Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, circa 22 March 1839, Draft
Source Note
JS, , , , and , Letter, [, Clay Co., MO], to and the church, , Adams Co., IL, [ca. 22 Mar. 1839], draft; handwriting of , with insertions by and JS; signatures of JS, , , , and ; twelve pages; Revelations Collection, CHL.
we owe to God to angels with whom we shall be braught to stand and also to ourselves to our wives and our children who have been made to bow down with greaf sorrow and care under the most damning hand of murder tyronny and appression supported and urged on and upheld by the influance of that spirit which hath so strongly rivited the creeds of the fathers who have inhereted lies upon thier <the harts of the> children and filled the world with confusion and has been growing stronger and stronger and is now the verry main spring of all corruption <in the world>, and the whole Earth grones under the wait of its iniquity. It is an iron yok[e] it is a strong band they are the verry handcufs and chains and shackles and <fetters> of hell therefore it is an imperious duty that we owe not only to our own wives and children but to the widdow and fatherless whose husbands and fathers have been murdered under its iron hand which dark and blackning deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder and to stand aghas[t] and pail and the hands of the verry devill palsy <tremble> and palsy and also it is an imperious duty that we owe to all the rising generation and to all the pure in heart which there are many yet on the Earth among all sects parties and denominations who are blinded by the suttle craftiness of men whereby they ly in wait to decieve and only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it therefore that we should waist and ware out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness wherein we know them and they are truly manifest from heaven. These should then be [p. 8]