Liberty, December 6, 1833.

Dear Sir:—Your Excellency will perceive by the petition, bearing date with this letter, that we intend to return to Jackson county as soon as arrangements can be made to protect us after we are reinstated in our possessions.

We do not wish to go till we know that our lives are not in danger from a lawless mob. Your Excellency will understand that at this inclement season it will require time to restore us, and troops to protect us after we are there, for the threats of the mob have not ceased.

Your obedient servant,

W. W. Phelps.

To Daniel Dunklin, Governor of Missouri.

Footnotes

[1]. The slight discrepancies which the Prophet notes between the report of Elder Hyde and the communications of W. W. Phelps lie chiefly from the inaccuracy of the reports current at that time. It will be seen that they are not very important, but doubtless on account of the anxiety of the Prophet and brethren at Kirtland, seemed so at the time, and at any rate were somewhat confusing.

Chapter XXXIII.

The Prophet's Sympathy for the Exiled Saints—Reasons for Their Expulsion from Zion.

A Letter from the Prophet Joseph Smith to the Exiled Saints in Missouri.[[1]]

Kirtland Mills, Ohio,

December 10, 1833.