Dear Brethren and Sisters:

In the plenitude of God's mercy the Saints are once again permitted in peace to assemble in General Conference to worship the Lord, to extol His goodness, to glorify His name, to hear His word, and to receive such instructions from His servants as the Holy Spirit shall dictate, as well as to transact such business pertaining to His Church as may be presented for their consideration. But as we, your brethren of the First Presidency, are, by the force of peculiar circumstances, deprived on this occasion of your society and you of ours, we deem it consistent with the duties of our calling to address you by letter, and in this way to lay before you that which under more favorable conditions we should have been pleased to have delivered orally.

In the first place, we extend our congratulations to you, as Latter-day Saints and members of the Church of Christ, that affairs with us are so favorable that so many can meet together as you do on this the fifty-sixth anniversary of the organization of the Church, in General Conference. Persecution has raged, and hideous wrongs have been and are being perpetrated against us as a Church, but thus far our enemies have not been permitted to go to such lengths as the persecutors of the people of God did in the days of the first Alma, when they put tasks upon his people and put taskmasters over them and put to death

those whom they found calling upon God. Though many of us are deprived of the privilege of meeting together in public, yet a goodly number of you can assemble as you do this day and worship your God and listen to His word; and we all-prisoners, exiles and free-can call upon our God without danger of punishment therefor. Indeed, we need not go to the days of Alma for contrast between the condition of the people of God then and our present condition, to find causes for thanksgiving and praise to our God this day for His mercies unto us. We have only to refer to our own history, to scenes in which many of you have taken part, to find contrasts which should prompt us to bear our present afflictions with patient equanimity. Some of the Saints, perhaps, feel that their sufferings under the tyranny which is now exercised over us in the name of law are very severe, and they may ask how long shall these outrages be permitted to continue? But if they would understand how much worse our positions might be let them recall the scenes enacted in the State of Missouri, when the Latter-day Saints were driven by mob violence out of Jackson County into Clay County, and thence into Caldwell County, and finally were compelled to flee, in the depth of an inclement winter, out of the State, under an order of Lilburn W. Boggs, the Governor, which said "that the Mor