III. THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY--THE ARMY OF ZION…

III. THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY--THE ARMY OF ZION

The efforts of the church leaders to check too precipitate an emigration to the new Zion were not entirely successful, and, according to the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1833, the Mormons with their families then numbered more than twelve hundred, or about one-third of the total population of the county. The elders had been pushing their proselyting work throughout the States and in Canada, and the idea of a land of plenty appealed powerfully to the new believers, and especially to those of little means. The branch of the church established at Colesville, New York, numbering about sixty members, emigrated in a body and settled twelve miles from Independence. Other settlements were made in the rural districts, and the non-Mormons began to be seriously exercised over the situation. The Saints boasted openly of their future possession of the land, without making clear their idea of the means by which they would obtain title to it. An open defiance in the name of the church appeared in an article in the Evening and Morning Star for July, 1833, which contained this declaration:--

"No matter what our ideas or notions may be on the subject; no matter what foolish report the wicked may circulate to gratify an evil disposition; the Lord will continue to gather the righteous and destroy the wicked, till the sound goes forth, IT IS FINISHED."

With even greater fatuity came the determination to publish the prophet's "revelations" in the form of the "Book of Commandments." Of the effect of this publication David Whitmer says, "The main reason why the printing press [at Independence] was destroyed, was because they published the 'Book of Commandments.' It fell into the hands of the world, and the people of Jackson County saw from the revelations that they were considered intruders upon the Land of Zion, as enemies of the church, and that they should be cut off out of the Land of Zion and sent away."*

* "Address to All Believers in Christ," p. 54.

Corrill says of the causes of friction between the Mormons and their neighbors:--*

* Corrill's" Brief History of the Church," p. 19.

"The church got crazy to go up to Zion, as it was then called. The rich were afraid to send up their money to purchase lands, and the poor crowded up in numbers, without having any places provided, contrary to the advice of the Bishop and others, until the old citizens began to be highly displeased. They saw their country filling up with emigrants, principally poor. They disliked their religion, and saw also that, if let alone, they would in a short time become a majority, and of course rule the county. The church kept increasing, and the old citizens became more and more dissatisfied, and from time to time offered to sell their farms and possessions, but the Mormons, though desirous, were too poor to purchase them."*

* After the survey of Jackson County, Congress granted to the state of Missouri a large tract of land, the sale of which should be made for educational purposes, and the Mormons took title to several thousand acres of this, west of Independence.

The active manifestation of hostility toward the new-comers by the residents of Jackson County first took shape in the spring of 1832, in the stoning of Mormon houses at night and the breaking of windows. Soon afterward a county meeting was called to take measures to secure the removal of the Mormons from that county, but nothing definite was done. The burning of haystacks, shooting into houses, etc., continued until July, 1833, when the Mormon opponents circulated a statement of their complaints, closing with a call for a meeting in the courthouse at Independence, on Saturday, July 20. The text of this manifesto, which is important as showing the spirit as well as the precise grounds of the opposition, is as follows:--

"We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson County, believing that an important crisis is at hand, as regards our civil society, in consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that have settled, and are still settling, in our county, styling themselves Mormons, and intending, as we do, to rid our society, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must; and believing as we do, that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or at least, a sufficient one, against the evils which are now inflicted upon us, and seem to be increasing, by the said religious sect, we deem it expedient and of the highest importance to form ourselves into a company for the better and easier accomplishment of our purpose--a purpose, which we deem it almost superfluous to say, is justified as well by the law of nature, as by the law of self preservation.

"It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics, or knaves, (for one or the other they undoubtedly are,) made their first appearance amongst us, and, pretending as they did, and now do, to hold personal communication and converse face to face with the Most High God; to receive communications and revelations direct from heaven; to heal the sick by laying on hands; and, in short, to perform all the wonder-working miracles wrought by the inspired Apostles and Prophets of old.

"We believed them deluded fanatics, or weak and designing knaves, and that they and their pretensions would soon pass away; but in this we were deceived. The arts of a few designing leaders amongst them have thus far succeeded in holding them together as a society; and, since the arrival of the first of them, they have been daily increasing in numbers; and if they had been respectable citizens in society, and thus deluded, they would have been entitled to our pity rather than our contempt and hatred; but from their appearance, from their manners, and from their conduct since their coming among us, we have every reason to fear that, with but few exceptions, they were of the very dregs of that society from which they came, lazy, idle, and vicious. This we conceive is not idle assertion, but a fact susceptible of proof, for with these few exceptions above named, they brought into our county little or no property with them, and left less behind them, and we infer that those only yoked themselves to the Mormon car who had nothing earthly or heavenly to lose by the change; and we fear that if some of the leaders amongst them had paid the forfeit due to crime, instead of being chosen ambassadors of the Most High, they would have been inmates of solitary cells.

"But their conduct here stamps their characters in their true colors. More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had been tampering with our slaves, and endeavoring to rouse dissension and raise seditions amongst them. Of this their Mormon leaders were informed, and they said they would deal with any of their members who should again in like case offend. But how specious are appearances. In a late number of the Star, published in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there is an article inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become Mormons, and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society to inflict on our society an injury, that they knew would be to us entirely insupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from the county; for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a caste amongst us would corrupt our blacks, and instigate them to bloodshed.

"They openly blaspheme the Most High God, and cast contempt on His holy religion, by pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak unknown tongues by direct inspirations, and by divers pretences derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter subversion of human reason.

"They declare openly that their God hath given them this county of land, and that sooner or later they must and will have the possession of our lands for an inheritance; and, in fine, they have conducted themselves on many other occasions in such a manner that we believe it a duty we owe to ourselves, our wives, and children, to the cause of public morals, to remove them from among us, as we are not prepared to give up our pleasant places and goodly possessions to them, or to receive into the bosom of our families, as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded and corrupted free negroes and mulattoes that are now invited to settle among us.

"Under such a state of things, even our beautiful county would cease to be a desirable residence, and our situation intolerable! We, therefore, agree that, if after timely warning, and receiving an adequate compensation for what little property they cannot take with them, they refuse to leave us in peace, as they found us--we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove them, and to that end we each pledge to each other our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors.

"We will meet at the court-house, at the Town of Independence, on Saturday next, the 20th inst., to consult ulterior movements."*

* Evening and Morning Star, p. 227; Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 516.

Some hundreds of names were signed to this call, and the meeting of July 20 was attended by nearly five hundred persons. There is no doubt that it was a representative county gathering. P. P. Pratt says that the anti-Mormon organization, which he calls "outlaws," was "composed of lawyers, magistrates, county officers, civil and military, religious ministers, and a great number of the ignorant and uninformed portion of the population."* The language of the address adopted shows that skilled pens were not wanting in its preparation.

* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 103.

The first business of the meeting was the appointment of a committee to prepare an address stating the grievances of the people with somewhat greater fulness than the manifesto above quoted. Like the latter, it conceded at the start that there was no law under which the object in view could be obtained. It characterized the Mormons as but little above the negroes as regards property or education; charged them with having exerted a "corrupting influence" on the slaves;* asserted that even the more intelligent boasted daily to the Gentiles that the Mormons would appropriate their lands for an inheritance, and that their newspaper organ taught them that the lands were to be taken by the sword. Noting the rapid increase in the immigration of members of the new church, the address, looking to a near day when they would be in a majority in the county, asked: "What would be the state of our lives and property in the hands of jurors and witnesses who do not blush to declare, and would not upon occasion hesitate to swear, that they have wrought miracles, and have been the subjects of miraculous and supernatural cures, have conversed with God and his angels, and possess and exercise the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, and are fired with the prospect of obtaining inheritances without money and without price, may be better imagined than described." That this apprehension was not without grounds will be seen when we come to the administration of justice in Nauvoo and in Salt Lake City.

