, Letter, , St. Louis Co., MO, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 11 Mar. 1843; handwriting of ; dockets in handwriting of and ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL.
Page [3]
I cannot but feel interested that legal justice should be meted to this individual, but that Genl. ’s statements should be taken as conclusive evidence of his guilt, I must object. I have attended that ’s lectures in this — And now I now here assert, that he <has> garbled and missrepresented almost every circumstance which came within the reach of my own knowledge. I will name some of them.— He charged on the legislature of , criminal neglect of duty, in the passage of the charter of ,— the delivery of munitions of war to the Mormons— the unexampled, and unconstitutional powers given to the Corporation of Nauvoo, &c. But he did not inform his auditors that, he drew up that sa[me] charterhimself,— that he laboured in [the?] lob[b]y faithfully until it was passed— that he, as Quarter Master Genl. of the Malitia of , did not only order; but <also> deliver, those munitions of war himself, to the Mormons. &c I cannot in this letter; (which was only desingned in the outset to advise of you of the situation of ,) <now> enter into any satisfactory explaination of of other matters. But at some future time, if necessary, these facts can be forthcoming. I now conclude by desiring that you will correspond with on this subject, as I hope to soon leave this on my way up the , and shall not be here untill a reply to this could be returned. I have the honor to be Sir,