I have also enjoyed many precious moments with the Saints during my journey.
On my way home I did not fail to proclaim the iniquity and insolence of Martin Van Buren, toward myself and an injured people, which will have its effect upon the public mind; and may he never be elected again to any office of trust or power, [3] by which he may abuse the innocent and let the guilty go free.
I depended on Dr. Foster to keep my daily journal during this journey, but he has failed me.
Elders Brigham Young and Reuben Hedlock returned to New York, and held a conference, when many Elders were ordained.
{ 90} _Report of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Case of the Saints vs. Missouri_.
Twenty-sixth Congress--First Session.--In the Senate of the United States, March 4th, 1840. Submitted, laid on the table, and ordered to be printed, the following Report, made by Mr. Wall--
The Committee on the Judiciary to whom was referred the Memorial of a Delegation of the Latter-day Saints, report--
The Petition of the Memoralists sets forth, in substance, that a portion of their sect commenced a settlement in the county of Jackson, in the state of Missouri, in the summer of 1831; that they bought lands, built houses, erected churches, and established their homes, and engaged in all the various occupations of life; that they were expelled from that county in 1833 by a mob, under circumstances of great outrage, cruelty, and oppression, and against all law, and without any offense committed on their part, and to the destruction of property to the amount of 120,000 dollars; that the society thus expelled amounted to about 1,200 souls; that no compensation was ever made for the destruction of their property in Jackson; that after their expulsion from Jackson county, they settled in Clay county, on the opposite side of the Missouri river, where they purchased lands, and entered others at the land office; where they resided peaceably for three years, engaged in cultivation, and other useful and active employments, when the mob again threatened their peace, lives, and property; and they became alarmed, and finally made a treaty with the citizens of Clay county, that they should purchase their lands, and the Saints should remove; which was complied with on their part, and the Saints removed to the county of Caldwell, where they took up their abode and re-established their settlement, not without heavy pecuniary losses and other inconveniences; that the citizens of Clay county never paid them for their lands, except for a small part; they remained in Caldwell from 1836 until the fall of 1838, and during that time had acquired, by purchase from the Government, the settlers, and pre-emptioners, almost all the lands in the county of Caldwell, and a portion of the lands in Daviess and Carroll counties--the former county being almost entirely settled by the Saints, and they were rapidly filling up the two latter counties.