11^th I perused the Portland Argus & saw the returnes of the Election of Cumberland County the
republicans had a majority over the federalist of about 100. I expect the electionereing excitement
will pass off in few day & sumthing els will occupy the minds of men. [FIGURE] I learn from experienc
that the Saint must watch & pray lest he enter into tempation & in order to overcome the
devil we must continually be on our watch tower. the Saint in any age of the world cannot
pass through their allotted portion of existance on flowery beds of ease in this life. I am now daily making
preperations to leave the state of Maine and all my relatives and friends in Scarborough to lead a company
of Saints from the Islands of the sea to the land of Zion in the far west I shall be accompanied by
my wife & child. It is the greatest trial Phebe has ever been called to pass through to take the parting
hand of her Parents, Brethren & sisters, & neighbours & perhaps for the last time, & go a journey of
two thousand miles late in the fall & start with a babe of two mont[h]s old which is in the first stage
of the hooping cough & to add to this to leave a kind father's house of plenty & go to a new country &
settelle among strangers after the flesh. These kind reader are the meditations that are daily running
with the rapidity of lighting through the mind of my bosom friend & companion & to add the insinuation
of friends against such a course of procedings, and all the temptations that the devil is capable of
inventing are crouded into the mind in order to hinder the will of God being done. Thus standing in the
midst of such a position nothing but a Saint could stand the shock nothing but a God could support the
sinking soul. I speak not of myself but my companion and when she suffers I suffer also. The above has
been a code of experience my wife hath been passing through from time to time for weeks that are

past and gone and at times it seemed as though all earth & hell were combined to crush her troubled soul
I began to cry unto God that she might be supported under these & all other trials, & I soon found that the same
spirit which had inspired her to imbrace the fullness of the gospel & forssake her friends & go a journey of 1000
miles to enjoy the society of the Saints & had united her heart & hand with my own & caused her to accom-
pany me to the Islands of the sea, was with HER STILL. Yes PHEBE possesses to much firmness, & faith in God
& confidence in God to put her hand to the plough & look back or to wholey give way to such trials & any other howev[er]
great. She is determined, like Ruth, to forsake her kindred & country for Christ'^s sake & my own & the cause
in which she is ingaged, & as I behold this principle beaming in her daily walk, heart & countenance it bindes my
whole soul to her in love stronger than death or the bars of a castle, yes that love that none partakes of except
those in like circumstances, and that man that will not love his wife with all his heart after she has made such a
sacrifice for his sake is not worthoy of a companion or a standing in human society. And O ye ungodly gentiles
that would laugh at a man for considering such a wife the greatest temporal blessing that heaven could bestow
ye are more fit for the society of Demons than a virtuous woman.

The devel has never tempted
me to scease from doing the will of God by gathering to Zion or to scease travling & preaching the gospel, by prese
nting before my my friends & telling me to stay & enjoy their society for in doing thus I might ruing both myself
& friends I would sooner say to him get the[e] behind me Satan for I would go to the land of Zion or where ever
God sent if I had to forsake as many fathers, mothers, brothers, & sisters as could stand between Maine &
Missouri & subsist upon boiled herbs on the way.

Father & Mother Carter with all the Brothers
and sisters appertaining to the household, have been uncommonly attentive, kind, & generous to us both during
the last year that we have been with them, although they do not see the propriety of our gathering with the
Saints to Zion in order to escape the judgments of God, yet my prayer to God is that they may not loose their
reward for their uncommon kindness towards us but may yet have their eyes open to understand the
commandments of God concerning Zion in the last days & flee unto it for reffuge themselves & obtain a
righteous inheritance there while the judgments of God are resting upon the gentiles & may they also have
part in the first resurrection & finally obtain a celestial Glory which is my prayer through JESUS CHRIST