SIR:--You ask me what would be my rule of action relative the Mormons {156} or Latter-day Saints, should I be elected President; to which I answer, that if I should be elected, I would strive to administer the government according to the Constitution and the laws of the union; and that as they make no distinction between citizens of different religious creeds I should make none. As far as it depends on the Executive department, all should have the full benefit of both, and none should be exempt from their operation. But as you refer to the case of Missouri, candor compels me to repeat what I said to you at Washington, that, according to my views, the case does not come within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, which is one of limited and specific powers. With respect, I am, &c., &c., J. C. CALHOUN. Mr. JOSEPH SMITH. To which I wrote the following reply:-- _Letter: Joseph Smith to John C. Calhoun--The Latter's Policy Towards the Latter-day Saints, if Elected President of the U. S. Considered_. NAUVOO, ILLINOIS, January 2, 1844. Sir:--Your reply to my letter of last November, concerning your rule of action towards the Latter-day Saints, if elected President, is at hand; and that you and your friends of the same opinion relative to the matter in question may not be disappointed as to me or my mind upon so grave a subject, permit me, as a law-abiding man, as a well-wisher to the perpetuity of constitutional rights and liberty, and as a friend to the free worship of Almighty God by all, according to the dictates of every person's own conscience, to say that_ I am surprised_ that a man or men in the highest stations of public life should have made up such a fragile "view" of a case, than which there is not one on the face of the globe fraught with so much consequence to the happiness of men in this world or the world to come. To be sure, the first paragraph of your letter appears very complacent and fair on a white sheet of paper. And who, that is ambitious for greatness and power, would not have said the same thing? Your oath binds you to support the Constitution and laws; and as all creeds and religions are alike tolerated, they must of course, all be justified or condemned according to merit or demerit. But why--tell me why are all the principal men held up for public stations _so cautiously careful_, not to publish to the world that they will _judge a righteous judgment, law or no law?_ for laws and opinions, like the vanes of steeples, change with the wind.