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Remarks to group delivered at "Captain Dutche's" on December 29, 1842
Source: Joseph Smith Diary (Willard Richards)

Gen law asked why the Sun was masculine & ^moonfemini[n]e? ^Joseph The root of masculine is st[r]onger & of feminine weaker - Sun is a governing planet to certain planets while the moon borrows her light from the sun & is less or weaker - &c - Let the Government of Mo. redress the wrongs she has don to the mormons or let the curse follow them from generation to generation till the do - when ^I wasw [sic] going up to Missouri in Co with Elder Rigdon & our families we arrived at Paris. Illinois on a extreme cold day. to go forward was 14 miles to a house. & back was nearly as far we applied to all the taverns for admission in vain. we were mormons & could not be received such was the cold that in one hour we must have perished. we plead for our women & children in vain we councelled together & the brethern agreed to stand by me. & we concluded we might as well die fighting as freeze to death. I went into a tavern & plead our cause to get admission. The Landlord said he could not keep us for love or money. I told him we must & would stay let the consequence be what it might. for we must stay or perish. the Landlord said they had heard the mormons were very bad people & the inhabitants of the Paris had combined not to have any thing to do with them but we might stary. I told him we would stay but no thanks to him. & we went in & all the taverns, I have men enough to take the town & if we must freeze we will freeze by the burning of these houses = The taverns were then opened & we were accomadated. & received many apologies in the morning from the inhabitants for their abusive treatment.


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