Friday, 21.—I was about home.
Saturday, 22.—I went out early in the morning, returned to breakfast at half past seven, and took an airing on horseback at nine in the morning.
Petition of the Saints of De Witt to Governor Boggs.
De Witt, Carroll County, State Of Missouri,
September 22, 1838.
To his Excellency Lilburn W. Boggs, Governor of the State of Missouri:
Your Petitioners, citizens of the county of Carroll, do hereby petition your Excellency, praying for relief: That whereas, your petitioners have on the 20th instant, been sorely aggrieved, by being beset by a lawless mob, certain inhabitants of this and other counties, to the injury of the good citizens of this and the adjacent places; that on the aforesaid day, there came from one hundred to one hundred and fifty armed men, and threatened with force and violence, to drive certain peaceable citizens from their homes, in defiance of all law, and threatened then to drive said citizens out of the county, but, on deliberation, concluded to give them, said citizens, till the first of October next, to leave said county; and threatened, if not gone by that time, to exterminate them, without regard to age or sex, and destroy their chattels, by throwing them into the river. We therefore pray you to take such steps as shall put a stop to all lawless proceeding; and we, your Petitioners, will ever pray, &c.
Benj. Kendrick.
Dudley Thomas,
John Tillford,
H. G. Sherwood,
Jno. Kendrick,
Thos. Dehart,
Francis Brown,
Albert Loree,
Samuel Lake,
Asa Manchester,
Wm. Winston,
John Clark,
Tho. Hollingshead,
Asa W. Barnes,
Elijah T. Rogers,
John Dougherty,
Moses Harris,
Perry Thayer,
B. B. Bartley,
Jonathan Harris,
Wm. J. Hatfield,
Oliver Olney,
John Thorp,
H. T. Chipman,
David Dixon,
Benj. Hensley,
John Murdock,
G. M. Hinkle,
James Valance,
Jabez Lake,
H. M. Wallace,
D. Thomas, (non-Mormon),
Nathan Harrison,
Elizabeth Smith,
Henry Root,
A. L. Caldwell,
Rufus Allen,
Ezekiel Barnes,
D. H. Barnes,
Wm. S. Smith,
James Hampton,
Robert Hampton,
Jonathan Hampton,
George Peacock,
Daniel Clark,
John Proctor,
James McGuin,
Smith Humphrey,
Franklin N. Thayer.
Sunday, 23.—I attended meeting both forenoon and afternoon, and was at home in the evening.
Monday, 24.—I was at home until half-past eight a. m., when I rode out on horseback, and returned about five in the evening.
The governor, having heard that peace had been restored in Daviess and Caldwell counties, ordered Generals Clark, Crowther, Lewis, and Bolton to discharge their troops. The order was dated at Jonesborough.
General Parks' Report to Governor Boggs.
Tuesday, 25.—General Parks wrote the governor from Mill Port, that he had been in the upper part of Daviess county to assist the constable in bringing offenders to justice, and that the major-general, with the troops from Ray and Clay counties on the 18th instant, (except two companies from Ray under his command) were disbanded. In this letter General Parks said:
Whatever may have been the disposition of the people called Mormons, before our arrival here, since we have made our appearance they have shown no disposition to resist the laws, or of hostile intentions. There has been so much prejudice and exaggeration concerned in this matter, that I found things entirely different from what I was prepared to expect. When we arrived here, we found a large body of men from the counties adjoining, armed and in the field, for the purpose, as I learned, of assisting the people of this county against the Mormons, without being called out by the proper authorities.
P. S.—Since writing the above, I received information that if the committee do not agree,[[2]] the determination of the Daviess county men is to drive the Mormons with powder and lead.
The same day, General Parks wrote General Atchison as follows: