It has been proclaimed upon the housetops and in the secret chamber, in the public walks and private circles throughout the length and breadth of this vast continent, that stealing by the Latter-day Saints has received my approval; nay, that I have taught them the doctrine, encouraged them in plunder, and led on the van--than which nothing is more foreign from my heart. I disfellowship the perpetrators of all such abominations; they are devils and not Saints, totally unfit for the society of Christians or men. It is true that some professing to be Latter-day Saints have taught such vile heresies, but all are not Israel that are of Israel; and I want it distinctly understood in all coming time, that The Church over which I have the honor of presiding, will ever set its brows like brass, and its face like steel, against all such abominable acts of villainy and crime. Nor were the Twelve less forcible in denouncing this iniquity. In an epistle printed at the same time with the above they said: We know not how to express our abhorrence of such an idea, and can only say it is engendered in hell, founded in falsehood, and is the offspring of the devil; that it is at variance with every principle of righteousness and truth, and will damn all that are connected with it. * * * We further call upon The Church to bring all such characters before the authorities, that they may be tried and dealt with according to the law of God and delivered up to the laws of the land. About this time, too, there were gangs of robbers operating up and down the Mississippi river from which the Saints suffered, as many of their horses and cattle were stolen; but more serious injury arose from the fact that the acts of these robbers were attributed to the Saints themselves, and did much to prejudice the minds of the public against them. In the month of December the attempt to build up the town of Warren, located one mile south of Warsaw, was abandoned. As early as the fall of 1839 Daniel S. Witter, a man owning a sawmill at Warsaw, held out inducements to the First Presidency of The Church to settle at or in the vicinity of Warsaw, but the location where the Saints built up Nauvoo was considered preferable. Still Witter, Aldrich, Warren, and others continued to solicit the authorities of The Church to make an attempt to build up a city near Warsaw; and finally, in the spring of 1841, an agreement was entered into between The Church authorities and Witter, Warren and Aldrich--owners of the school section located just south of Warsaw--by which any of the Saints settling on this school section, already surveyed into town lots and called Warren, were to have certain privileges granted them.