Minutes and Testimonies, 12–29 November 1838 [State of Missouri v. Gates et al. for Treason]

Jr. the Sunday before the late affair in , at a church meeting, gave that notice that he wished the whole collected on the next monday at . where he said (or the sunday before I don’t recollect which) that all who did not take arms in their defence, should be considered <​of the Mormons​> of , should be considered as tories, and should take their exit from the . At the meeting on monday where persons met from all parts of , Jos Smith Jr took the pulpit & delivered an address in which he said. That we had been an injured people, driven violently from that we had appealed to the , magistrates, judges & even to the Prest of the & there had been no redress for us, and that now a mob was about to destroy the rights of our brethren of , & that it was high time that we should take measures to defend our own rights— In the address he related an anecdote about a captain who applied to a Dutchman to purchase potat[o]es, who refused to sell. the Capt then charged his company, several different times not to touch the Dutchmans potatoes. In the morning the Dutchman not <​had​> not a potatoe left in his patch— This was in refference to our touching no property on our expedition to , that did not belong to us, but <​he​> told us that the Children of God did not go to war at their own expense. A voted was taken whether the brethren should embody & go down <​out​> to to attack the Mob. this question was put by the prophet Jos Smith [p. [5]]