| 97 the representative of a community of people called Mormons, to solicit from the government of the United States, an investigation into the causes that led to their expulsion from the State of Missouri: together with the various circumstances connected with that extraordinary affair.
"I think it due to that people to state, that they had for a number of years a community established in Ohio, and that while in that State they were (as far as I ever heard) believed to be an industrious, inoffensive people; and I have no recollection of having ever heard of any of them being charged in that State as violators of the laws.
"With sincere respect, I am your obedient servant,
"Robert Lucas."
-Millennial Star, vol. 17, p. 151.
My position is that no fanatic, either in religion or politics, should be permitted to hold an office of trust in this country.
The above is a fair average sample of the testimony of those I have met and talked with as to the character of the early Mormons in this county, among those who lived here and knew these people. A gentleman of Willoughby, this county, suggested to me, that another reason was, their persecutors wanted their property, and said he, "They got from them thousands of dollars worth too." After canvassing the sentiment here of these men, I feel a good deal like Col. R. G. Ingersoll when he offered the gold for the evidence of Tom Paine's dying declarations; and I now affirm that if any of the great newspapers of the day, like the Chicago Times, Tribune, or Inter-Ocean wish to test the truth of the statements and publish the facts by a correspondent through their columns, I will undertake the task of accompanying their correspondent and if the general integrity, uprightness, honesty and patriotism, of these men are not maintained by the evidence, I will forfeit to the one so publishing one hundred dollars in gold. A letter will reach me at any time directed, Glenwood, Iowa.
My associate counsel in the case here, J. B. Burrows, Esq., is not only an able attorney but a genial gentleman. He is a brother of Congressman Burrows from Michigan, and I must say that his acquaintance has greatly raised in my estimation the favorable opinion I had already entertained of Michigan's great orator. I find many able and indeed eloquent practitioners at the bar here,-this is one of the oldest towns in the State, as well as the wealthiest in proportion to its population-and, as all well informed attorneys are, these are pleasant and honorable.
Hastily, I am very respectfully yours,
E. L. KELLEY.
Painesville, Ohio, Feb. 19, 1880.
-Saints' Herald, vol. 27, pp. 84, 85.
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