I appeal to the "Green Mountain Boys" of my native State, to rise in the majesty of virtuous freemen, and by all honorable means help bring Missouri to the bar of justice. If there is one whisper from the spirit of an Ethan Allen; or a gleam from the shade of a Gen. Stark, let it mingle with our sense of honor, and fire our bosoms for the cause of suffering innocence,—for the reputation of our disgraced country, and for the glory of God: and may all the earth bear me witness, if Missouri, blood-stained Missouri;—escapes the due demerit of her crimes, the vengeance she so justly deserves, that Vermont is a hypocrite—a coward—and this nation the hot bed of political demagogues!
I make this appeal to the sons of liberty of my native State for help, to frustrate the wicked designs of sinful men; I make it to hush the violence of mobs; I make it to cope with the unhallowed influence of wicked men in high places; I make it to resent the insult and injury made to an innocent, unoffending people, by a lawless ruffian Stale; I make it to obtain justice where law is put at defiance; I make it to wipe off the stain of blood from our nation's escutchion; I make it to show presidents, governors, and rulers, prudence; I make it to fill honorable men with discretion; I make it to teach senators wisdom; I make it to learn judges justice: I make it to point clergymen to the path of virtue; and I make it to turn the hearts of this nation to the truth and realities of pure and undefiled religion, that they may escape the perdition of ungodly men; and Jesus Christ, the son of God, is my Great Counsellor.
Wherefore let the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble, the poor and the needy, the bond and the free, both black and white, take heed to their ways, and cleave to the knowledge of God; and execute justice and judgment upon the earth in righteousness; and prepare to meet the judge of the quick and the dead, for the hour of his coming is nigh.
And I must go on as the herald of grace, Till the wide-spreading conflict is over, And burst through the curtains of tyrannic night. Yea, I must go on to gather our race, Till the high blazing flame of Jehovah, Illumines the globe as a triumph of right.
As a friend of equal rights to all men, and a messenger of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ,
I have the honor to be,
Your devoted servant,
JOSEPH SMITH.
Nauvoo, Ill., December, 1843.
