Memorial

To the honorable the Govenor [Governor], Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts, in legislative capacity assembled:

Your memorialist, a native of the State of Massachusetts, county of Hampshire, and township of Plainfield, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and was born on the 7th day of May, A. D. 1796. begs leave most respectfully to represent your honorable body, that, after breathing the free, elastic air of the land of his nativity, and braving the winter blasts of the Green Mountains for twenty-one years, during which time the principles of religious liberty began to bud, and the rights of man became deeply rooted in the bosom of your memorialist, he then went forth to the then thinly settled and wilderness part of Ohio, where he remained for about twenty-one years, enduring the hardships of turning the wilderness into fruitful fields, the products of which often help to compose the luxuries of your tables, cheering the hearts of some of the noble sons of '76, as well as those who are my contemporaries in life. From thence he went to the State of Missouri, where he became an exile, with about twelve or fifteen thousand of his brethren. Not from the birth of our national existence to the year 1832, can the annals of the United States of America be found, to blast the character of her noble sons, by telling the blood-chilling tale of assembled mobs, to deprive her citizens of their civil or religious liberties, without their meeting a due demerit and punishment for all their crimes. But, alas! how changed the scene! In consequence of which, your memorialist has to relate to you the sad tale that, in 1831, a number of respectable families residing in the vicinity of Parkman, my then place of residence, went into the state of Missouri, and in connexion [connection] with others from various parts of our country, who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who purchased lands of the general government, in the county of Jackson in said State, and there became lawful residents and and voters in that then free and independent portion of our country; but, in consequence of an unprecedented mob rising against the Saints, who, after highhanded threats, proceeded to destroy our property by demolishing our store and printing press, taking roofs from houses, whipping, tarring and feathering some of our men, shooting others, abusing women and children, driving about one hundred of them off on to the bleak prairies, many of whom were barefooted and could be followed by the blood that gushed from their lacerated feet, where they traveled through barbed grass, or upon the sharp stubble of a burnt prairie, for five days without food, when they succeeded in getting across the Missouri river into clay county, where they were for a short time, permitted to stay in peace;-when, in 1836, threats of violence again begaa [began] to be made, public meetings to be held, resolutions were passed, and our affairs again assumed a gloomy and a fearful attitude, and vengeance and destruction was threatened; and, as the authorities of Jackson county would not protect us in the enjoyment of our inalienable]rights, so it was in this; and, after much violence we were again driven, suffering the loss of property

and enduring the privation of again removing and settling in the new counties of Caldwell and Davis, where there was but few inhabitants, who were either willing to either sell out or live in the enjoyment of equal rights with us. Hoping at least, that we should be permitted to enjoy the rights of American citizens in the last mentioned counties, and still having confidence in our national government, the church, through the assistance of some of their eastern brethren, who lent them funds, again purchased lands, to a considerable amount, of the United States. Although Jackson county was the place of our choice, where also, through the labor of our own hands and the blessing of God, we had caused the earth to yield an abundance to supply our families with the necessary comforts of life whilst there, yet, while in exile from under the iron hand of oppresion, [oppression] we again commenced building houses mills and other machinery, for our mutual benefit, quietly tilling our lands to supply our returning wants. The stranger, by passing through the place of our exile, might have laudably boasted of our industry, from the sound of the axe [ax] in the woodland, the busy teams on the prairies, the clattering of the hammer and the plane, and hum of wheels. These ought to have been sufficient evidence to the world, that we were lawfully and laudably endeavoring to make our new homes comfortable, if not delightsome. In the midst of this scene and bustle, our social hours were not unfrequently [infrequently] turned into mourning, from a recollection of past sufferings and lost friends through the Jackson and Clay county mobs. The trickling tears on the cheek of the disconsolate widow, and the bursting sobs from a bereaved orphan bewailing the loss of a husband or a father-are scenes that are better felt than described, and are ever calculated to throw a gloom over all our social circles.