* The Mormons never hesitated to change their position on the slavery question. An elder's address, published in the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1833, said: "As to slaves, we have nothing to say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing toward abolishing slavery and colonizing the blacks in Africa." Three years later, in April, 1836 the Messenger and Advocate published a strong proslavery article, denying the right of the people of the North to interfere with the institution, and picturing the happy condition of the slaves. Orson Hyde, in the Frontier Guardian in 1850 (quoted in the Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 63), said: "When a man in the Southern states embraces our faith and is the owner of slaves, the church says to him, 'If your slaves wish to remain with you, and to go with you, put them not away; but if they choose to leave you, and are not satisfied to remain with you, it is for you to sell them or to let them go free, as your own conscience may direct you. The church on this point assumes not the responsibility to direct.'" Horace Greeley quoted Brigham Young as saying to him in Salt Lake City, "We consider slavery of divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants" ("Overland journey," p. 211).

The address closed with these demands:--

"That no Mormon shall in future move and settle in this county.

"That those now here, who shall give a definite pledge of their intention within a reasonable time to remove out of the county, shall be allowed to remain unmolested until they have sufficient time to sell their property and close their business without any material sacrifice.

"That the editor of the Star (W. W. Phelps) be required forthwith to close his office and discontinue the business of printing in this county; and, as to all other stores and shops belonging to the sect, their owners must in every case strictly comply with the terms of the second article of this declaration; and, upon failure, prompt and efficient measures will be taken to close the same.

"That the Mormon leaders here are required to use their influence in preventing any further emigration of their distant brethren to this county, and to counsel and advise their brethren here to comply with the above regulations.

"That those who fail to comply with the requisitions be referred to those of their brethren who have the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, to inform them of the lot that awaits them"*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 487-489.

A recess of two hours was taken in which to permit a committee of twelve to call on Bishop Partridge, Phelps, and Gilbert, and present these terms. This committee reported that these men "declined giving any direct answer to the requisitions made of them, and wished an unreasonable time for consultation, not only with their brethren here, but in Ohio." The meeting thereupon voted unanimously that the Star printing-office should be razed to the ground, and the type and press be "secured."

A report of the action of this meeting and its result was prepared by the chairman and two secretaries, and printed over their signatures in the Western Monitor of Fayette, Missouri, on August 2, 1833, and it is transferred to Smith's autobiography. It agrees with the Mormon account set forth in their later petition to Governor Dunklin. It particularized, however, that the Mormon leaders asked the committee first for three months, and then for ten days, in which to consider the demands, and were told that they could have only fifteen minutes.

What happened next is thus set forth in the chairman's report:--

"Which resolution (for the razing of the Star office) was with the utmost order and the least noise and disturbance possible, forthwith carried into execution, AS ALSO SOME OTHER STEPS OF A SIMILAR TENDENCY; but no blood was spilled nor any blows inflicted."

Mobs do not generally act with the "utmost order," and this one was not an exception to the rule, as an explanation of the "other steps" will make clear. The first object of attack was the printing office, a two-story brick building. This was demolished, causing a loss of $6000, according to the Mormon claims. The mob next visited the store kept by Gilbert, but refrained from attacking it on receiving a pledge that the goods would be packed for removal by the following Tuesday. They then called at the houses of some of the leading Mormons, and conducted Bishop Partridge and a man named Allen to the public square. Partridge told his captors that the saints had been subjected to persecution in all ages; that he was willing to suffer for Christ's sake, but that he would not consent to leave the country. Allen refused either to agree to depart or to deny the inspiration of the Mormon Bible. Both men were then relieved of their hats, coats, and vests, daubed with tar, and decorated with feathers. This ended the proceedings of that day, and an adjournment as announced until the following Tuesday.

On Tuesday, July 23 (the date of the laying of the corner-stone of the Kirtland Temple), the Missourians gathered again in the town, carrying a red flag and bearing arms. The Mormon statement to Governor Dunklin says, "They proceeded to take some of the leading elders by force, declaring it to be their intention to whip them from fifty to five hundred lashes apiece, to demolish their dwelling houses, and let their negroes loose to go through our plantations and lay open our fields for the destruction of our crops."* The official report of the officers of the meeting** says that, when the chairman had taken his seat, a committee was appointed to wait on the Mormons at the request of the latter.

* Greene, in his "Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons from the State of Missouri" (1839), says that the mob seized a number of Mormons and, at the muzzle of their guns, compelled them to confess that the Mormon Bible was a fraud.

** Millennial Star Vol. XIV, p. 500.

As a result of a conference with this committee, a written agreement was entered into, signed by the committee and the Mormons named in it, to this effect: That Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, W. E. McLellin, Edward Partridge, John Wright, Simeon Carter, Peter and John Whitmer, and Harvey Whitlock, with their families, should move from the county by January 1 next, and use their influence to induce their fellow-Mormons in the county to do likewise--one half by January 1 and all by April 1--and to prevent further immigration of the brethren; John Corrill and A. S. Gilbert to remain as agents to wind up the business of the society, Gilbert to be allowed to sell out his goods on hand; no Mormon paper to be published in the county; Partridge and Phelps to be allowed to go and come after January 1, in winding up their business, if their families were removed by that time; the committee pledging themselves to use their influence to prevent further violence, and assuring Phelps that "whenever he was ready to move, the amount of all his losses in the printing house should be paid to him by the citizens." In view of this arrangement there was no further trouble for more than two months.

The Mormon leaders had, however, no intention of carrying out their part of this undertaking. Corrill, in a letter to Oliver Cowdery written in December, 1833, said that the agreement was made, "supposing that before the time arrived the mob would see their error and stop the violence, or that some means might be employed so that we could stay in peace."* Oliver Cowdery was sent at once to Kirtland to advise with the church officers there. On his arrival, early in August, a council was convened, and it was decided that legal measures should be taken to establish the rights of the Saints in Missouri. Smith directed that they should neither sell their lands nor move out of Jackson County, save those who had signed the agreement.** It was also decided to send Orson Hyde and John Gould to Missouri "with advice to the Saints in their unfortunate situation through the late outrage of the mob."***

* Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834

** Elder Williams's Letter, Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 519.

*** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 504.

To strengthen the courage of the flock in Missouri, Smith gave forth at Kirtland, under date of August 2, 1833, a "revelation" (Sec. 97), "in answer to our correspondence with the prophet," says P. P. Pratt,* in which the Lord was represented as saying, "Surely, Zion is the city of our God, and surely Zion cannot fail, NEITHER BE MOVED OUT OF HER PLACE; for God is there, and the hand of God is there, and he has sworn by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower." The same "revelation" directed that the Temple should be built speedily by means of tithing, and threatened Zion with pestilence, plague, sword, vengeance, and devouring fire unless she obeyed the Lord's commands.

*Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 100,

The outcome of all the deliberations at Kirtland was the sending of W. W. Phelps and Orson Hyde to Jefferson City with a long petition to Governor Dunklin, setting forth the charges of the Missourians against the Mormons, and the action of the two meetings at Independence, and making a direct appeal to him for assistance, asking him to employ troops in their defence, in order that they might sue for damages, "and, if advisable, try for treason against the government."

The governor sent them a written reply under date of October 19, in which, after expressing sympathy with them in their troubles, he said: "I should think myself unworthy the confidence with which I have been honored by my fellow citizens did I not promptly employ all the means which the constitution and laws have placed at my disposal to avert the calamities with which you are threatened.... No citizen, or number of citizens, have a right to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary, into their own hands. Such conduct strikes at the very existence of society." He advised the Mormons to invoke the laws in their behalf; to secure a warrant from a justice of the peace, and so test the question "whether the law can be peaceably executed or not"; if not, it would be his duty to take steps to execute it.

