SOURCE: An untitled article in The Nauvoo Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 1, June 7, 1844.

The following excerpt is taken from the first and only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, a paper published by Mormon opponents of Joseph Smith's leadership. In response to the Expositor's attacks on himself and Mormonism, on the evening of June 10, Smith and the Nauvoo city council ordered his Nauvoo Legion to destroy the newspaper. Smith's action against the Expositor spawned the series of events which led to the murder of Smith and his brother Hyrum on June 27. In the following excerpt, seceders from the Mormon Church at Nauvoo explain the reasons for their dissension.

Preamble.

It is with the greatest solicitude for the salvation of the Human Family, and of our own souls, that we have this day assembled. Feign would we have slumbered, and "like the Dove that covers and conceals the arrow that is preying...