We say their faults are few compared to the population. Where is there a record of murder committed by any of our people? None in the State. Where is there a record against any of our people for a penitentiary crime?--Not in the State. Where is there a record of fine or county imprisonment (for any breach of law) against any of the Latter-day Saints? I know of none in the State. If, then, they have broken no law, they consequently have taken away no man's rights--they have infringed upon no man's liberties. We have been three years in this State, and have not asked for any county or state office. Laws have been administered by those not of our persuasion; administered rigorously, even against the appearance of crime, and yet there has been no conviction of which I have heard. Where is there another community in any state, against none of whom there is a record of conviction for crime in any court during the space of three years? And yet there are those who cry out "Treason! murder! bigamy! burglary! arson!" and everything that is evil, without being able to refer to a single case that has ever been proved against the Mormons. This, then, must be the "head and front of our offending," that by industry in both spiritual and temporal things, we are becoming a great and numerous people; we convert our thousands and tens of thousands yearly to the light of truth--to the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Christ; we bring thousands from foreign lands, from under the yoke of oppression and the iron hand of poverty, and we place them in a situation where they can sustain themselves, which is the highest act of charity toward the poor. We dry the widow's tear, we fill the orphan's hand with bread, and clothe the naked; we teach them principles of morality and righteousness, and they rejoice in the God of Abraham and in the Holy One of Israel, and are happy. Thus it is with the honest in heart: but when the wicked creep in amongst us for evil, to trample upon the most holy and virtuous precepts, and find our moral and religious laws too strict for them, they cry out, "Delusion, false prophets, speculation, oppression, illegal ordinances, usurpation of power, treason against the government, &c. You must have your charters taken away; you have dared to pass an ordinance against fornicators and adulterers; you have forbidden the vending of spirituous liquors within your city; you have passed an ordinance against vagrants and disorderly persons; with many other high-handed {34} acts! You even threaten to vote at the next election, and may be, (at least we fear) you will send a member to the legislature; none of which doings we, the good mobocrats and anti-Mormon politicians (and some priests as well) are willing to bear."