Memorial to the United States President, 30 March 1844
Source Note
JS, Memorial, , Hancock Co., IL, to the United States President [], , 30 Mar. 1844; handwriting of ; JS signature in unidentified handwriting; docket and notation in handwriting of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL.
Page [2]
To still the tongue of Slander, and shew the world that a Republic can be and not be ungrateful: To open the vast regions of the unpeopled West and South to our enlightened and enterprising yeomanry: To protect them in their researches; To secure them in their locations, and thus strengthen the Government and enlarge her borders: To extend her influence: To inspire the nations with the Spirit of Freedom, and win them to her standard: To promote intelligence: To cultivate and establish peace among all, with whom we may have intercourse as neighbors: To settle all existing difficulties, among those not organized into an acknowledged government bordering upon the and territories: To save the national revenue in the ’s coffers: To supersede the necessity of a standing army, on our western and southern frontier: To create and maintain the principles of peace, and suppress Mobs, insurrections, and oppression in , and all lands bordering upon the , and not incorporated into any acknowledged national government: To explore the unexplored regions of our Continent: To open new feildsfields for enterprize to our Citizens, and protect them therein: To search out the antiquities of the Land, and thereby promote the arts, and sciences and general information: To amalgamate the feelings of all with whom he may have intercourse, on the principles of Equity, liberty, justice, humanity and benevelonce: To break down tyranny and oppression, and exalt the Standard of Universal peace: Provided he shall have the privilege, and be protected in those fights and privileges, which constitutionally belong to every citizen of this :— Therefore, that the said Memorialist may have the privilige; and that no citizen of these shall obstruct, or attempt to obstruct or hinder so good,, so great, so noble an enterprize, to carry out those plans and principles, as set forth in this preamble, and be shielded from every opposition by evil and designing men.
Be it known that I, , President of the , have granted, and by these letters do grant, unto Joseph Smith of the city of in the State of , all the privileges called for in the foregoing Preamble, and the said Joseph Smith is hereby authorised and empowered to raise a company of one hundred thousand men, otherwise called armed volunteers, in these and Territories, at such times and places and in such numbers as he shall find necessary and convenient, for the purposes specified in the Preamble to this proclamation, and to execute the same. And further:
Be it known, that to prevent any person or persons from hindering, or attempting to hinder, or molest, the said Smith in executing his design, in enlisting and organizing said volunteers, and marching or transporting the same to the borders of the and Territories, I have constituted, and by these letters do constitute the said Joseph Smith, a member of the Army of the and <the said Smith> is authorised to act as such in the and Territories, and upon all lands bordering upon the and Territories, for the purposes specified in the foregoing preamble: Provided said lands shall not be within the acknowledged jurisdicition of any acknowledged national government; And further;
Be it known that nothing in these letters shall be so construed by any individual or nation, as to consider the Volunteers aforesaid, or any part or parcel thereof as constituting any portion of the Army of the United States; Neither shall the said Joseph Smith as a memberof the United States Army, disturb the peace [p. [2]]