The Mormons and their neighbors were thus brought face to face in a manner which admitted of no compromise. The situation naturally seemed rather a simple one to the governor, who was probably ignorant of the intentions and ambition of the Mormons. If he had understood the nature and weight of the objections to them, he would have understood also that he could protect them in their possessions only by maintaining a military force.

His letter gave the Mormons of Jackson County new courage. They had been maintaining a waiting attitude since the meeting of July 23, but now they resumed their occupations, and began to erect more houses, and to improve their places as if for a permanent stay, and meanwhile there was no cessation of the immigration of new members from the East. Their leaders consulted four lawyers in Clay County, and arranged with them to look after their legal interests.

This evident repudiation by the Mormons of their part of their agreement with the committee incensed the Jackson County people, and hostilities were resumed. On the night of October 31, a mob attacked a Mormon settlement called Big Blue, some ten miles west of Independence, damaged a number of houses, whipped some of the men, and frightened women and children so badly that they fled to the outlying country for hiding-places. On the night of November 1, Mormon houses were stoned in Independence, and the church store was broken into and its goods scattered in the street. The Mormons thereupon showed the governor's letter to a justice of the peace, and asked him for a warrant, but their accounts say that he refused one. When they took before the same officer a man whom they caught in the act of destroying their property, the justice not only refused to hold him, but granted a warrant in his behalf against Gilbert, Corrill, and two other Mormons for false imprisonment, and they were locked up.* Thrown on their own resources for defence, the Mormons now armed themselves as well as they could, and established a night picket service throughout their part of the county. On Saturday night, November 2, a second attack was made by the mob on Big Blue and, the Mormons resisting, the first "battle" of this campaign took place. A sick woman received a pistolshot wound in the head, and one of the Mormons a wound in the thigh. Parley P. Pratt and others were then sent to Lexington to procure a warrant from Circuit Judge Ryland, but, according to Pratt, he refused to grant one, and "advised us to fight and kill the outlaws whenever they came upon us."**

* Corrill's letter, Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834.

** Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 105.

On Monday evening, November 4, a body of Missourians who had been visiting some of the Mormon settlements came in contact with a company of Mormons who had assembled for defence, and an exchange of shots ensued, by which a number on both sides were wounded, one of the Mormons dying the next day.

These conflicts increased the excitement, and the Mormons, knowing how they were outnumbered, now realized that they could not stay in Jackson County any longer, and they arranged to move. At first they decided to make their new settlement only fifty miles south of Independence, in Van Buren County, but to this the Jackson County people would not consent. They therefore agreed to move north into Clay County, between which and Jackson County the Missouri River, which there runs east, formed the boundary. Most of them went to Clay County, but others scattered throughout the other nearby counties, whose inhabitants soon let them know that their presence was not agreeable.

The hasty removal of these people so late in the season was accompanied by great personal hardships and considerable pecuniary loss. The Mormons have stated the number of persons driven out at fifteen hundred, and the number of houses burned; before and after their departure, at from two hundred to three hundred. Cattle and household effects that could not be moved were sold for what they would bring, and those who took with them sufficient provisions for their immediate wants considered themselves fortunate. One party of six men and about one hundred and fifty women and children, panic-stricken by the action of the mob, wandered for several days over the prairie without even sufficient food. The banks of the Missouri River where the fugitives were ferried across presented a strange spectacle. In a pouring rain the big company were encamped there on November 7, some with tents and some without any cover, their household goods piled up around them. Children were born in this camp, and the sick had to put up with such protection as could be provided. So determined were the Jackson County people that not a Mormon should remain among them, that on November 23 they drove out a little settlement of some twenty families living about fifteen miles from Independence, compelling women and children to depart on immediate notice.

The Mormons made further efforts through legal proceedings to assert their rights in Jackson County, but unsuccessfully. The governor declared that the situation did not warrant him in calling out the militia, and referred them to the courts for redress for civil injuries. In later years they appealed more than once to the federal authorities at Washington for assistance in reestablishing themselves in Jackson County,* but were informed that the matter rested with the state of Missouri. Their future bitterness toward the federal government was explained on the ground of this refusal to come to their aid.

* James Hutchins, a resident of Wisconsin, addressed a long appeal "for justice" to President Grant in 1876, asking him to reinstate the Mormons in the homes from which they had been driven.

Meanwhile Smith had been preparing to use the authority at his command to make good his predictions about the permanency of the church in the Missouri Zion. On December 6, 1833, he gave out a long "revelation" at Kirtland (Sec. 101), which created a great sensation among his followers. Beginning with the declaration that "I, the Lord," have suffered affliction to come on the brethren in Missouri "in consequence of their transgressions, envyings and stripes, and lustful and covetous desires," it went on to promise them as follows:--

"Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered.... And, behold, there is none other place appointed than that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other place appointed than that which I have appointed, for the work of the gathering of my saints, until the day cometh when there is found no more room for them."

The "revelation" then stated the Lord's will "concerning the redemption of Zion" in the form of a long parable which contained these instructions:--

"And go ye straightway into the land of my vineyard, and redeem my vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money.

"Therefore get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower and scatter their watchmen;

"And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land."

This "revelation" was industriously circulated in printed form among the churches of Ohio and the East, and so great was the demand for copies that they sold for one dollar each. The only construction to be placed upon it was that Smith proposed to make good his predictions by means of an armed force led against the people of Missouri. This view soon had confirmation.

The arrival of P. P. Pratt and Lyman Wight in Kirtland in February, 1834, was followed by a "revelation" (Sec. 103) promising an outpouring of God's wrath on those who had expelled the brethren from their Missouri possessions, and declaring that "the redemption of Zion must needs come by power," and that Smith was to lead them, as Moses led the children of Israel.

In obedience to this direction there was assembled a military organization, known in church history as "The Army of Zion." Recruiters, led by Smith and Rigdon, visited the Eastern states, and by May 1 some two hundred men had assembled at Kirtland ready to march to Missouri to aid their brethren.*

* There are three detailed accounts of this expedition, one in Smith's autobiography, another in H. C. Kimball's journal in Times and Seasons, Vol. 6, and another in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," procured from one of the accompanying sharpshooters.

The Army of Zion, as it called itself, was not an impressive one in appearance. Military experience was not required of the recruits; but no one seems to have been accepted who was not in possession of a weapon and at least $5 in cash. The weapons ranged from butcher knives and rusty swords to pistols, muskets, and rifles. Smith himself carried a fine sword, a brace of pistols (purchased on six months' credit), and a rifle, and had four horses allotted to him. He had himself elected treasurer of the expedition, and to him was intrusted all the money of the men, to be disbursed as his judgment dictated.

According to his own account, they were constantly threatened by enemies during their march; but they paid no attention to them, knowing that angels accompanied them as protectors, "for we saw them."

As they approached Clay County a committee from Ray County called on them to inquire about their intention, and, when a few miles from Liberty, in Clay County, General Atchison and other Missourians met them and warned them not to defy popular feeling by entering that town. Accepting this advice, they took a circuitous route and camped on Rush Creek, whence Smith on June 25 sent a letter to General Atchison's committee saying that, in the interest of peace, "we have concluded that our company shall be immediately dispersed."

The night before this letter was sent, cholera broke out in the camp. Smith at once attempted to perform miraculous cures of the victims, but he found actual cholera patients very different to deal with from old women with imaginary ailments, or, as he puts it, "I quickly learned by painful experience that, when the great Jehovah decrees destruction upon any people, and makes known his determination, man must not attempt to stay his hand."* There were thirteen deaths in camp, among the victims being Sidney Gilbert.

* "Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 86.

