G. W. Westbrook Mormons in Illinois

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Much has been said, and much written, about Mormonism and the Mormons. Sectarians have written against them, and their advocates have written for them, while very little has been said in a plain, matter-of-fact, unprejudiced spirit, to give the reader, who is a stranger to their peculiar matters of faith and religious tenets, or their position as a social and political community, a just estimate of their real character and standing; while those who are religiously opposed to them write with acrimony and prejudice, and greatly exaggerate their evil tendencies and vicious practices, without giving them any credit for their redeeming qualities, which is, to say the least, very uncharitable: the advocates, on the other hand, extol the saintly virtues of their Prophet, and labor hard in presenting proofs of the divine origin of the Book of Mormon, and raise the cry of persecution against the Church of Latter-day Saints. While this spiritual warfare has been going on in the religious community, political demagogues of all parties have left no argument, persuasion, promise or threat untried, to secure their political influence to the support of their respective parties. These conflicting interests, and prejudices, and proscriptions, had excited and kept the public mind in a perfect state of agitation, so far as the Mormons were concerned, until it finally burst forth in a perfect volcano of passion and strife, which has recently resulted in the murder of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum, an impartial account of which we purpose to give in this pamphlet.