THREATS OF A MOB OF THREE HUNDRED AT INDEPENDENCE—PURITY REQUIRED OF CHURCH MEMBERS—EXCOMMUNICATION OF DR. P. HURLBURT—HIS THREATS AGAINST THE PROPHET—PIXLEY JOINS THE MOB—HIS MALICIOUS FALSEHOODS— MEETING OF A BASE ELEMENT—WICKED DETERMINATIONS—DESTRUCTION OF THE SAINTS' PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT—W. W. PHELPS DRIVEN FROM HOME—BISHOP PARTRIDGE AND ELDER ALLEN TARRED AND FEATHERED—"YOU MUST LEAVE THE COUNTRY"—ANOTHER MEETING OF THE ENEMY—THE SAINTS AGREE TO LEAVE JACKSON COUNTY.  
Eighteen hundred years after the crucifixion of our Savior, His Church in this last dispensation celebrated the third anniversary of its establishment. The ceremonies took place on the 6th day of April, 1833, on the banks of the Big Blue River in the western part of Jackson County, Missouri. Few as were the Saints then gathered in the land Zion, the event was impressive in its solemn recall of the past, and sublime in its exalted promise for the future of Christ's people. Joseph himself was not there; but eighty men who had received the Priesthood and also many other members of the Church were present to enjoy this reawakening in modern times of the power of the Son of God.
 
This was not to be the only reawakening. The spirit of insensate murder which Jesus had encountered and which had culminated on Calvary was aroused in all its intensity against these His humble and chosen followers in the latter days. In the same month which witnessed the glorious reunion of the Saints, a mob, consisting of three hundred men, congregated at Independence and swore with much blasphemy to drive the people of God from their homes in that region and to destroy that branch of the Church. News of these dreadful threats was brought to the leading Elders at Independence; and in solemn assemblage they prayed that God would stay the hand of the wicked. The supplication was granted for a time; and the drunken rabble became filled with mutual hatred and distrust, so that they scattered from the meeting and carousing place, mingling with their maledictions against the Saints much vile language and many execrations concerning each other.
 
When the Prophet learned of these manifestations in Jackson County, he was filled with much concern for his brethren; but his duty as commanded by the Lord required for a time his presence at Kirtland and in the East. And at Kirtland, despite the poverty of the people and the menace made by a wicked world against them, preparations were made to build the house unto the Lord as required in the revelations.
 
The spirit of persecution which raged was doubtless permitted, if for no other reason than that it had the effect to purify the Church, and the members were also admonished thereby to sweep all unworthiness from their midst and to exclude from Church membership all wilful and persistent wrong-doers. Few and poor as were the Saints, it was the rule that no man, whatever his attainments or wealth, should retain his fellowship if his conduct proved that his soul was vile. It was not and is not now the practice of the Latter-day Saints to cover the sins of their members from the gaze of an unbelieving world, and to harbor the wrong-doer rather than to subject the entire body to the reproach of scoffers. With charity such as Christ commanded for all the frailties of a humanity struggling toward goodness, the Church has ever been an uncompromising punisher of wilful wickedness. In June, 1833, one Doctor P. Hurlburt was tried by the council of High Priests upon a charge of impure conduct with women while acting as a missionary in the East; and although he contested the case, as he desired for his own selfish purposes to continue for a time in relation with the Church, his guilt was fully established, he was cut off and the world was warned against him as an insidious enemy of female chastity. This man Hurlburt, being filled with hatred by the exposure of his true nature, showed himself a vindictive enemy of the Prophet and the Church, and in later times his name became associated with the notorious Spaulding story, and with threats and attempts upon Joseph's life.
 
It was by such men, dishonorable apostates, suborned and aided by a jealous clergy, that the early falsehoods were propagated and the early persecutions were incited against the Church which would not condone their impurities. And it is the wicked untruth, started in that age and added to by the same class of men in later times, which is circulated to-day and which deceives the world concerning a people whose sole desire is to live in purity and in peace with all mankind. It was then, as it is now, noted that, in many instances, the charges against Latter-day Saints have varied according to the varied character of their originators. Men whose profession is divining for money, whose trade is deceiving human souls to gratify their own avarice, joined in the cry that Joseph Smith and his fellow Apostles were selfish seekers after the things of this world. Men whose souls felt no repugnance to the butchery of defenseless men, pure women and innocent little children originated the awful lie that murder was practiced and condoned by this Church. Impure wretches, looking with lustful eyes upon females, originated the untruth that woman was degraded and her virtue held in light esteem by the Latter-day Saints; and among the most prominent persecutors and prosecutors of this people have been lechers. Dishonest and disreputable men circulated the absurd falsehood that Joseph Smith and his followers sought to despoil others of their possessions instead of acquiring homes by the labors of their own hands. It is one of the most peculiar experiences of the Saints that in most instances the charge brought against them has been one of which the originator would himself be glad to be guilty.
 
So it was at Independence in the summer of 1833.
 
The first effort of the mob failed. They lacked a leader sufficiently base to unite them in their plans for robbery and murder. But in July of that year a man named Pixley, a paid agent of a sectarian Missionary Society, was dwelling in that region under the pretense of helping the Indians to the light of Christianity. He defamed the Saints to their fellow citizens of Missouri and sent malicious lies to the eastern states to stir up the older communities of the nation to a feeling of dislike. He misrepresented the Saints to the Indians and to the wilder white men of the border, with the hope to inflame these ungoverned and lawless people to attack and destroy the little handful of church members. The number of the Saints in the center stake of Zion at this time was twelve hundred. They were law-abiding and industrious. But they were intent upon the work commanded of the Lord, and they did not assimilate readily nor join in unworthy pursuits with the surrounding people, white and red and black. This self-isolation or exclusiveness constituted their sole offense. It is not surprising that the Saints should have striven to k............