The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1844-08-09
Another Letter from Gov. Ford.
To the People Of UarSa,c, in Hancock
cOunfu.

am cOhllhuaiiy informed OF your pre-
paratinn and threats to renew the war.
and eXlcrminate the Murmons. One
would suppose that YOU ought To rest sat
islied with what YOU have already done.
The Mormon leaders, if they ever resis-
ted the law, have submitted to its author
ily. They have surrendered the public
arms; and appeared to be ready to do
any thing required, to make atonement
Tor whatever wrong may have been done.
Since the assassination of their two prn-
clpal leaders, under circumstances well
calculated to inname their passions, and
drive them to excuses for the purposes
OF revenge, they have been entirely peace
iul and Submissive; and have patiently
awaited The slow operatian Of the laws to
redress the wrongs of which they have
complained. -There has been no retalia-
ton; no revenge; and for any thing |
can ascertain, there will be none. Those
OF your people, who are charged with be-
ing the most hostile to them, have lived,
if they knew it, in perfect security from
illegal violence. am anxious for paci-
ticalion Of your difficulties. You canno,
drive out, or eXtermlna:e, the Mormons.
Such an effort would be madness, and
would not be permitted by the people of
the state. You cannot be sustained in il
ether by force or law. You ale binding
yourselves to your weakness, and keep
ing up an agitation which must fail of the
purpose intended, and recoil with terrible
energy upon your own heads. exhort
you to reconsider your infatuated resoiu-
tons. Try your Mormon neighbors
again, and if you cannot dwell together
in anity, you may at least refrain from
injuring each other. From the modera-
ton of the Mormons, under what they
conceive 10 be the deepest injury, YOU
might well hope that if they ever enter
tanned designs Inconsistent with your lib
erty and happiness, tina, those designs
have been abandoned. They are also in
teresied in preserving the peace. 1t is no,
natural 10 suppose that they, any more
thau yourselves wish TO live in continual
alarm. They hope for quiet, and will
be peaceful and submissive in order to
enjoy it. But you are continually dri-
wing them to desperation by an insane
course Of threatning and hostility, and de-
privng yourselves of peace by the same
means used to disQuIet them.
If | have SAID any thing severe in this
address, | pray you, attribute il 10 my
deep conviction that your course is i'm
proper and unwarrantable. Such is the
opinion Of the people at large in the state,
and all over the country. From being
righ, in the first instance, you have pu,
yourselves in the wrong, aud there are
none who sustain you. As men Of sense
you are bound TO sec, if you will open
your eyes, that you cannot effect your
Nevertheless you are still
training and drilling, and keeping togelh-
er, and threatening renewal Of the war.
| have said to you often that you cannot
succeed; by this time you ought to see
it yourselves. What can your small
fierce do against two thousand armed
men, entrenched in city, and defending
themselves, their wives and their chill
dren! Besides. if you are the agrees
sors, am determined that all the power
of the state shall be used TO prevent your
success. can never agree that set of
infatuated and infatuated men shall barba-
rously attack peaceful people, who have
submitted TO all the demands of the law
and when they had full power to do so
RETAINED from inllicting vengeance upon
their enemies. You may count on my
most determined opposilion-upon the
opposition of the law, and upon that OF
every peaceful law abiding citizen Of the
country. This is not spoken in anger
God knows, would do you no injury
unless compelled to do so to sustain the
laws. But mob violence must be put
down. is threatening the whole coun-
try with anarchy and ruin. 1t is mena-
cling our fair form of government, and de-
stroying the confidence of the patriot in
the institutions Of his country.
have been informed that the Mormons
about Lima and Macedonia, have been
warned 20 leave the settlements. They
have right to remain and enjoy their
property.-As long as they are good citi-
zens, they shall not be molestcd; and the
sooner those misguided persons withdraw
their warning and retlace their steps, the
better it will be for them.
THOMAS FORD.
July 25, 1874.