Between Dr. C. V. Dyer and Gen. J. C. Bennett

Chicago, January 3, 1842.

DEAR SIR:-I am not sure that I am not indebted to you for your last letter, not having answered it, as I remember. But as I have been very sick during the long interval of my silence, you will readily excuse any apparent neglect on my part.

I thank you for your paper sent me, the "Times and Seasons," and have got much information from it, and since that, from other sources, in relation to the outrages committed upon the Latter Day Saints by the authorities as well as the people of the State of Missouri; and my blood boiled with indignation to see the whole christian world-and the whole political world, too, look tamely on, and never raise a warning voice-a voice of expostulation, nor even giving the facts in the case! O what outrages will not be allowed or winked at by those in authority, and the people generally, if they happen to be inflicted upon those who bear an unpopular name, espouse an unpopular cause, and are poor and obscure! It seems as if we had again fallen upon the middle ages, when the privileged classes could pour out their sympathies by the hour, at the very circumstantial and minute details of the loss of the life, or any other serious evil that befell one of their own number; but they could write or hear without emotion, and even with satisfaction and joy, the history of the massacre of a thousand defenseless women and children, if they belonged to the common sort of people. Just read, for example, Madame de Sevigne's account in a letter to her daughter, dated "Aux Rochers," 30 Oct., 1675, in the 2nd volume of De Toqueville's Democracy in America.

What, my dear sir, do you think of the treatment which the subject of American slavery receives at the hands of the American press amongst the people generally, and especially in the halls of Congress? What think you of the sentencing of three men from the Quincy Mission Institute in this State, a short time since, to twelve years confinement in the penitentiary of Missouri, for no crime at all, or only such as God would regard as a virtue? Please look into this matter, and see if you can not join with the benevolent and fearless, and call the attention of the nation or the State, to these outrages of Missouri.

I send you a paper, and mark one of the pieces for your perusal. Read it. I do not know whether you have examined the whole subject of American slavery; but if you have not, I beseech you to do so, and let me hear from you. Is it not sin? Yes. Then is it not right to repent of it? Yes. When? God allows not a moment. Is not repentance and abandonment of sin safe, so long as God commands, and stands ready to look after the consequences? Certainly so.

Well, can any Court, either State or national, rob me of liberty for twelve years, (even against their own State laws,) for acting precisely in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution of the United States, and the precepts of Jesus Christ? Is it to be submitted to tamely, that three men shall be immured in a dungeon for twelve years torn from their families and friends, and from society and usefulness, for barely teaching a fellow being how to go to a place where he may learn the sciences-have his own wages, aye, and his own person?

Let me hear from you. Have we not a right to sympathyze [sympathize] with each other?

I am, very sincerely,

Your friend and ob't serv't,

CHARLES V. DYER.

Gen. JOHN C. BENNETT,

Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois.

Nauvoo, Ill., Jan. 20th, A. D., 1842.

DEAR SIR:-

Yours of the 3rd inst., accompanied by the "Genius of Liberty," containing the address of Alvan Stewart, Esq., is before me, and I seized upon this, the first, opportunity to reply. You refer me to Madame de Sevigne's letter to her daughter, dated "Aux Rochers," 30th Oct., A. D. 1675, in the 2nd vol. of De Toqueville's Democracy in America; and ask me to examine the subject of American

