and come home with the first company
in the Spring I think He will be better
satisfied to do that, than to come home
this fall. Well it seems that the Utah
Judges have formed a platform for the
Elders to stand upon & Decide whithch
they will do some God or Bad and
the Decision thy make will Decide
their Destiny for all time & Eternity
when John Sharp went back on
his family his covenants his religion
& his God It cast a gloom over the
minds of Many, but when Bishop Clawson chose Imprisonment instd
of Deserting his wives & children Breaking
his covenants Denying his faith & tes-
timony his God it sent a thrill of
Joy through the breasts of thousands
I would rather be shotDead or
struck with lightning than to do
as Sharp & others have done Give me
Imprisionment or give me Death
but dont ask me to disown & Desert
my family break my Covenants—
and come home with the first company
in the Spring I think He will be better
satisfied to do that, than to come home
this fall. Well it seems that the Utah
Judges have formed a platform for the
Elders to stand upon & Decide which
they will do some God or Bad and
the Decision thy make will Decide
their Destiny for all time & Eternity
when John Sharp went back on
his family his covenants his religion
& his God It cast a gloom over the
minds of Many, but when Bishop
Clawson chose Imprisonment instd
of Deserting his wives & children Breaking
his covenants Denying his faith & testimony his God it sent a thrill of
Joy through the breasts of thousands
I would rather he shotDead or
struck with lightning than to do
as Sharp & others have done Give me
Imprisionment or give me Death
but dont ask me to disown & Desert
my family break my Covenants—
"Letter to Clara Martisha Woodruff Beebe, 4 October 1885," p. 3, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed April 26, 2024, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/wm4g