Communication to the Governor of Iowa-- In this appeal to the Governor of Iowa to shield and protect the Mormons in their constitutional rights is pointed out the dilemma that faced the L.D.S. Church and its membership in Illinois in 1846: "To stay, is death by 'fire and sword,' to go into banishment unprepared, is death by starvation."
While this appeal was being written by the Quorum of the Twelve in the United States to the Governor of Iowa, another appeal to Britain's Queen was drafted by the British Saints under the advice of Elders Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor, three members of the Quorum of the Twelve who were on a special apostolic mission to England. The signed memorial to the Queen, according to B. H. Roberts, (CHC 3:130) measured 168 feet in length and contained nearly 1,300 signatures. The memorial to the British Queen might well be read along with the appeal to the Governor of Iowa. It is reproduced along with important correspondence pertaining to it in James Linforth's Route From Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley, Liverpool, Franklin D. Richards, 1855, pp. 2-4.
COMMUNICATION to the Governor of Iowa I met in council with the Twelve in my tent. We read and approved the following to the governor of Iowa:- 'To His Excellency, Governor of the Territory of Iowa, Honored Sir: The time is at hand, in which several thousand free citizens of this great Republic, are to be driven from their peaceful homes and firesides, their property and farms, and their dearest constitutional rights-to wander in the barren plains, and sterile mountains of western wilds, and linger out their lives in wretched exile far beyond the pale of professed civilization; or else be exterminated upon their own lands by the people, and authorities of the state of Illinois. As life is sweet we have chosen banishment rather than death. But Sir, the terms of our banishment are so rigid that we have not sufficient time allotted us to make the necessary preparations to encounter the hardships and difficulties of those dreary and uninhabited regions. We have not time allowed us to dispose of our property, dwellings, and farms, consequently, many of us will have to leave them unsold, without the means of procuring the necessary provisions, clothing, teams, etc. to sustain us but a short distance beyond the settlements; hence our persecutors have placed us in very unpleasant circumstances.
To stay, is death by 'fire and sword', to go into banishment unprepared, is death by starvation. But yet under these heart-rending circumstances, several hundreds of us have started upon our dreary journey, and are now encamped in Lee county, Iowa, suffering much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us are already without food, and others barely sufficient to last a few weeks; hundreds of others must shortly follow us in the same unhappy condition.
Therefore, we, the Presiding Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a committee in behalf of several thousand suffering exiles, humbly ask your Excellency to shield and protect us in our constitutional rights, while we are passing through the territory over which you have jurisdiction. And should any of the exiles be under the necessity of stopping in this territory for a time, either in the settled or unsettled parts, for the purpose of raising crops, by renting farms or upon the public lands, or to make the necessary preparations for their exile in any lawful way, we humbly petition your Excellency to use an influence and power in our behalf: and thus preserve thousands of American citizens, together with their wives and children from intense sufferings, starvation and death. And your petitioners will ever pray.' {1846-February 28-DHC 7:600-601}
[source: Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)]
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