The "Mormons" are also charged with having openly declared that God had given them the land of Jackson County; and that sooner or later they would possess it as an inheritance. The document then concludes by saying that if after timely warning, and receiving an adequate compensation for what property they could not take with them, the saints shall refuse to leave the county, such means as might be necessary to remove them were to be employed; and calls a meeting of the signers to convene at the court-house in Independence on the twentieth of July, to consult on subsequent movements.[B] [Footnote B: The document of which the foregoing is a summary was published in the December number (1833) of the Evening and Morning Star.] It may not be amiss here to notice the charges made against the saints: The statement made by the mob that the "civil law did not afford them a sufficient guarantee against the threatening evils" of which they complained, is good evidence that the saints, although they may have fallen far short of coming up to the full requirements of the high moral and spiritual laws of the gospel of Jesus Christ, had violated none of the laws of man--it is an acknowledgement that they lived above that law. As to the saints being the dregs of the society from which they came--it is untrue; they had a respectable standing in the society from which they came, and that society was far in advance in civilization and enlightenment of the people of western Missouri. This is an old and oft repeated charge against the early members of The Church--this charge that they were of the "dregs of the society from which they came," and I repeat again that it is not true. I know the usual method of defense is to concede the charge, and then quote the well-known and, I may add also, the well-worn passage from Paul's writings, where, in speaking of the early Christians, he says: "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, * * * the weak things of the world, * * * and base things of the world, and things which are despised, * * * and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence." [C] But however complete such an answer may have been in the days of Paul with reference to the Christians of the first century; and however satisfying it may be now in some particulars as to the character of the early membership of The Church, so far as the charge, that the early members thereof were of the "dregs of that society from which they came," is concerned, there is a better course to pursue, a more direct and perfect answer, a more complete argument; and that better course, that more complete answer, is to deny _in toto_ the charge. I do deny it. It is not true. Nobler men and women than those who first embraced the gospel of the Son of God