Of course, some explanation was necessary to reconcile the prophet's surrender without a battle with the "revelation" which directed the army to march and promised a victory. This came in the shape of another "revelation" (Sec. 105) which declared that the immediate redemption of the people must be delayed because of their disobedience and lack of union (especially excepting himself from this censure); that the Lord did not "require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion"; that a large enough force had not assembled at the Lord's command, and that those who had made the journey were "brought thus far for a trial of their faith." The brethren were directed not to make boasts of the judgment to come on the Missourians, but to keep quiet, and "gather together, as much in one region as can be, consistently with the feelings of the people"; to purchase all the lands in Jackson County they could, and then "I will hold the armies of Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which they have previously purchased with their monies, and of throwing down the powers of mine enemies." But first the Lord's army was to become very great.

It seems incredible that any set of followers could retain faith in "revelations" at once so conflicting and so nonsensical.

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IV. FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE JACKSON COUNTY PEOPLE

Meanwhile, the Mormons in Clay County, with the assent of the natives there, had opened a factory for the manufacture of arms "to pay the Jackson mob in their own way,"* and it was rumored that both sides were supplying themselves with cannon, to make the coming contest the more determined. Governor Dunklin, fearing a further injury to the good name of the state, wrote to Colonel J. Thornton urging a compromise, and on June 10 Judge Ryland sent a communication to A. S. Gilbert, asking him to call a meeting of Mormons in Liberty for a discussion of the situation.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 68.

This meeting was held on June 16, and a committee from Jackson County presented the following proposition: "That the value of the lands, and the improvements thereon, of the Mormons in Jackson County, be ascertained by three disinterested appraisers, representatives of the Mormons to be allowed freely to point out the lands claimed and the improvements; that the people of Jackson County would agree to pay the Mormons the valuation fixed by the appraisers, WITH ONE HUNDRED PER CENT ADDED, within thirty days of the award; or, the Jackson County citizens would agree to sell out their lands in that county to the Mormons on the same terms." The Mormon leaders agreed to call a meeting of their people to consider this proposition.

The fifteen Jackson County committeemen, it may be mentioned, in crossing the river on their way home, were upset, and seven of them were drowned, including their chairman, J. Campbell, who was reported to have made threats against Smith. The latter thus reports the accident in his autobiography, "The angel of God saw fit to sink the boat about the middle of the river, and seven, out of the twelve that attempted to cross were drowned, thus suddenly and justly went they to their own place by water."

On June 21 the Mormons gave written notice to the Jackson County people that the terms proposed were rejected, and that they were framing "honorable propositions" on their own part, which they would soon submit, adding a denial of a rumor that they intended a hostile invasion. Their objection to the terms proposed was thus stated in an editorial in the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1834, "When it is understood that the mob hold possession of a large quantity of land more than our friends, and that they only offer thirty days for the payment of the same, it will be seen that they are only making a sham to cover their past unlawful conduct." This explanation ignores entirely the offer of the Missourians to buy out the Mormons at a valuation double that fixed by the appraisers, and simply shows that they intended to hold to the idea that their promised Zion was in Jackson County, and that they would not give it up.*

* The idea of returning to a Zion in Jackson County has never been abandoned by the Mormon church. Bishop Partridge took title to the Temple lot in Independence in his own name. In 1839, when the Mormons were expelled from the state, still believing that this was to be the site of the New Jerusalem, he deeded sixty-three acres of land in Jackson County, including this lot, to three small children of Oliver Cowdery. In 1848, seven years after Partridge's death, and when all the Cowdery grantees were dead, a man named Poole got a deed for this land from the heirs of the grantees, and subsequent conveyances were made under Poole's deed. In 1851 a branch of the church, under a title Church of Christ, known as Hendrickites, from Grandville Hendrick, its originator, was organized in Illinois, with a basis of belief which rejects most of the innovations introduced since 1835. Hendrick in 1864 was favored with a "revelation" which ordered the removal of his church to Jackson County. On arriving there different members quietly bought parts of the old Temple lot. In 1887 the sole surviving sister and heir of the Cowdery children executed a quit claim deed of the lot to Bishop Blakeslee of the Reorganized Church in Iowa, and that church at once began legal proceedings to establish their title. Judge Philips, of the United States Circuit Court for the Western Division of Missouri, decided the case in March, 1894, in favor of the Reorganized Church, but the United States Court of Appeals reversed this decision on the ground that the respondents had title through undisputed possession ("United States Court of Appeals Reports," Vol. XVII, p. 387). The Hendrickites in this suit were actively aided by the Utah Mormons, President Woodruff being among their witnesses. This Church of Christ has now a membership of less than two hundred.

Two Mormon elders, describing their visit to Independence in 1888, said that they went to the Temple lot and prayed as follows: "O Lord, remember thy words, and let not Zion suffer forever. Hasten her redemption, and let thy name be glorified in the victory of truth and righteousness over sin and iniquity. Confound the enemies of the people and let Zion be free:"--"Infancy of the Church," Salt Lake City, 1889.

On June 23 (the date of Smith's last quoted "revelation"), the Mormons presented their counter proposition in writing. It was that a board of six Mormons and six Jackson County non-Mormons should decide on the value of lands in that county belonging to "those men who cannot consent to live with us," and that they should receive this sum within a year, less the amount of damage suffered by the Mormons, the latter to be determined by the same persons. The Jackson County people replied that they would "do nothing like according to their last proposition," and expressed a hope that the Mormons "would cast an eye back of Clinton, to see if that is not a county calculated for them." Clinton was the county next north of Clay.

Governor Dunklin, in his annual message to the legislature that year, expressed the opinion that "conviction for any violence committed against a Mormon cannot be had in Jackson County," and told the lawmakers it was for them to determine what amendments were necessary "to guard against such acts of violence for the future." The Mormons sent a petition in their own behalf to the legislature, which was presented by Corrill, but no action was taken.

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V. IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES

The counties in which the Mormons settled after leaving Jackson County were thinly populated at that time, Clay County having only 5338 inhabitants, according to the census of 1830, and Caldwell, Carroll, and Daviess counties together having only 6617 inhabitants by the census of 1840. County rivalry is always a characteristic of our newly settled states and territories, and the Clay County people welcomed the Mormons as an addition to their number, notwithstanding the ill favor in which they stood with their southern neighbors. The new-comers at first occupied what vacant cabins they could find in the southern part of the county, until they could erect houses of their own, while the men obtained such employment as was offered, and many of the women sought places as domestic servants and school-teachers. The Jackson County people were not pleased with this friendly spirit, and they not only tried to excite trouble between the new neighbors, but styled the Clay County residents "Jack Mormons," a name applied in later years in other places to non-Mormons who were supposed to have Mormon sympathies.

Peace was maintained, however, for about three years. But the Mormons grew in numbers, and, as the natives realized their growth, they showed no more disposition to be in the minority than did their southern neighbors. The Mormons, too, were without tact, and they did not conceal the intention of the church to possess the land. Proof of their responsibility for what followed is found in a remark of W. W. Phelps, in a letter from Clay County to Ohio in December, 1833, that "our people fare very well, and, when they are discreet, little or no persecution is felt."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 646.

The irritation kept on increasing, and by the spring of 1836 Clay County had become as hostile to the Mormons as Jackson County had ever been. In June, the course adopted in Jackson County to get rid of the new-comers was imitated, and a public meeting in the court house at Liberty adopted resolutions* setting forth that civil war was threatened by the rapid immigration of Mormons; that when the latter were received, in pity and kindness, after their expulsion across the river, it was understood that they would leave "whenever a respectable portion of the citizens of this county should require it," and that that time had now come. The reasons for this demand included Mormon declarations that the county was destined by Heaven to be theirs, opposition to slavery, teaching the Indians that they were to possess the land with the Saints, and their religious tenets, which, it was said, "always will excite deep prejudices against them in any populous country where they may locate." In explanations of the anti-Mormon feeling in Missouri frequent allusion is made to polygamous practices. This was not charged in any of the formal statements against them, and Corrill declares that they had done nothing there that would incriminate them under the law. The Mormons were urged to seek a new abiding-place, the territory of Wisconsin being recommended for their investigation. The resolutions confessed that "we do not contend that we have the least right, under the constitution and laws of the country, to expel them by force"; but gave as an excuse for the action taken the certainty of an armed conflict if the Mormons remained. Newly arrived immigrants were advised to leave immediately, non-landowners to follow as soon as they could gather their crops and settle up their business, and owners of forty acres to remain indefinitely, until they could dispose of their real estate without loss.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 763.

