shooting down his own good, honest Christian
voters who keep him in office, that's Gilliam's men, and all the mob; so
Boggs gets a lot of his men in all parts of the country to write him
letters saying what dreadful crimes the Mormons are committing. These
letters will no doubt pass into history as a genuine account of your
people's doings. Well! well! I wouldn't shock your prejudices, but I'd
like just to point out by the way that it's all done in the name of
religion. There's Boggs has got an old mother who spends a lot of her
time praying that the purity of the American religion may not be
corrupted by the awful doctrines of Joe Smith."

The old man shook his head and rubbed his thin gray curly hair again
with a smile of constrained patience. "You see, although I do not wish
to grieve you by saying it, if we could only get rid of religion there
would be a lot of brotherly kindness in the world that so far has never
had a chance to say 'peep' and peck its shell. Well, but here's Boggs
reading his letters, and he turns pale with horror at the thought of the
corruption that has come among his good and pious people, so he writes
off to the commanders of the militia that they are to stop fighting the
mob, to fight against the Mormons, and only against the Mormons. So then
Atchison resigns. He points out, fairly enough, that there hasn't been a
single conviction in any lawful court against the Mormons for the crimes
they are accused of. But what of that if Boggs is Governor? So they have
taken away the arms from the Mormon company of militia, and the other
day they went up to Far West with three or four thousand men, and they
got Smith and his brother Hyrum and three of the elders to come out to
them, and they court-martialled them and ordered them all to be shot the
next day.

"But it wasn't done, madam," he added hastily. "General Doniphan had the
pluck to stand out against it and say he would withdraw his troops, so
they put them in irons and sent them to the gaol in Richmond, and then
at the point of the bayonet they have forced the other leaders to bind
themselves to pay all the expenses of the war and to get every Mormon,
man, woman, and child, out of the State, or else they are all to be
shot. That is how the matter stands at present."

"Do you incur any risk by the hospitality you give to me?" asked
Susannah. She had not as yet had energy, even if she had had
inclination, to explain that the Book of Mormon was no