"In vain may the press in Missouri protest against these representations. In vain may we declare that Rigdon and his followers were doing injustice, misrepresenting and slandering our people, their institutions and officers, etc., the public abroad will judge us by the course of our Legislature. We have made our bed and must lie down on it.
"A friend, residing in Lafayette County, a few days since called our attention to reports in circulation in New York seriously affecting the character of the State, growing out of this subject, and requesting us to contradict them. Most cheerfully would we undertake the task, but we know it is hopeless."
The following is from the New York Sun. After giving some extracts from St. Louis papers, showing the outrages of the people of Missouri against the Mormons, the editor proceeds thus:
"That Captain Bogart must be very much like a blackguard and a coward, if he is not a decided candidate for both titles. He was one of those who started the horrible stories of the 'cutting up of Missourians, fifty at a hatch, by the Mormons.' Probably he ran away from his company, and imagined the horrible stories he carried. The shooting down of a flag staff bearing a flag of truce is characteristic of the bravery of a coward, when backed by 3,000 men against 700.
"They must have a primitive mode of administering justice in Missouri. These Mormons are as much citizens as the others, and yet, without trial, upon the ex parte testimony of the persons who had provoked the Mormons to retaliation, the Governor issues orders, if we understand the case, for the expulsion of the Mormons from the State of Missouri.
"The Emperor of Russia, the Shah of Persia, or the Sultan of Turkey could not embrace in his own person more legislative, judicial and executive power than is here assumed. Legislative, in the enactment and promulgation of an edict of banishment. Judicial—extra judicial—in sentencing them to banishment under it. Executive, in summoning the force of the State to put in force his own judgment upon his own edict. Well done, Governor Boggs!
"We are sorry to hear of the massacre of the Mormons by the armed mob; however, this violence, being the natural promptings of infuriated men, is positively less culpable than the cool ignorance and impudent, illegal assumption of the Governor of Missouri."
From the Quincy (Ill.) Argus, March 16, 1839:
"We give in today's paper the details of the recent bloody tragedy acted in Missouri—the details of a scene of terror and blood unparalleled in the annals of modern, and, under the circumstances of the case, in ancient history; a tragedy of so deep and fearful, and absorbing interest that the very life blood of the heart is chilled at the simple contemplation. We are prompted to ask ourselves if it be really true that we are living in an enlightened, a humane and civilized age, in an age and quarter of the world boasting of its progress in everything good and great, honorable, virtuous and high minded; in a country, of which, as American citizens, we could ask whether we are living under a Constitution and laws, or have not rather returned to the ruthless times of the stern Atilla—to the times of the fiery Hun—when the sword and flame ravaged the fair fields of Italy and Europe, and the darkest passions held full revel in all the revolting scenes of unchecked brutality and unbridled desire?
"We have no language sufficiently strong for the expression of our indignation and shame at the recent transaction in a sister state, and that state Missouri, a state of which we had long been proud, alike for her men and history, but now so fallen, that we could wish her star stricken out from the bright constellation of the Union. We say we know of no language sufficiently strong for the expression of our shame and abhorrence of her recent conduct. She has written her own character in letters of blood, and stained it by acts of merciless cruelty and brutality that the waters of ages cannot efface. It will be observed that an organized mob, aided by many of the civil and military officers of Missouri, with Governor Boggs at their head, have been the prominent actors in this business, incited too, it appears, against the Mormons by political hatred, and by the additional motives of plunder and revenge. They have but too well put in execution their threats of extermination and expulsion, and fully wreaked their vengeance on a body of industrious and enterprising men, who had never wronged or wished to wrong them, but, on the contrary, had ever comported themselves as good and honest citizens, living under the laws and having the same rights with themselves, to the sacred immunities of life, liberty and property."