Letter—Joseph Smith to John Smith—The Latter Appointed a Patriarch.
President John Smith:—The petition of a special conference at Macedonia of last November for your appointment as Patriarch in the Church has been received, duly considered, and is granted. You have my best wishes in your behalf, as well as my prayers, that you may fill so honorable and exalted a station with the dignity, sobriety, and grace which has hitherto characterized your conduct and communion with men, as a man of God.
Respectfully yours,
JOSEPH SMITH.
At ten, a.m., attended City Council, which passed an ordinance exempting all church property from city tax.
In accordance with the petitions from the several wards, the council passed the following:—"An ordinance for selecting forty policemen and for other purposes.
Ordinance Enlarging Police Force.
"Section 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo that the Mayor of said city be, and is hereby authorized to select and have in readiness for every emergency forty policemen, to be at his disposal in maintaining the peace and dignity of the citizens, and enforcing the ordinances of the said city, for ferreting out thieves and bringing them to justice, and to act as daily and nightly watchmen, and be under the pay of said city."
Passed December 12, 1843.
JOSEPH SMITH, Mayor.
W. RICHARDS, Recorder.
The Council also passed "An ordinance for the health and convenience of travelers and other persons."
Ordinance on the Personal Sale of Liquors.
Section 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of Nauvoo, that the Mayor of the city be and is hereby authorized to sell or give spirits of any quantity as he in his wisdom shall judge to be for the health and comfort, or convenience of such travelers or other persons as shall visit his house from time to time.
Passed December 12, 1843.
JOSEPH SMITH, Mayor.
WILLARD RICHARDS, Recorder.
Wednesday, 13.—At home.
I insert an editorial from the Neighbor:—
PUBLIC MEETING AT NAUVOO—THE AGGRESSIONS OF MISSOURI.
It will be seen in another column that a public meeting was held in this place for the purpose of providing some remedy for the repeated aggressions of the State of Missouri; since which time an ordinance has been passed by the City Council to carry into effect that object, and to prevent the citizens of this place from being any longer imposed upon by the continued illegal proceedings of the state and citizens of Missouri.
We think that it is high time that something should be done to screen ourselves from the continued aggressions of the meddling, troublesome, bloodthirsty herd; and we know of no means that will be more efficient and lawful than the one adopted.
We have done good for evil long enough, in all conscience. We think that we have fulfilled the Scriptures every whit. They have smitten us on the one cheek, and we have turned the other, and they have smitten that also.
We have also fulfilled the law, and more than fulfilled it. And for sake of peace, when we knew that we had violated no law, nor in anywise subjected ourselves to persecutions, we have endured the wrong patiently, without offering violence or in anywise injuring the heartless wretches who could be trusted with such a dishonorable document. Those vagabonds have been suffered to prowl at large, and boast of their inglorious deeds in our midst; and no man has injured them, or said, Why do you so?
The time, however, is now gone by for this mode of proceeding, and those vagabonds must keep within their own borders and let peaceable citizens alone, or receive the due merit of their crimes. We think that this ordinance passed by the City Council is wise, judicious, and well-timed, and is well calculated to protect peaceable citizens in their rights, and to prevent those lawless vagabonds from interfering with the rights of peaceable citizens.
To those unacquainted with our relationship to Missouri, and the accumulated wrongs and repeated aggressions that we have received from the hands of that State, our language may appear harsh and ill timed; but those who are in possession of those facts know better. Their merciless, unrelenting, inhuman prosecutions and persecutions, from the time of our first settlement in that state until the present, have been wholly and entirely unprovoked and without the shadow of law.
Joseph Smith has been suffered to be taken time and again by them; we say suffered, because he could not be legally and constitutionally taken, Joseph Smith never committed the crimes of which he is charged. He is an innocent man.
But allowing their false, diabolical accusations to be true, what then? Does it follow that he is continually to be followed for the same offense? Verily no. The Constitution of the United States expressly says—"Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." And yet we find that the State of Missouri has put Joseph Smith in jeopardy no less than four or five times. He was tried once by a military tribunal in Missouri, and sentenced to be shot. He was afterwards tried by a pretended civil (mobocratic) court; and since then he has been several times apprehended, tried, and acquitted for the same offense, in this State, by Missouri requisitions.
Is he still illegally and unconstitutionally to be held in abeyance by these miscreants? or shall we as freeborn American citizens, assert our rights, put the law in force upon those lawless, prowling vagabonds and say that he shall be free?
Shall we suffer our pockets to be picked through the influence of these scoundrels eternally, by defending ourselves against vexatious lawsuits? or shall we take a more summary way, and by a legal course punish the aggressors, proclaim our freedom, and shield ourselves under the broad folds of the Constitution? The latter is the course for us to pursue.
The ordinance passed by the City Council will secure this object; and we are glad to find that the opinion of J. Lamborn, attorney general, and J. N. McDougall, correspond so much with our own—"That the Nauvoo Legion is an independent military organization, and is by law expressly required to sustain the municipal laws of Nauvoo.
What are we to say about these kidnappers who infest our borders and carry away our citizens—those infernals in human shape?
The whole European world has been engaged in a warfare against those who traffic in human blood. Negotiations have been made, treaties entered into, and fleets have been sent out, through the combined efforts of the nations, to put a stop to this inhuman traffic. But what would those nations think, if they were told the fact that in America—Republican America, the boasted cradle of liberty and land of freedom,—that those dealers in human flesh and blood, negro dealers and drivers, are allowed with impunity to steal white men, and those sons of liberty can obtain no redress.
Great God! has it come to this, that freeborn American citizens must be kidnapped by negro drivers? What are our authorities doing! Why are not these wretches brought to justice? We have heard that one or two of the citizens of Illinois have been engaged in assisting these wretches. We shall try to find out who they are and their whereabouts and make them known; and then, if they are not brought to condign punishment, we shall say that justice has fled from Illinois."
Thursday, 14.—At home.