The Mormons, on July 1, adopted resolutions denying the charges against them, but agreeing to leave the county. The Missourians then appointed a committee to raise money to assist the needy Saints to move. Smith and his associates in Ohio had not at that time the same interest in a Zion in Missouri that they had three years earlier, and they only expressed sorrow over the new troubles, and advised the fugitives to stop short of Wisconsin if they could. An appeal was again made by the Missouri Mormons to the governor of that state, but he now replied that if they could not convince their neighbors of their innocence, "all I can say to you is that in this republic the vox populi is the vox dei."

The Mormons selected that part of Ray County from which Caldwell County was formed (just northeast of Clay County) for their new abode, and on their petition the legislature framed the new county for their occupancy. This was then almost unsettled territory, and the few inhabitants made no objection to the coming of their new neighbors. They secured a good deal of land, some by purchase, and some by entry on government sections, and began its improvement. Many of them were so poor that they had to seek work in the neighboring counties for the support of their families. Some of their most intelligent members afterward attributed their future troubles in that state to their failure to keep within their own county boundaries.

As the county seat they founded a town which they named Far West, and which soon presented quite a collection of houses, both log and frame, schools, and shops. Phelps wrote in the summer of 1837, "Land cannot be had around town now much less than $10 per acre."* There were practically no inhabitants but Mormons within fifteen or twenty miles of the town,** and the Saints were allowed entire political freedom. Of the county officers, two judges, thirteen magistrates, the county clerk, and all the militia officers were of their sect. They had credit enough to make necessary loans, and, says Corrill, "friendship began to be restored between them and their neighbors, the old prejudices were fast dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer of 1838."

* Messenger and Advocate, July, 1837.

** Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 53.

It was in January, 1838, that Smith fled from Kirtland. He arrived in Far West in the following March; Rigdon was detained in Illinois a short time by the illness of a daughter. Smith's family went with him, and they were followed by many devoted adherents of the church, who, in order to pay church debts in Ohio and the East, had given up their property in exchange for orders on the Bishop at Far West. In other words, they were penniless.

The business scandals in Ohio had not affected the reputation of the church leaders with their followers in Missouri (where the bank bills had not circulated) and Smith and Rigdon received a hearty welcome, their coming being accepted as a big step forward in the realization of their prophesied Zion. It proved, however, to be the cause of the expulsion of their followers from the state.

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VI. RADICAL DISSENSIONS IN THE CHURCH--ORIGIN OF THE DANITES--TITHING

While the church, in a material sense, might have been as prosperous as Corrill pictured, Smith, on his arrival, found it in the throes of serious internal discord. The month before he reached Far West, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer, of the Presidency there, had been tried before a general assembly of the church,* and almost unanimously deposed on several charges, the principal one being a claim on their part to $2000 of the church funds which they had bound the Bishop to pay to them. Whitmer was also accused of persisting in the use of tea, coffee, and tobacco. T. B. Marsh, one of the Presidents pro tem. selected in their places, in a letter to the prophet on this subject, said:--

* For the minutes of this General Assembly, and text of Marsh's letter, see Elders' Journal, July, 1838.

"Had we not taken the above measures, we think that nothing could have prevented a rebellion against the whole High Council and Bishop; so great was the disaffection against the Presidents that the people began to be jealous that the whole authorities were inclined to uphold these men in wickedness, and in a little time the church undoubtedly would have gone every man his own way, like sheep without a shepherd."

On April 11, Elder Bronson presented nine charges against Oliver Cowdery to the High Council, which promptly found him guilty of six of them, viz. urging vexatious lawsuits against the brethren, accusing the prophet of adultery, not attending meeting, returning to the practice of law "for the sake of filthy lucre," "disgracing the church by being connected with the bogus [counterfeiting] business, retaining notes after they had been paid," and generally "forsaking the cause of God." On this finding he was expelled from the church. Two days later David Whitmer was found guilty of unchristianlike conduct and defaming the prophet, and was expelled, and Lyman E. Johnson met the same fate.* Smith soon announced a "revelation" (Sec. 114), directing the places of the expelled to be filled by others.

* For minutes of these councils, see Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, pp. 130-134.

It was in the June following that the paper drawn up by Rigdon and signed by eighty-three prominent members of the church was presented to the recalcitrants, ordering them to leave the county, and painting their characters in the blackest hues.* This radical action did not meet the approval of the more conservative element, which included men like Corrill, and he soon announced that he was no longer a Mormon. Not long afterward Thomas B. Marsh, one of the original members of the High Council of Twelve in Missouri, and now President of the Twelve, and Orson Hyde, one of the original Apostles, also seceded, and both gave testimony about the Mormon schemes in Caldwell and Daviess Counties. Cowdery and Whitmer considered their lives in such danger that they fled on horseback at night, leaving their families, and after riding till daylight in a storm, reached the house of a friend, where they found refuge until their families could join them.

* See p. 81 ante. For the full text of Rigdon's paper, see the "Correspondence, Orders, etc., in Relation to the Mormon Disturbances in Missouri," published by order of the Missouri legislature (1841).

The most important event that followed the expulsion of leading members from the church by the High Council was the formation of that organization which has been almost ever since known as the Danites, whose dark deeds in Nauvoo were scarcely more than hinted at,* but which, under Brigham Young's authority in Utah, became a band of murderers, ready to carry out the most radical suggestion which might be made by any higher authority of the church.

* Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 158.

Corrill, an active member of the church in Missouri, writing in 1839 with the events fresh in his memory, said* that the members of the Danite society entered into solemn covenants to stand by one another when in difficulty, whether right or wrong, and to correct each other's wrongs among themselves, accepting strictly the mandates of the Presidency as standing next to God. He explains that "many were opposed to this society, but such was their determination and also their threatenings, that those opposed dare not speak their minds on the subject.... It began to be taught that the church, instead of God, or, rather, the church in the hands of God, was to bring about these things (judgments on the wicked), and I was told, but I cannot vouch for the truth of it, that some of them went so far as to contrive plans how they might scatter poison, pestilence, and disease among the inhabitants, and make them think it was judgments sent from God. I accused Smith and Rigdon of it, but they both denied it promptly."

* "Brief History of the Church," pp. 31, 32.

Robinson, in his reminiscences in the Return in later years, gave the same date of the organization of the Danites, and said that their first manifesto was the one directed against Cowdery, Whitmer, and others.

We must look for the actual origin of this organization, however, to some of the prophet's instructions while still at Kirtland. In his "revelation" of August 6, 1833 (Sec. 98), he thus defined the treatment that the Saints might bestow upon their enemies: "I have delivered thine enemy into thine hands, and then if thou wilt spare him, thou shalt be rewarded for thy righteousness;... nevertheless thine enemy is in thine hands, and if thou reward him according to his works thou art justified, if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified."

What such a license would mean to a following like Smith's can easily be understood.

The next step in the same direction was taken during the exercises which accompanied the opening of the Kirtland Temple. Three days after the dedicatory services, all the high officers of the church, and the official members of the stake, to the number of about three hundred, met in the Temple by appointment to perform the washing of feet. While this was going on (following Smith's own account),* "the brethren began to prophesy blessings upon each other's heads, and cursings upon the enemies of Christ who inhabit Jackson County, Missouri, and continued prophesying and blessing and sealing them, with hosannah and amen, until nearly seven o'clock P. M. The bread and wine were then brought in. While waiting, I made the following remarks, 'I want to enter into the following covenant, that if any more of our brethren are slain or driven from their lands in Missouri by the mob, we will give ourselves no rest until we are avenged of our enemies to the uttermost.' This covenant was sealed unanimously, with a hosannah and an amen." **

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, pp. 727-728.

