mormons had done it, and by that means bring a mob on us without a moment's delay; but our vigilant police discovered the fire and abated that also.

Chagrined at their disappointment, and drunk with madness, they next went to Carthage, the county seat and headquarters of mobocracy, and swore that Joseph and about seventeen others had committed a riot, and sent a warrant for their apprehension. They offered to go before any magistrate in the vicinity and answer to the charge. The officer would not consent, but would take them to Carthage. They had threatened their lives at Carthage and did not consider it safe to go thither, and prayed out a writ of habeas corpus from the Municipal Court, and were set free.

This only enraged the mob the more, and another writ was issued by a county magistrate in the vicinity, not a Mormon, before whom they were brought, and every exertion made to convict them, but the magistrate discharged them.

This does not satisfy them. They are determined to have "Joe Smith," brought before themselves for trial at the headquarters of mobocracy swearing that all they want is to get him out of the city; and they will shoot the "damned rascal."

Cannon, ammunition and men are passing over the Mississippi from Missouri to Illinois, and the mob is collected by hundreds at different points in the county swearing everlasting vengeance; and when their oaths and writs will end, God knows.

We have sent messengers to the Governor, but had no returns, and shall dispatch messages to the President of the United States next boat.

If the virtuous part of the community, the state, the nation, will come to the rescue of innocence and the rights our fathers bled to purchase, that our peace and happiness may be secured to us in common with others, it is all we ask; but if they will not, and the mob goes on, we say a dishonorable life is worse than an honorable death, and we are ready for the onset; and we call upon all patriots, far and near, to lend a helping hand to put down the mob and restore peace.

If this is not done immediately, and the mob attempt to execute their threats, you may soon have the opportunity of beholding that glorious "vision in the west" you have sublimely contemplated in your letter.

I write you at this time at the request of the Prophet, and I invite you to come to our assistance with as many volunteers as you can bring. And if the mob cannot be dispersed, and the Government will not espouse our righteous cause, you may soon, very soon, behold the second birth of our nation's freedom; for live without the free exercise of thought, and the privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of our consciences, we will not! We will die rather, and go where the wicked cease to trouble. But we firmly believe there are virtuous men and patriots enough yet left to sustain those principles which alone are worth living for. Will you come?

Here is Oregon. Here is California. Where is your ambition? Patriotism? Your "separate and independent empire," if you sit calmly still and see the most virtuous and noble people that ever trod upon the footstool of Jehovah ground to powder by a miscreant mob and not stretch forth your potent arm for their defense in all the majesty of a God? If you do not, your turn may come next; and where will it cease?

Let the first blow be struck upon us from this hour, and this field is open for every honest patriot from the east to the west sea, and from the river Mississippi to the ends of the earth.

General, will you stand neutral? Come, and you will know for yourself.

I close in haste, with good wishes to yourself and family.

W. RICHARDS.

GENERAL J. A. BENNETT,

Arlington House, N. Y.