Call for All Men to Volunteer & Sacrifice Their Lives in the Cause of Innocence & Truth — William Clayton (August 15, 1842)
…all those who may volunteer their lives and their fortunes with ours; for the defence of our wives, our children, our fathers and our mothers; our homes; our grave yards, and our tombs; and our dead and their tombstones, and our dear bought American liberties with the blood of our fathers, and all that is dear and sacred to man. Shall we shrink at the onset? No, let every mans brow be as the face of a Lion; let his heart be unshaken as the mighty oak, and his knee confirmed as the sappline [sapling] of the forrest; and by the voice and loud roar of the cannon; and the loud peals and thundering of Artillery; and by the voice of the thunderings of heaven as upon mount Sinai; and by the voice of the Heavenly Hosts; and by the voice of the Eternal God; and by the voice of innocent blood; and by the voice of innocence; and by the voice of all that is sacred and dear to man, let us plead the justice of our cause; trusting in the arm of Jehovah the Eloheem who sits enthroned in the heavens: that peradventure he may give us the victory; and if we bleed we shall bleed in a good cause— in the cause of innocence and truth: and from henceforth will their not be a crown of glory for us? And will not those who come after us, hold our names in sacred remembrance? and will our enemies dare to brand us with cowardly reproach?
Journal, December 1841–December 1842, pp. 132-133, The Joseph Smith Papers.