O where! where! is the boon of heaven so nobly won by her fathers? Fled, alas! fled!-But we hope not forever. Laudable industry and the blessing of heaven soon caused our farms to present a cheering aspect, which awakened a covetous spirit of envy in the hearts of our enemies, and the cry went forth, If the Mormons (as they called us) were let alone, Caldwell, in five years' time, would be the most wealthy and populous county in the state. Our enemies, (who depended mostly on the labor of their slaves for their prosperity,) at beholding themselves outdone by the diligence of the hard laboring sons of the Green Mountains, immediately took measures to posess [possess] themselves of our lands and effects; and a regular system of mobocracy was entered into, to rid the state of their rivals in prosperity. They formed a formidable band of marauders, under the command of a man by the name of Bogard and others, whose numbers increased until, at length, through falsehood and duplicity, they got the authorities of the state to interfere, when a number of officers were sent, with a large military force, to exterminate us and confiscate our property;-and all this by the authority of their more willing mobocrat governor, Lilburn W. Boggs. Plunder, rapine and murder immediately ensued, which would have disgraced a savage war in their wildest state. Men were shot down without provocation; women were insulted and ravished until they died in the hands of their destroyers; children had their brains blowed [blown] out while pleading for their lives; men moving into the country with their families, were shot down; their teams, wagons and loading, were taken by the plunderers as a booty, and their wives with their little ones, ordered out of the state forthwith, or suffer death, as had their husbands, leaving them with no means of conveyance but their feet, and no means of subsistance [subsistence] but begging. Soldiers of the revolution were slain in the most brutal manner, while pleading for their lives in the name of American citizens; many were thrown into prison, and, after enduring a mock trial that would have disgraced an inquisition, were confined in irons, and remained in prison until they made their escape. In these mock trials, no man was allowed to testify in favor of the Saints: and the trials undoubtedly were designed to make the distant public believe that there was an excuse for all this outrage and violence.

To give your honorable body a correct idea of the origin of those scenes of cruelty and wo, we will here transcribe the preamble to a set of resolutions passed by those plunderers at their first meeting, held in Jackson county, for the purpose of taking measures for the expulsion of our people from the county. It is as follows:

"We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson county, believing that an important crisis is at hand as regards our civil society, in consequence of a pretended religious society of people that have and are still settling in our county, styling themselves Mormons; and intending as we do, to rid our society, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must, and believing as we do, that the arm of civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least a sufficient one, against the evils which are now inflicted on us, and seem to be increasing by the said religious sect, deem it expedient, and of the highest importance, to form ourselves into a company, for the better and easier accomplishment of our purposes, which we deem it almost superfluous [superfluous] to say, is justified as well by the law of nature as by the law of self defence [defense]."

Your honorable body will see by the above, that the reasons assigned for the formation of this first company of marauders, was the want of power in the civil law to enable them to carry out the diabolical plottings of their wicked hearts. Hear their own words. "And believing as we do, that the arm of civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least a sufficient one against the evils which are now inflicted on us."

What were the evils complained of? Let their own words give the strange answer; the existence of a religious society among them; a society too, against which, not even the first crime, which the law could recognise [recognize] as such, could be proved; themselves being the judges, while yet their hearts were filled with envy and malice.

If individuals, or even our society as a body, had transgressed the laws, the law was open, and they could have punished the offenders according to law, as easy as to have fell to butchering indiscriminately, men, women, and children. Here let your memorialist ask your honorable body, to ever remember, that it was not the law our enemies sought to magnify and enforce; for no law had been broken, but they proceeded in open violation of, not only the law of the land, but that of nature too.

Hear again the contents of their unlawful preamble. Intending as we do, to rid ourselves of the Mormons, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must; or this is the import of their fiendish preamble, by the strength of which our people were attacked indiscriminately, their houses rifled, their farms desolated and crops destroyed; men were tied up and whipped until some died in their hands, others to prevent their bowels from gushing out, tied handkerchiefs round their bodies, others were shot down, their wives and children driven from their habitations! houses would be set on fire and consumed, leaving hundreds of women and children nearly naked, in the dead of winter to wander barefooted in the dark hours of the night upon the open fields and prairies, without any bed but the earth, or covering but the heavens. And why all this abuse? I answer, from the very fact that we had broken no law by which they could get the slightest pretext to rid themselves of us peaceably by law. Therefore they betook themselves to spreading falsehoods and slander, by which they roused others to assist them to accomplish their murderous designs.

