| 88 found hundreds from all parts of the country with their faces turned towards Missouri, with glad hearts, anticipating a home of peace and plenty as a reward of honest toil.
blood The influence of our friends as instruments in the hands of God kept this gathering storm from bursting upon our heads. About this time the sheriff proposed to us that if we would leave the county in ten days and pay the cost they would set us at liberty, at the same time informing us that it was the only way for us to escape the hands of the mob, who were hardly restrained from acts of violence. One of the brethren present offered to pay the cost and all advised us to accept the offer, although in its nature most insulting, for if we were really guilty of a violation of the laws of the State their oath of office obligated them to bind us over to trial before the circuit court. But this was not the fact; we were not guilty, and this last step proves to a demonstration that they (the court) did not consider us so; and shows that oaths, obligations, and the rights of man were discharged, and the whole scenery from beginning to end was controlled and governed by a set of ruthless humans, who are sunk in the lowest depths of degradation and infamy, of whom the Devil himself ought to be ashamed.
Warren Parrish.
(page 88) |