* "The spirit of that covenant evidently bore fruit in the Fourth of July oration of 1838 and the Mountain Meadow Massacre."--The Return, Vol. II, p. 271.

The original name chosen for the Danites was "Daughters of Zion," suggested by the text Micah iv. 13: "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thine hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate thy gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth." "Daughters" of anybody was soon decided to be an inappropriate designation for such a band, and they were next called "Destroying (or Flying) Angels," a title still in use in Utah days; then the "Big Fan," suggested by Jeremiah xv. 7, or Luke iii. 17; then "Brothers of Gideon," and finally "Sons of Dan" (whence the name Danites,) from Genesis xlix. 17: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward."*

* Hyde's "Mormonism Exposed," pp. 104-105.

Avard presented the text of the constitution to the court at Richmond, Missouri, during the inquiry before Judge King in November, 1838* It begins with a preamble setting forth the agreement of the members "to regulate ourselves under such laws as in righteousness shall be deemed necessary for the preservation of our holy religion, and of our most sacred rights, and the rights of our wives and children," and declaring that, "not having the privileges of others allowed to us, we have determined, like unto our fathers, to resist tyranny, whether it be in kings or in the people. It is all alike to us. Our rights we must have, and our rights we shall have, in the name of Israel's God." The President of the church and his counsellors were to hold the "executive power," and also, along with the generals and colonels of the society, to hold the "legislative powers"; this legislature to "have power to make all laws regulating the society, and regulating punishments to be administered to the guilty in accordance with the offence." Thus was furnished machinery for carrying out any decree of the officers of the church against either life or property.

* Missouri "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," pp. 101-102.

The Danite oath as it was administered in Nauvoo was as follows:--"In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do solemnly obligate myself ever to regard the Prophet and the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as the supreme head of the church on earth, and to obey them in all things, the same as the supreme God; that I will stand by my brethren in danger or difficulty, and will uphold the Presidency, right or wrong; and that I will ever conceal, and never reveal, the secret purposes of this society, called Daughters of Zion. Should I ever do the same, I hold my life as the forfeiture, in a caldron of boiling oil."*

* Bennett's "History of the Saints," p. 267.

John D. Lee, who was a member of the organization, explaining their secret signs, says,* "The sign or token of distress is made by placing the right hand on the right side of the face, with the points of the fingers upward, shoving the hand upward until the ear is snug up between the thumb and forefinger."

*Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 57.

It has always been the policy of the Mormon church to deny to the outside world that any such organization as the Danites existed, or at least that it received the countenance of the authorities. Smith's City Council in Nauvoo made an affidavit that there was no such society there, and Utah Mormons have professed similar ignorance. Brigham Young, himself, however, gave testimony to the contrary in the days when he was supreme in Salt Lake City. In one of his discourses which will be found reported in the Deseret News (Vol. VII, p. 143) he said: "If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites, whom they talk so much about, biting the horses' heels, but the scoundrels will find something biting THEIR heels. In my plain remarks I merely call things by their own names." It need only be added that the church authority has been powerful enough at any time in the history of the church to crush out such an organization if it so desired.

A second organization formed about the same time, at a fully attended meeting of the Mormons of Daviess County, was called "The Host of Israel." It was presided over by captains of tens, of fifties, and of hundreds, and, according to Lee, "God commanded Joseph Smith to place the Host of Israel in a situation for defence against the enemies of God and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Another important feature of the church rule that was established at this time was the tithing system, announced in a "revelation" (Sec. 119), which is dated July 8, 1838. This required the flock to put all their "surplus property" into the hands of the Bishop for the building of the Temple and the payment of the debts of the Presidency, and that, after that, "those who have thus been tithed, shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever."

Ebenezer Robinson gives an interesting explanation of the origin of tithing. *In May, 1838, the High Council at Far West, after hearing a statement by Rigdon that it was absolutely necessary for the church to make some provision for the support of the families of all those who gave their entire time to church affairs, instructed the Bishop to deed to Smith and Rigdon an eighty-acre lot belonging to the church, and appointed a committee of three to confer with the Presidency concerning their salary for that year. Smith and Rigdon thought that $1100 would be a proper sum, and the committee reported in favor of a salary, but left the amount blank. The council voted the salaries, but this action caused such a protest from the church members that at the next meeting the resolution was rescinded. Only a few days later came this "revelation" requiring the payment of tithes, in which there was no mention of using any of the money for the poor, as was directed in the Ohio "revelation" about the consecration of property to the Bishop.

* The Return, Vol. 1, p. 136.

This tithing system has provided ever since the principal revenue of the church. By means of it the Temple was built at Nauvoo, and under it vast sums have been contributed in Utah. By 1878 the income of the church by this source was placed at $1,000,000 a year,* and during Brigham Young's administration the total receipts were estimated at $13,000,000. We shall see that Young made practically no report of the expenditure of this vast sum that passed into his control. To Horace Greeley's question, "What is done with the proceeds of this tithing?" Young replied, "Part of it is devoted to building temples and other places of worship, part to helping the poor and needy converts on their way to this country, and the largest portion to the support of the poor among the Saints."

* Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1879.

As the authority of the church over its members increased, the regulation about the payment of tithes was made plainer and more severe. Parley P. Pratt, in addressing the General Conference in Salt Lake City in October, 1849, said, "To fulfil the law of tithing, a man should make out and lay before the Bishop a schedule of all his property, and pay him one-tenth of it. When he hath tithed his principal once, he has no occasion to tithe again; but the next year he must pay one-tenth of his increase, and one-tenth of his time, of his cattle, money, goods, and trade; and, whatever use we put it to, it is still our own, for the Lord does not carry it away with him to heaven."* Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 134.

The Seventh General Epistle to the church (September, 1851) made this statement, "It is time that the Saints understood that the paying of their tithing is a prominent portion of the labor which is allotted to them, by which they are to secure a future residence in the heaven they are seeking after."* This view was constantly presented to the converts abroad.

* Ibid., Vol. XIV, p. 18.

At the General Conference in Salt Lake City on September 8, 1850, Brigham Young made clear his radical view of tithing--a duty, he declared, that few had lived up to. Taking the case of a supposed Mr. A, engaged in various pursuits (to represent the community), starting with a capital of $100,000 he must surrender $10,000 of this as tithing. With his remaining $90,000 he gains $410,000; $41,000 of this gain must be given into the storehouse of the Lord. Next he works nine days with his team; the tenth day's work is for the church, as is one-tenth of the wheat he raises, one-tenth of his sheep, and one-tenth of his eggs.*

* Ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 21.

Under date of July 18, came another "revelation" (Sec. 120), declaring that the tithings "shall be disposed of by a Council, composed of the First Presidency of my church, and of the Bishop and his council, and by my High Council." The first meeting of this body decided "that the First Presidency should keep all their property that they could dispose of to advantage for their support, and the remainder be put into the hands of the Bishop, according to the commandments."* The coolness of this proceeding in excepting Smith and Rigdon from the obligation to pay a tithe is worthy of admiration.

* Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 204.

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VII. BEGINNING OF ACTIVE HOSTILITIES

Smith had shown his dominating spirit as soon as he arrived at Far West. In April, 1838, he announced a "revelation" (Sec. 115), commanding the building of a house of worship there, the work to begin on July 4, the speedy building up of that city, and the establishment of Stakes in the regions round about. This last requirement showed once more Smith's lack of judgment, and it became a source of irritation to the non-Mormons, as it was thought to foreshadow a design to control the neighboring counties. Hyde says that Smith and Rigdon deliberately planned the scattering of the Saints beyond the borders of Clay County with a view to political power.*

* Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 203.

