damned; shall I turn to be a Judas! Shall I who have heard the voice of God, and communed with angels; and spake as moved by the Holy Ghost for the renewal of the everlasting covenant, and for the gathering of Israel in the last days; shall I worm myself into a political hypocrite? Shall I who hold the keys of the last kingdom; in which is the dispensation of the fulness of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets, since the world began; under the sealing power of the Melchesedek priesthood; shall I stoop from the sublime authority of Almighty God, to be handled as a monkey's cat's paw; and pettify myself into a clown to act the farce of political demagoguery! No, verily no. The whole earth shall bear me witness that I, like the towering rock in the midst of the ocean, which has withstood the mighty surges of the warring waves for centuries, am impregnable, and am a faithful friend to virtue, and a fearless foe to vice; no odds, whether the former was sold as a pearl in Asia, or hid as a gem in America; and the latter dazzles in palaces, or glimmers among the tombs.
I combat the errors of ages; I meet the violence of mobs; I cope with illegal proceedings from executive authority; I cut the Gordian knot of powers; and I solve mathematical problems of Universities: WITH TRUTH, diamond truth, and God is my 'right hand man.'
And to close, let me say in the name of Jesus Christ to you, and to presidents, emperors, kings, queens, governors, rulers, nobles, and men in authority every where, do the works of righteousness, execute justice and judgment in the earth, that God may bless you, and her inhabitants; and
Shall green for your fame while the sun sheds a ray;
And the lily that blows by the side of the fountain,
Will bloom for your virtue till earth melts away.
With due consideration and respect,
I have the honor to be your most ob't serv't.
JOSEPH SMITH.
Gen. Jas. Arlington Bennett, Arlington House, N. Y.
P.S. The Court Martial will attend to your case in the Nauvoo Legion.
J.S.
