Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, circa 30 October 1839–27 January 1840

  • Source Note
  • Historical Introduction
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To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the in Congress assembled:
Your memorialists, Joseph Smith, Junr, , and , would most respectfully represent, that they have been delegated by their brethren and fellow citizens, the “” (commonly called Mormons) to prepare and present to your Honorable bodies, a statement of their wrongs, and a prayer for their relief, which they now have the honor to submit to the consideration of the Congress of the .
This memorial showeth:— That in the Summer of the year 1831, a portion of the sect above named commenced a settlement in the County of in the State of : The individuals making that settlement had emigrated from almost every State in the Union, to that lovely spot in the ,” in the hope of improving their condition; of building homes for themselves and posterity; and of erecting Temples where they and theirs might worship their creator, according to the dictates of their own consciences. Though they had wandered far from the homes of their childhood, still they had been taught to believe, that a citizen born in any one State in this great Republic, might remove to another and enjoy all the rights and immunities guarantied to the citizens of the State of his adoption; that wherever waved the American flag, beneath its Stars and Stripes, an American citizen might look for protection and justice—liberty in person, and in conscience.
They bought farms, built houses, erected churches; some tilled the earth, others bought and sold merchandise; [p. 1]
To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the in Congress assembled:
Your memorialists, Joseph Smith, Junr, , and , would most respectfully represent, that they have been delegated by their brethren and fellow citizens, the “” (commonly called Mormons) to prepare and present to your Honorable bodies, a statement of their wrongs, and a prayer for their relief, which they now have the honor to submit to the consideration of the Congress of the .
This memorial showeth:— That in the Summer of the year 1831, a portion of the sect above named commenced a settlement in the County of in the State of : The individuals making that settlement had emigrated from almost every State in the Union, to that lovely spot in the “,” in the hope of improving their condition; of building homes for themselves and posterity; and of erecting Temples where they and theirs might worship their creator, according to the dictates of their own consciences. Though they had wandered far from the homes of their childhood, still they had been taught to believe, that a citizen born in any one State in this great Republic, might remove to another and enjoy all the rights and immunities guarantied to the citizens of the State of his adoption; that wherever waved the American flag, beneath its Stars and Stripes, an American citizen might look for protection and justice—liberty in person, and in conscience.
They bought farms, built houses, erected churches; some tilled the earth, others bought and sold merchandise; [p. 1]
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