So much to preface this friendly hint to the State of Missouri; for, notwithstanding some of her private citizens and public officers have committed violence, robbery, and even murder upon the rights and persons of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yet compassion, dignity, and a sense of the principles of religion among all classes, and honor and benevolence, mingled with charity by high-minded patriots, lead me to suppose that there are many worthy people in that State who will use their influence and energies to bring about a settlement of all those old difficulties, and use all consistent means to urge the State, for her honor, prosperity, and good name, to restore every person she or her citizens have expelled from her limits, to their rights, and pay them all damage, that the great body of high-minded and well-disposed Southern and Western gentlemen and ladies--the real peacemakers of a western world, will go forth, good Samaritan-like, and pour in the oil and wine, till all that can be healed are made whole; and, after repentance, they shall be forgiven; for verily the Scriptures say, "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety-and-nine just persons that need no repentance." * * * * * * When you meditate upon the massacre at Haun's mill, forget not that the constitution of your State holds this broad truth to the world, that none shall "be deprived of _life, liberty, or property_, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land." And when you assemble together in towns, countries, or districts, whether to petition your legislature to pay the damage the Saints have sustained in your State, by reason of oppression and misguided zeal, or to restore them to their rights according to Republican principles and benevolent designs, reflect, and make honorable, or annihilate, such statute law as was in force in your State in 1838,--viz., "If twelve or more persons shall combine to levy war against any part of the people of this State, or to remove forcibly out of the State or from their habitations, evidenced by taking arms and assembling to accomplish such purpose, every person so offending shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a period not exceeding five years, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months."