In accordance with this scheme, a "revelation" of May 19 (Sec. 116), directed the founding of a town on Grand River in Daviess County, twenty-five miles northwest of Far West. This settlement was to be called "Adam-ondi-Ahman," "because it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet." The "revelation" further explains that, three years before his death, Adam called a number of high priests and all of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there blessed them. Lee (who, following the common pronunciation, writes the name "Adam-on-Diamond") expresses the belief, which Smith instilled into his followers, that it "was at the point where Adam came and settled and blessed his posterity, after being driven from the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve tarried for several years, and engaged in tilling the soil." By order of the Presidency, another town was started in Carroll County, where the Saints had been living in peace. Immediately the new settlement was looked upon as a possible rival of Gallatin, the county seat, and the non-Mormons made known their objections.

* "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 91.

With Smith and Rigdon on the ground, if these men had had any tact, or any purpose except to enforce Mormon supremacy in whatever part of Missouri they chose to call Zion, the troubles now foreshadowed might easily have been prevented. Every step they took, however, was in the nature of a defiance. The sermons preached to the Mormons that summer taught them that they would be able to withstand, not only the opposition of the Missourians, but of the United States, if this should be put to the test.*

* Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 29.

The flock in and around Far West were under the influence of such advice when they met on July 4 to lay the corner-stone of the third Temple, whose building Smith had revealed, and to celebrate the day. There was a procession, with a flagpole raising, and Smith embraced the occasion to make public announcement of the tithing "revelation" (although it bears a later date).

The chief feature of the day, and the one that had most influence on the fortunes of the church, was a sermon by Sidney Rigdon, known ever since as the "salt sermon," from the text Matt. v. 13: "If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." He first applied these words to the men who had made trouble in the church, declaring that they ought to be trodden under foot until their bowels gushed out, citing as a precedent that "the apostles threw Judas Iscariot down and trampled out his bowels, and that Peter stabbed Ananias and Sapphira." It was what followed, however, which made the serious trouble, a defiance to their Missouri opponents in these words: "It is not because we cannot, if we were so disposed, enjoy both the honors and flatteries of the world, but we have voluntarily offered them in sacrifice, and the riches of the world also, for a more durable substance. Our God has promised a reward of eternal inheritance, and we have believed his promise, and, though we wade through great tribulations, we are in nothing discouraged, for we know he that has promised is faithful. The promise is sure, and the reward is certain. It is because of this that we have taken the spoiling of our goods. Our cheeks have been given to the smiters, and our heads to those who have plucked off the hair. We have not only, when smitten on one cheek, turned the other, but we have done it again and again, until we are weary of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon. We have proved the world with kindness; we have suffered their abuse, without cause, with patience, and have endured without resentment, until this day, and still their persecution and violence does not cease. But from this day and this hour, we will suffer it no more.

"We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more for ever, for, from this hour, we will bear it no more. Our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity. The man, or set of men, who attempt it, DOES IT AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR LIVES. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them A WAR OF EXTERMINATION, FOR WE WILL FOLLOW THEM TO THE LAST DROP OF THEIR BLOOD IS SPILLED, OR ELSE THEY WILL HAVE TO EXTERMINATE US; for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other SHALL BE UTTERLY DESTROYED. Remember it then, all men.

"We will never be aggressors; we will infringe on rights of no people; but shall stand for our own until death. We claim our own rights, and are willing that all shall enjoy theirs.

"No man shall be at liberty to come in our streets, to threaten us with mobs, for if he does, he shall atone for it before he leaves the place; neither shall he be at liberty to vilify or slander any of us, for suffer it we will not in this place.

"We therefore take all men to record this day, as did our fathers. And we pledge this day to one another, our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honors, to be delivered from the persecutions which we have had to endure for the last nine years, or nearly that. Neither will we indulge any man, or set of men, in instituting vexatious lawsuits against us to cheat us out of our just rights. If they attempt it we say, woe be unto them. We this day then proclaim ourselves free, with a purpose and a determination that never can be broken, no never, NO NEVER, NO NEVER."

Ebenezer Robinson in The Return (Vol I, p. 170) says:--

"Let it be distinctly understood that President Rigdon was not alone responsible for the sentiment expressed in his oration, as that was a carefully prepared document previously written, and well understood by the First Presidency; but Elder Rigdon was the mouthpiece to deliver it, as he was a natural orator, and his delivery was powerful and effective.

"Several Missouri gentlemen of note, from other counties, were present on the speaker's stand at its delivery, with Joseph Smith, Jr., President, and Hyrum Smith, Vice President of the day; and at the conclusion of the oration, when the president of the day led off with a shout of 'Hosannah, Hosannah, Hosannah,' and joined in the shout by the vast multitude, these Missouri gentlemen began to shout 'hurrah,' but they soon saw that did not time with the other, and they ceased shouting. A copy of the oration was furnished the editor, and printed in the Far West, a weekly newspaper printed in Liberty, the county seat of Clay county. It was also printed in pamphlet form, by the writer of this, in the printing office of the Elders' Journal, in the city of Far West, a copy of which we have preserved.

"This oration, and the stand taken by the church in endorsing it, and its publication, undoubtedly exerted a powerful influence in arousing the people of the whole upper Missouri country."

At the trial of Rigdon, when he was cast out at Nauvoo, Young and others held him alone responsible for this sermon, and declared that it was principally instrumental in stirring up the hostilities that ensued.

A state election was to be held in Missouri early in August, and there was a good deal of political feeling. Daviess County was pretty equally divided between Whigs and Democrats, and the vote of the Mormons was sought by the leaders of both parties. In Caldwell County the Saints were classed as almost solidly Democratic. When election day came, the Danites in the latter county distributed tickets on which the Presidency had agreed, but this resulted in nothing more serious than some criticism of this interference of the church in politics. But in Daviess County trouble occurred.

The Mormons there were warned by the Democrats that the Whigs would attempt to prevent their voting at Gallatin. Of the ten houses in that town at the time, three were saloons, and the material for an election-day row was at hand. It began with an attack on a Mormon preacher, and ended in a general fight, in which there were many broken heads, but no loss of life; after which, says Lee, who took part in it, "the Mormons all voted."*

* Smith's autobiography says, "Very few of the brethren voted."

Exaggerated reports of this melee reached Far West, and Dr. Avard, collecting a force of 150 volunteers, and accompanied by Smith and Rigdon, started for Daviess County for the support of their brethren. They came across no mob, but they made a tactical mistake. Instead of disbanding and returning to their homes, they, the next morning (following Smith's own account)* "rode out to view the situation." Their ride took them to the house of a justice of the peace, named Adam Black, who had joined a band whose object was the expulsion of the Mormons. Smith could not neglect the opportunity to remind the justice of his violation of his oath, and to require of him some satisfaction, "so that we might know whether he was our friend or enemy." With this view they compelled him to sign what they called "an agreement of peace," which the justice drew up in this shape:--

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 229.

"I, Adam Black, A Justice of the Peace of Davies County, do hereby Sertify to the people called Mormin that he is bound to suport the constitution of this state and of the United States, and he is not attached to any mob, nor will not attach himself to any such people, and so long as they will not molest me I will not molest them. This the 8th day of August, 1838.

"ADAM BLACK, J.P."

When the Mormon force returned to Far West, the Daviess people secured warrants for the arrest of Smith, L. Wight, and others, charging them with violating the law by entering another county armed, and compelling a justice of the peace to obey their mandate, Black having made an affidavit that he was compelled to sign the paper in order to save his life. Wight threatened to resist arrest, and this caused such a gathering of Missourians that Smith became alarmed and sent for two lawyers, General D. R. Atchison and General Doniphan, to come to Far West as his legal advisers.* Acting on their advice, the accused surrendered themselves, and were bound over to court in $500 bail for a hearing on September 7.