slavery. I have done so: I gave it a full and fair investigation years ago-I swore in my youth that my hands should never be bound, nor my feet fettered, nor my tongue palsied-I am the friend of liberty, UNIVERSAL LIBERTY, both civil and religious. I ever detested servile bondage. I wish to see the shackles fall from the feet of the oppressed, and the chains of slavery broken. I hate the oppressor's grasp, and the tyrant's rod; against them I set my brows like brass, and my face like steel; and my arm is nerved for the conflict. Let the sons of thunder speak, achieve victories before the cannon's mouth, and beard the lyon [lion] in his den: till then the cry of the oppressed will not be heard: 'till then the wicked will not cease to trouble, nor the weary bondman be at rest.' Great God, has it come to this-that the free citizens of the sovereign State of Illinois can be taken and immured within the walls of a Missouri penitentiary for twelve long years, for such a crime as God would regard as a virtue! simply for pointing bondmen to a state of liberty and law! and no man take it to heart? Never! NO, NEVER!! NO, NEVER!!! Let the friends of freedom arise and utter their voice, like the voice of ten thousand thunders--let them take every constitutional means to procure a redress of grievances--let there be a concerted effort, and the victory is ours. Let the broad banners of freedom be unfurled, and soon the prison doors will be opened, the captive set at liberty, and the oppressed go free. Missouri will then remember the unoffending Mormons in the days of their captivity and bondage-when murder and rapine were her darling attributes--why, my heart is filled with indignation, and my blood boils within me, when I contemplate the vast injustice and cruelty which Missouri has meted out to that great philanthropist and devout Christian, General Joseph Smith, and his honest and faithful adherents--the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons: but the time has passed, and God will avenge their wrongs in his own good time. Dr. Dyer, put your hand upon your heart, and remember Zion. Just investigate the wrongs which our people have suffered in their unprecedented privations, the confiscation of their property, and the murder of their friends--the persecutions of the Waldenses in former ages were not to be compared to it, and history affords not a parallel. Now let us make a strong, concerted, and vigorous effort, for UNIVERSAL LIBERTY, to every sbul [soul] of man-civil, religious, and political. With high consideration of respect, and esteem, suffer me to subscribe myself--

Yours, Respectfully,

JOHN C. BENNETT,

Charles V. Dyer, M. D.

P. S. Gen. Smith informs me that there are white slaves in Missouri, (Mormons,) in as abject servitude as the blacks, and we have, as yet, no means of redress! God grant that the day of righteous retribution may not be procrastinated.

J. C. B.

Editor's Office, City of Nauvoo, Illinois,

March 7th, A. D. 1842.

General Bennett:

Respected Brother:-I have jut been perusing your correspondence with Doctor Dyer on the subject of American Slavery, and the students of the Quincy Mission Institute, and it makes my blood boil within me to reflect upon the injustice, cruelty, and oppression, of the rulers of the people--when will these things cease to be, and the Constitution and the Laws again bear rule? I fear for my beloved country--mob violence, injustice, and cruelty, appear to be the darling attributes of Missouri, and no man taketh it to heart! O, tempora! O, mores! What think you should be done?

Your Friend,

Joseph Smith.

Mayor's Office, City of Nauvoo,

Illinois, March 8th, A. D. 1842

ESTEEMED FRIENDS:-

Yours of the 7th Inst. has been received, and I proceed to reply, without undue emotion, or perturbation. You ask "When will these things cease to be, and the constitution and the Laws again bear rule?" I reply-once that noble bird of Jove, our grand national emblem, soared aloft, bearing in her proud beak the words 'Liberty and Law," and that man that had the temerity to ruffle her feathers was made to feel the power of her talons; but a wily archer came, and with his venomed arrow dipped in Upas' richest sap, shot the flowing label from the Eagle's bill-it fell inverted, and the bird was sick, and is,-the label soon was trampled in the dust-the eagle bound and caged. The picture is now before you in bold relief. "What think you should be done?" The master spirits of the age must rise and break the cage, restore

the label, unbind the bird, and let her tower unfettered in the air-then will the nation have repose, and the present minions of power hide their faces in the dust. Many of Missouri's noble sons detest her acts of cruelty and crime, and gladly would they wipe them from the escutcheon of her fame, and will; yes, they will lend a helping hand-and all must help, for the time is at hand,-and if man, will not do the work, the thunderings of Sinai will wind up the scene-the blood of the murdered Mormons cries aloud for help, and the restoration of the inheritances of the saints; and God has heard the cry-and if the moral battle must be fought, and the victory won, he who answers by fire will cause sword and flame to do their office, and again make the Constitution and the Laws paramount to every other consideration-and I swear by the Lord God of Israel, that the sword shall not depart from my thigh, nor the buckler from my arm, until the trust is consummated, and the hydra-headed, fiery dragon slain. This done, the proud southron will no longer boast of ill-gotten gain, or wash his hands in the blood of the innocent, or immure the freemen of the prairie State within Missouri's sullied, poisoned, deathly prison walls. Let ut [us] always take refuge under the broad folds of the constitution and the Laws, and fear no danger, for the day of vengence [vengeance] will assuredly come when the Omnipotent hand of the Great God will effect the restitution of the trophies of the brigand victories of Missouri, and again place the saints on high.

Yours, Respectfully,

JOHN C. BENNETT.

General Joseph Smith