were a free citizen of this republic during that dark "reign of terror". But
I was permitted once more to hail your return to your friends, and to rejoice in the triumph
you had thus gained over the enemy and had the happiness once more to peruse the
lines dictated by your brotherly kindness. I saw you engage in preparing yourself
for the more efficient discharge of your duties as a minister of grace and among
your fellows I imagined you giving and receiving counsel in relation to matters app-
ertaining to the interests of "the Church" I saw you taking upon yourself the flowery
yoke of matrimony and, (believe me) I rejoiced in the consideration that in subm-
itting your neck to the yoke you had found a true yoke-fellow in whom you
might not only find an assistant bearer of your burdens and sharer of your sorrows and
joys but also an agreeable companion who should sweeten the sorrows of your life,
and heighten the enjoyments of your happier hours by her cheerful smile and devoted
love. I saw you bending your way to the far East to enter a new field, even to speak
the word to the "Islands of the Sea". I followed you in your journeyings and saw you
commence your labors upon the Islands—rejoice in your sucess—prayed for
your comfort and safety—lamented the bigotry and intolerance you encountered,
and left ashamed with you that men, nay—that those who present themselves
to the world as ambassadors from the Court of Heaven,
should so far depart
from the principles of spirit of enlightened, liberal, & republican principles
(to say nothing of the principles of the religion they profess) as did thou
preachers and Elders who so ungenerously opposed you. Fools that they are!
to believe in a God and to worship him in the forms of his religion and at the
same time to have so little confidence in His cause as to fear and quake lest
a handful of "Mormons" should upturn there it root and branch! I followed
you on your return to the main land and accompanied you again to the land of your
birth, was with you in spirit aroundat a fathers house and did not envy
you the paternal affection and maternal tenderness which you there enjoyed
and in the fulness of a brothers heart I did not forget to yield to you
the entire devotion of a sisters heart. It was indeed a priviledge which you
enjoyed to spend so pleasant a season at home and I should have been happy
[therin] happy to have made one in the family circle on that occasion. But how
soon I shall enjoy that pleasure with you or whether such happiness is in
reserve for me at all is a subject I do not like to reflect upon. But I have
not forgotten that previous to your last visit at home you went to New York
that you then met with your bre[thren] from Europe and heard from them of
the progress of the "work" in a foreign land. I went up the North River
with you and across the hills and dales to Connecticut. Conjured up all the
familiar faces in Avon, Lovely street cider brooks &c &c and brought
them up to hear the mormon preacher, and [have] several times gone down
with you to the solumn waters of baptism. All them and many other
picturesscenes have I frequently imagined myself a witness of—and this hasty
and imperfect outline so imperfectly drawn (in my haste) has afforded
the subject of many a picture which I have dwelt upon with much
interest drawing so largely upon my imagination it would be expected
that many of the scenes which I should represent to myself would be mere
fancy sketches and I presume that in following your amid the diver-
sified scenes of the last few years of your life I have often followed you at
a great distance and sometimes perhaps have mistook^aken^ your way. That I
have not fully ^properly^ appreciated the spirit by which your steps have been directed
I think is more than probable for indeed I am incompetent to judge with regard
to the character of the cause in which you have been engaged I have ^having^ never
been able to avail myself of such information as would enable me to form
adequate ideas of the origin—character and tendency of Mormonism.