22 CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOHN C. CALHOUN.
But, as you refer to the case of Misseuri, candor compels me to repeat, what I said to you at Washington; that according to my views the case does not come within the jurisdiction of the federal government, which is one of limited and specific powers.
With respect, I am &c. &e.
J. C CALHOUN. Mr. Joseph Smith.
Nauvoo, Ill., Jan. 2, 1844. Sir: Your reply to my letter of last November, concerning your rule of action towards the Latter-day Saints, if elected president, is at hand; and, that you and your friends of the same opinion, relative to the matter in question, may not be disappointed as to me, or my mind, upon so grave a subject, permit me, as a law-abiding man; as a well wisher to the perpetuity of constitutional rights and liberty, and as a friend to the free worship of Almighty God, by all, according to the dictates of every persons' conscience, to say I am surprised, that a man, or men, in the highest stations of public life, should have made up such a fragile 'view' of a case, than which there is not one on the face of the globe fraught with so much consequence to the happiness of men in this world or the world to come. To be sure, the first paragraph of your letter appears very complaisant, and fair on a white sheet of paper, and who that is ambitious for greatness and power, would not have said the same thing! Your oath would bind you to support the constitution and laws, and as all creeds and religions are alike tolerated, they must, of course, all be justified or condemned, according to merit or demerit — but why, tell me why, are all the principal men held up for public stations, so cautiously careful not to publish to the world, that they will judge a righteous judgment — law or no law: for laws and opinions, like the vanes of steeples, change with the wind. One Congress passes a law, and another repeals it, and one statesman says that the constitution means this, and another that; and who does not know that all may be wrong? The opinion and pledge, therefore, in the first paragraph of your reply to my question, like the forced steam [from the engine of a steam boat, makes the show of a bright cloud at first, but when it comes in contact with a purer atmosphere, dissolves to common air again.
Your second paragraph leaves you naked before yourself, like a likeness in a mirror, when you say, that 'according to your view, the federal
