In a dispatch from the general to the Governor, dated November 10th, 1838, he says: "There is no crime, from treason down to petit larceny, but these people, or a majority of them, have been guilty of—all, too, under the counsel of Joseph Smith, Jr., the prophet. They have committed treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. They have societies formed under the most binding covenants in form, and the most horrid oaths, to circumvent the laws and put them at defiance; and to plunder, and burn, and murder, and divide the spoils for the use of the Church."
It was in answer to this that the Governor wrote to General Clark, that "the ringleaders of this rebellion should be made an example of; and, if it should become necessary to the public peace, the Mormons should be exterminated or expelled from the state."
This was extremely unguarded, and seems to have been too literally construed. In an address of General Clark to the Mormons, we find the following:
"Another thing yet remains for you to comply with—that is, that you leave the state forthwith; and, whatever your feelings concerning this affair, whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. General Lucas, who is equal in authority with me, has made this treaty with you. I am determined to see it executed. The orders of the Governor to me were, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to continue in the state; and had your leader not been given up, and the treaty complied with, before this you and your families would have been destroyed, and your houses in ashes." "I did not say that you should go now; but you must not
