While the prisoners were in jail, things had not quieted down in the Mormon counties. The decisive action of the state authorities had given the local Missourians to understand that the law of the land was on their side, and when the militia withdrew they took advantage of their opportunity. Mormon property was not respected, and what was left to those people in the way of horses, cattle, hogs, and even household belongings was taken by the bands of men who rode at pleasure,* and who claimed that they were only regaining what the Mormons had stolen from them. The legislature appropriated $2000 for the relief of such sufferers. * See M. Arthur's letter, "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 94. Facing the necessity of moving entirely out of the state, the Mormons, as they had reached the western border line of civilization, now turned their face eastward to Quincy, Illinois, where some of their members were already established. Not until April 20 did the last of them leave Far West. The migration was attended with much suffering, as could not in such circumstances be avoided. The people of the counties through which they passed were, however, not hostile, and Mormon writers have testified that they received invitations to stop and settle. These were declined, and they pressed on to the banks of the Mississippi, where, in February and March, there were at one time more than 130 families, waiting for the moving ice to enable them to cross, many of them without food, and the best sheltered depending on tents made of their bedclothing.* * Green's "Facts Relative to the Expulsion." What the total of the pecuniary losses of the Mormons in Missouri was cannot be accurately estimated. They asserted that in Jackson County alone, $120,000 worth of their property was destroyed, and that fifteen thousand of their number fled from the state. Smith, in a statement of his losses made after his arrival in Illinois, placed them at $1,000,000. In a memorial presented to Congress at this time the losses in Jackson County were placed at $175,000, and in the state of Missouri at $2,000,000. The efforts of the Mormons to secure redress were long continued. Not only was Congress appealed to, but legislatures of other states were urged to petition in their behalf. The Senate committee at Washington reported that the matter was entirely within the jurisdiction of the state of Missouri. One of the latest appeals was addressed by Smith at Nauvoo in December, 1843, to his native state, Vermont, calling on the Green Mountain boys, not only to assist him in attaining justice in Missouri, "but also to humble and chastise or abase her for the disgraces she has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones for her sin."