Dear Sir--We think the time is just at hand when our society will be glad to avail themselves of the protection of a military guard, that they may return a Jackson county. We do not now know the precise day, but Mr. Reese gives his opinion, that there would be no impropriety in petitioning your Excellency for an order on the commanding officer, to be sent by return mail, that we might have it in our hands to present when our people get ready to start. If this should meet your approbation, and the order sent by return mail, we think it would be of great convenience to our society. We would also be obliged to your Excellency for information concerning the necessary expenses of ferriage, etc. Are our people bound to pay the ferriage on their return? As they have already sustained heavy losses, and many of them have lost their all, a mitigation of expenses on their return at this time, where they could legally be reduced, would afford great relief; not only ferriage across the Missouri river, but other items of expense that could lawfully be reduced. We remain, your Excellency's most obedient servants, A. S. Gilbert, W. W. Phelps, Edward Partridge. _Copy of a letter from Daniel Dunklin, Governor of the State of Missouri., to Colonel J. Thornton, dated--_ City of Jefferson, June 6, 1834. Dear Sir--I was pleased at the receipt of your letter, concurred in by Messrs. Reese, Atchison and Doniphan, on the subject of the Mormon difficulties. I should be gratified indeed if the parties could {85} compromise upon the terms you suggest, or, indeed, upon any other terms satisfactory to themselves. But I should travel out of the line of strict duty, as chief executive officer of the government, were I to take upon myself the task of effecting a compromise between the parties. Had I not supposed it possible, yes, probable, that I should, as executive of the state, have to act, I should, before now, have interfered individually in the way you suggest, or in some other way, in order if possible to effect a compromise. Uncommitted as I am to either party, I shall feel no embarrassment in doing my duty--though it may be done with the most extreme regret. My duty in the relation which I now stand to the parties, is plain and straightforward. By an official interposition I might embarrass my course, and urge a measure for the purpose of effecting a compromise, and [if] it should fail, and in the end, should I feel it my duty to act contrary to the advice I had given, it might be said, that I either advised wrong, or that I was partial to one side or the other, in giving advice that I would not as an officer follow.