Similar outrages were again inflicted upon us in Clay county as was in Jackson county, and the people were again driven and went into Caldwell and Davis counties where lands were again purchased by us of General Government. After remaining about two years in Caldwell and Davis counties, and having by dint of labor raised large crops of grain and other produce, which were nearly ready for harvest we were followed by the same relentless spirit, and by the hands of the same persecutors, who were among the first to form a company of marauders in Jackson county. The same unhallowed principles were put in operation as was first started in Jackson county: and for the purpose of creating a shadow of a pretext to justify themselves in the eyes of the public, they even went so far as to set fire to their own buildings, and then reported that the Mormons had done it; by which means we were driven into exile in a strange land, though one (to its honor be it remembered,) where we found a friendly home. During the progress of those scenes of cruelty, our entreaties and petitions were continually made to the authorities of Missouri, for protection and redress. In the name of American citizens, we appealed to their patriotism, their justice, their humanity and to their sacred honor; but they were deaf to our cries and heeded not our petitions. All attempts at protection or redress were unheeded and fruitless. And furthermore your memorialists has to tell your honorable body that since we have resided in the state of Illinois, the same foul means has been resorted to by the State of Missouri, as was practiced in Jackson and Caldwell counties. In order to prevent their base and unjust proceedings coming to light before an injured public, they are wrongfully accusing our citizens, and kidnapping others and dragging them into Missouri, and there, after whipping and insulting them, have cast them into prison and left them to get out as they could. All this without even the form of a trial. Three several warrants have been sent by the governor of Missouri, to the governor of Illinois, demanding the body of Joseph Smith, all of which has been set aside by the legal authorities of Illinois. These warrants were based upon the pretext (though false.) that Joseph Smith was accessary [accessory] to the shooting of L. W. Boggs. Would it not be well for Missouri to strike at the root of the matter, and first deal out justice to some of the murderers of the saints. Here I have to tell your honorable body that the before mentioned Bogard, a Methodist preacher, who was one of the leading men of the mob, has since murdered one of their own clan, and to escape the hand of justice has fled to Texas. Therefore it would not be unreasonable to suppose that governor Boggs was shot by one of the same class of fiendish villains, who yet remain in their midst.

The United States are now reaping the benefits of the money paid into her treasury by us, for those lands which we have been so unjustly driven from; and those lands are still held from us by the state of Missouri; from whose hands we have received no remuneration and from whom we can obtain no redress. These are the wrongs of which your memorialist complains; wrongs which are in open violation to the laws of the whole civilized world. The United States are bound by the constitution to give to each state a republican form of government, and to suppress insurrection and rebel- [rebellion.] Are not these outrages here portrayed before you, insurrection and rebellion? Let your honorable body give the answer. Where is that nation to be found, so stupid to her welfare, so blind to her interest, as to suffer her laws thus to be trampled upon, without making a manly attempt to wipe the bloody stain from her escutcheon? If such a nation is now to be found in existence, she no longer deserves to have her name recorded among the nations of the earth, lest her unborn sons blush at the history of her crimes. Let me further invite the attention of your honorable body to the disgraceful fact, that the very characters who committed all the above outrages, were upheld and paid off by the executive of the state; and at the same time that they committed those outrages, they declared that they were the militia, and that they were called out to enforce the laws and see that they were kept. Under this cover, they put at defiance both the laws of God and man, and with worse than savage cruelty, committed theft, violence, rape and murder! Is it a republican form of government where such a blood-chilling tragedy as this, is acted in the face and eyes of all the authorities of this nation, and no redress be had? Let your honorable body give the answer. Is it a fact that in this boasted land of liberty, that a man's crimes, either pretended or real, are sufficient to subject his bosom companion to insult, his daughters to rape, himself and family to starvation and exile? Let it be answered by every virtuous man and woman in letters of gold, big with meaning, No! Yet all these outrages have been committed upon us without there being the first crime proved against us; and yet after repeated application to the authorities of Missouri, for redress, we can obtain none.-Then to say the least, had she ought not to be made to feel the chastening hand of a parent nation, and as far as in her power, be made to restore to us, not only our rights and property, but damages for all the injury she has done us. This is our claim, and a just one too.

