| 272 what she believed to be corrupting and destructive of purity and virtue in woman, will be crowned in celestial life and immortal peace.
We trust, so far as her oldest son is personally concerned, that those against whose principles we are at war, will cease casting the fault of our error and crime (if it be such), in choosing our fate in Mormonism upon her; so far as we can possibly do so, we absolve her from any and all responsibility in the matter, and desire that upon us alone may be visited the punishment due.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 26, p. 200.
On June 15, 1879, Elder M. H. Forscutt delivered a commemorative discourse on the death of "Sister Emma," at Plano, Illinois.
In order to put Oliver Cowdery, the second elder of the church, whose testimony is so interwoven with the early history of the church, correctly on record regarding issues that have divided latter-day Israel, we here record a letter from him to his brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Jackson, as published in Saints' Advocate, May, 1879, in answer to a letter from his sister relating to the existence of polygamy at Nauvoo:
TIFFIN, Seneca County, Ohio, July 24, 1846.
Brother Daniel and Sister Phœbe: Phœbe's letter mailed at Montrose on the 2d of this month was received in due time, and would have been replied to immediately, but it came in the midst of toil and the business of court, which has just closed, and I take the earliest moment to answer. It is needless to say that we had long looked for and long expected a letter from you or Sr. Lucy. Now, brother Daniel and sister Phœbe, what will you do? Has sister Phœbe written us the truth? and if so, will you venture with your little ones into the toils and fatigues of a long journey and that for the sake of finding a resting-place, when you know of miseries of such magnitude as have, as will, and as must rend asunder the tenderest and holiest ties of domestic life? I can hardly think it possible that you have written us the truth, that though there may be individuals who are guilty of the iniquities spoken of-yet no such practice can be preached or adhered to as a public doctrine. Such may do for the followers of Mahomet; it may have been done some thousands of years ago; but no people professing to be governed by the pure and holy principles of the Lord Jesus, can hold up their heads before the world at this distance of time and be guilty of such folly, such wrong, such abomination. It will blast, like a mill-dew, their fairest prospects, and lay the ax at the root of their future happiness.
You would like to know whether we are calculating to come on and emigrate to California. On this subject everything depends upon circumstances not necessary for me to here speak of. We do not feel
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