"We had no '_fortress_' or '_Mormon forces_,' but were part of the State militia." At this the general seemed surprised, and the conversation ended. We were astonished above measure at proceedings so utterly ignorant and devoid of all law or justice. Here was a Major-General, selected by the Governor of Missouri, and sent to banish or exterminate a religious society. And then, to crown the whole with inconceivable absurdity, aid religious society is converted by this officer and his associates into an independent government, or foreign nation. And last, and equally absurd, the State of Missouri assumed her independence of the federal government so far as to _treat_ with this imaginary "_ Mormon Empire_," or foreign nation. A colonel of militia, subordinate to the general then in the field, is converted into a foreign minister, an envoy extraordinary, in behalf of the "Mormon Empire," to enter into treaty stipulations with his Missouri majesty's forces, under Generals Lucas, Wilson and Clark! The city of Far West, the capital of "_Mormonia_," is the "_Ghent_," where this treaty of peace is ratified. The standing army of the conquered nation stack their arms, which are carried in triumph to Richmond. Preachers of the gospel are converted into "_noble_" or "_royal prisoners_," chained to the car of the victorious champions to be led captive as sport for the Philistines, or to be shot or hung at pleasure, while the residue of the inhabitants of the fallen empire--men, women and children--are to have their real estate and all other goods confiscated, and themselves banished the state on pain of death. A few, however, are selected from among these exiles to be imprisoned or executed at the mere dictation of a Nero or a Nicholas. Was this in America, in the nineteenth century? Were these scenes transacted in a constitutional republic? Yes, verily, and worse--a tale of horror, of woe, of long years of lawless outrage and tyranny is yet to be told, of which this is a mere stepping stone or entering wedge. CHAPTER XXIV. ------------------------ MASSACRE AT HAUN'S MILL. We here introduce the testimony of Joseph Young, an eye witness of one of the most awful scenes which ever stained the annals of history in any age or country. "The following is a short history of my travels to the State of Missouri, and of a bloody tragedy enacted at Haun's Mill, on Shoal Creek, October 30, 1838: "On the 6th of July last I started with my family from Kirtland, Ohio, for Missouri--the county of Caldwell, in the upper part of the State, being the place of my destination. On the 13th of October I crossed the Mississippi at Louisiana, at which place I heard vague reports of the disturbances in the upper country, but nothing that could be relied on.