To whom then shall your memorialist look for redress of wrongs committed upon himself and his brethren in tribulation? And where can he look for human assistance with more confidence than to the people of his native state? No where! Then to your honorable body I appeal in the name of an American citizen, and in behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for redress of our wrongs; and through you to the general government.-To you he has told his wrongs and that of his brethren, and in confidence he looks to the patriots of Massachusetts, the state of his nativity, and the land of the sepulchres [sepulchers] of his ancestors. On yonder Green Mountain, in the town of Plainfield, lies the ashes of my father, who labored and fought to gain the liberties you now enjoy; he filled a place in the ranks of the army at the critical hour of the taking of Burgoyne; and shall his spirit be wounded at beholding the sons of Columbia in exile, and the banner of liberty stamped in the dust, and nothing done by the patriots of Massachusetts in behalf of suffering innocence? Tell it not in the streets of the valley, publish it not in the highways of the Green Mountains, lest the wicked hear the sound thereof; lest the daughters of Missouri laugh at your weakness. Yea, your memorialist tells you, that he will tell his wrongs and that of his brethren in Massachusetts, I will publish them in the streets of the valley, until the sound thereof reaches to her mountains top; that her statesmen may plead the cause of suffering innocence in the legislative halls of our nation; her patriotic sons, stimulated by her fair daughters, raise their voices and cease not until the cause of innocence shall be heard, and our most sacred rights restored. As one of the native sons of Massachusetts, I ask your honorable body, in the name of all the constitutional rights of man, to instruct the whole delegation of Massachusetts, in congress, to use all lawful and constitutional means to obtain for us a redress of all our wrongs and losses. Believing as your memorialist does, that our case comes within the power of the general government, and that they are bound, not only by every principle of justice, but also by law, to see that justice is meted out to every son and daughter of our national republic. Weak indeed must have been the capacity of statesmen, if they framed and accepted a constitution that made no provision for self defence [defense] Is it a fact that our laws have become so weak, our statesmen so stupid to the existence of our nation, that American citizens can be driven from lands and enjoyments guaranteed to them by the government and she has no power to redress their wrong?

Tell it not in the streets of Lexington, publish it in the ships of Boston, lest it is wafted by the western breeze till it salutes the tyrant's ear, and causes the daughters of Columbia to weep. If, indeed, there remains no means of redress for us, well may the despotic powers of Europe laugh and rejoice in their hearts, in the anticipation of beholding the United States of America fall and crumble to atoms beneath its ponderous weight. If this be the case, come on then ye prowling beasts and feathered fowl, prepare to glut yourselves upon the flesh of the fair sons and daughters of Columbia's soul; fallen by her own depravity, and slain by wicked aspirants and robbers from all nations. But I hope better things than those from your honorable body; yet certain causes will produce certain effects. If America refuses to punish robbers and murderers, she opens the door for a tenfold ingress of the same. From a recollection of some of the facts contained in the history of his native state, your memorialist feels a confidence in making his appeal to your honorable body, the executive of Massachusetts, a state whose people are noted in the annals of history, and one famed for her zeal in the cause of civil and religious liberty, as well as her firmness in breaking the tyrant's chain.

Her soil was the cradle of the first religious society in New England, who were exiles from Europe, as we now are from Missouri. She can boast of being the first to rise in virtuous indignation against the unjust principle of taxation without representation, when her bold sons hurled the tyrants tea by the board, and defied the despots power. The blood of her sons was the first to flow in support of those principles that gave birth to our national existence. At Lexington, in defiance of the tyrant's laws, and fearless of her power, her citizens in just indignation rallied around the murderous clans, and in firmness of soul, dared to redress the wrongs of her bleeding sons, and in the greatness of their philanthrophy [philanthropy], declared that the rights of man should be sacred, and that her land should be free; an assylum [asylum] for the oppressed, a land of liberty for the tyrant's slave. Yes, on the ever memorable l9th of April, A. D. 1775, flowed the first blood that gave birth to our national independence. It was then the blood of the martyred sons of Massachusetts, by the hand of tyranny, first cried from the ground for the vengeance of an offended God and suffering innocence, to be poured upon the murderous band. Nor did the mingled groans of the dying, the wailings of the orphan, the flowing tears of the bereaved parent, and the deeper moans of the disconsolate widow, but barely have time to reach the heavens, until a just retribution of an offended God was poured upon the offenders, through the valor of the patriotic sons of my native state. Fallen indeed, must be the sons of those martyrs and statesmen of 1775 and '76, if their minds are so degenerated that they have not independence of soul, sufficient to throw their influence into the legislative hall of our nation, in support of the rights of suffering innocence, such as your memorialist has here laid before your honorable body. Honorable regard for the character of my native state forbids the thought. Confident, then, that the pure principles by which our forefathers were actuated, still lingers in the bosoms of their sons, and need only be awakened in the hearts of your honorable body by the tale of wo herein laid before you.

Your memorialist comes to your honorable body, to tell you that the civil and religious liberties sought for and found by the pilgrims on Plymouth rock, and maintained by the blood of our fathers, have been sacrificed by relentless tyrants, upon the altar of jealousy. He comes to tell you, like Babylon of old, our nation is assailed by the jealous tyrant of mankind at one end; and that your assistance is wanted in the national hall, in defence [defense] of the temple of freedom, erected by your fathers.-He comes to tell your honorable body, that the sons of his native state are denied the liberty of conscience and the right of protection under the wide-spread wings of our national escutcheon, and that the blood of the patriotic heroes of the revolution who have been slain in Missouri for enjoying their religious rights, the boon of heaven to man, is crying from the ground; and with the dying groans of the ravished females and infant innocence, are ascending with the prayers of the widows and patriots of the revolution, into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Yea, their blood, their groans, their tears and their prayers of suffering innocence, together with the prayers of your memorialist, are now crying in the ears of your honorable body, through this, my silent messenger, saying "redress;" redress the wrongs of your memorialist, and those of his brethren, and wipe disgrace from the stained banner of our national republic; and perpetuate the glorious laurels so nobly won to my native state, when on Bunker's Hill, our fathers in unequal combat first sustained the shock, and dared assert the rights of man amidst the clatter of clashing steel, the blaze of arms, and the more deep-toned thunder of the tyrants cannon. May the departed spirits of the brave Warren and his associates, whisper in the ears of your honorable body, saying, redress the wrongs of the innocent; and maintain by legislation, those rights

of man so dearly bought by our blood that flowed on Bunker's height. Let not the name of Hancock and Adams, written by their own hands, and attached to the declaration of Independence, be obliterated or dimmed by the slackness or timidity of the sons of Massachusetts.

Under all these circumstances your memorialist prays to be heard by your honorable body, touching all the matters of this memorial; saying to you, that except our prayers are heard by your honorable body, touching all the matters of this memorial; saying to you, that except our prayers are heard, our rights restored and maintained, and ample redress made, as far as it can be by the legislative powers of the United States of America. [The] wrath of an offended God will be poured out upon the whole nation; and her statesmen and legislatures shall be awakened from their dreams, by a voice in their ears, saying thou art no longer worthy to wield the destinies of the brave, noble, patriotic and virtuous sons and daughters of Columbia's soil

And as in duty bound your memorialist will ever pray.

NOAH PACKARD.

Russell, Mass., March 5, 1844.