* General Atchison was the major general in command of that division of the state militia. His early reports to the governor must be read in the light of his association with Smith as counsel. General Douiphan afterward won fame at Chihuahua in the Mexican War.

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VIII. A STATE OF CIVIL WAR

All peaceable occupations were now at an end in Daviess County. General Atchison reported to the governor that, on arriving there on September 17, he found the county practically deserted, the Gentiles being gathered in one camp and the Mormons in another. A justice of the peace, in a statement to the governor, declared, "The Mormons are so numerous and so well armed [in Daviess and Caldwell counties] that the judicial power of the counties is wholly unable to execute any civil or criminal process within the limits of either of the said counties against a Mormon or Mormons, as they each and every one of them act in concert and outnumber the other citizens." Lee says that an order had been issued by the church authorities, commanding all the Mormons to gather in two fortified camps, at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman. The men were poorly armed, but demanded to be led against their foes, being "confident that God was going to deliver the enemy into our hands."*

* "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 78.

Both parties now stood on the defensive, posting sentinels, and making other preparations for a fight. Actual hostilities soon ensued. The Mormons captured some arms which their opponents had obtained, and took them, with three prisoners, to Far West. "This was a glorious day, indeed," says Smith.* Citizens of Daviess and Livingston counties sent a petition to Governor Boggs (who had succeeded Dunklin), dated September 12, declaring that they believed their lives, liberty, and property to be "in the most imminent danger of being sacrificed by the hands of those impostorous rebels," and asking for protection. The governor had already directed General Atchison to "raise immediately four hundred mounted men in view of indications of Indian disturbances on our immediate frontier, and the recent civil disturbances in the counties of Caldwell, Daviess, and Carroll." The calling out of the militia followed, and General Doniphan found himself in command of about one thousand militiamen. He seems to have used tact, and to have employed his force only as peace preservers. On September 20 he reported to Governor Boggs that he had discharged all his troops but two companies, and that he did not think the services of these would be required more than twenty days. He estimated the Mormon forces in the disturbed counties at from thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred men, most of them carrying a rifle, a brace of pistols, and a broadsword; "so that," he added, "from their position, and their fanaticism, and their unalterable determination not to be driven, much blood will be spilt and much suffering endured if a blow is at once struck, without the interposition of your excellency."

* Smith's autobiography, at this point, says: "President Rigdon and I commenced this day the study of law under the instruction of Generals Atchison and Doniphan. They think by diligent application we can be admitted to the bar in twelve months." Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 246.

The people of Carroll County began now to hold meetings whose object was the expulsion of the Mormons from their boundaries, and some hundreds of them assembled in hostile attitude around the little settlement of Dewitt. The Mormons there prepared for defence, and sent an appeal to Far West for aid. Accordingly, one hundred Mormons, including Smith and Rigdon, started to assist them, and two companies of militia, under General Parks, were hurried to the spot. General Parks reported to General Atchison on October 7 that, on arriving there the day before, he found the place besieged by two hundred or three hundred Missourians, under a Dr. Austin, with a field-piece, and defended by two hundred or three hundred Mormons under G. M. Hinckle, "who says he will die before he is driven from thence." Austin expected speedy reenforcements that would enable him to take the place by assault. A petition addressed by the Mormons of Dewitt to the governor, as early as September 22, having been ignored, and finding themselves outnumbered, they agreed to abandon their settlement on receiving pay for their improvements, and some fifty wagons conveyed them and their effects to Far West.

A period of absolute lawlessness in all that section of the state followed. Smith declared that civil war existed, and that, as the state would not protect them, they must look out for themselves. He and his associates made no concealment of their purpose to "make clean work of it" in driving the non-Mormons from both Daviess and Caldwell counties. When warned that this course would array the whole state against them, Smith replied that the "mob" (as the opponents of the Mormons were always styled) were a small minority of the state, and would yield to armed opposition; the Mormons would defeat one band after another, and so proceed across the state, until they reached St. Louis, where the Mormon army would spend the winter. This calculation is a fair illustration of Smith's judgment.

Armed bands of both parties now rode over the country, paying absolutely no respect to property rights, and ready for a "brush" with any opponents. At Smith's suggestion, a band of men, under the name of the "Fur Company," was formed to "commandeer" food, teams, and men for the Mormon campaign. This practical license to steal let loose the worst element in the church organization, glad of any method of revenge on those whom they considered their persecutors. "Men of former quiet," says Lee, who was among the active raiders, "became perfect demons in their efforts to spoil and waste away the enemies of the church."* Cattle and hogs that could not be driven off were killed.** Houses were burned, not only in the outlying country, but in the towns. A night attack by a band of eighty men was made on Gallatin, where some of the houses were set on fire, and two stores as well as private houses were robbed. The house of one McBride, who, Lee says, had been a good friend to him and to other Mormons, did not escape: "Every article of moveable property was taken by the troops; he was utterly ruined." "It appeared to me," says Corrill, "that the love of pillage grew upon them very fast, for they plundered every kind of property they could get hold of, and burnt many cabins in Daviess, some say 80, and some say 150." ***

* Lee naively remarks, "In justice to Joseph Smith I cannot say that I ever heard him teach, or even encourage, men to pilfer or steal little things."--"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 90.

** W. Harris's "Mormonism Portrayed," p. 30.

*** "Brief History of the Church," p. 38.

The Missourians retaliated in kind. Mormons were seized and whipped, and their houses were burned. A lawless company (Pratt calls them banditti), led by one Gilliam, embraced the opportunity to make raids in the Mormon territory. It was soon found necessary to collect the outlying Mormons at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, where they were used for purposes both of offence and defence. The movements of the Missourians were closely watched, and preparations were made to burn any place from which a force set out to attack the Saints.

One of the Missouri officers, Captain Bogart, on October 23, warned some Mormons to leave the county, and, with his company of thirty or forty men, announced his intention to "give Far West thunder and lightning." When this news reached Far West, Judge Higbee, of the county court, ordered Lieutenant Colonel Hinckle to go out with a company, disperse the "mob," and retake some prisoners. The Mormons assembled at midnight, and about seventy-five volunteers started at once, under command of Captain Patton, the Danite leader, whose nickname was "Fear Not," all on horseback. When they approached Crooked River, on which Bogart's force was encamped, fifteen men were sent in advance on foot to locate the enemy. Just at dawn a rifle shot sounded, and a young Mormon, named O'Barrion, fell mortally wounded. Captain Patton ordered a charge, and led his men at a gallop down a hill to the river, under the bank of which the Missourians were drawn up. The latter had an advantage, as they were in the shade, and the Mormons were between them and the east, which the dawn was just lighting. Exchanges of volleys occurred, and then Captain Patton ordered his men to rush on with drawn swords--they had no bayonets. This put the Missourians to flight, but just as they fled Captain Patton received a mortal wound. Three Mormons in all were killed as a result of this battle, and seven wounded, while Captain Bogart reported the death of one man.*

* Ebenezer Robinson's account in The Return, p. 191.

The death of "Fear Not" was considered by the Mormons a great loss. He was buried with the honors of war, says Robinson, "and at his grave a solemn convention was made to avenge his death." Smith, in the funeral sermon, reverted to his old tactics, attributing the Mormon losses to the Lord's anger against his people, because of their unbelief and their unwillingness to devote their worldly treasures to the church.

The rout of Captain Bogart's force, which was a part of the state militia, increased the animosity against the Mormons, and the wiser of the latter believed that they would suffer a dire vengeance.*

* Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 38.

This vengeance first made itself felt at a settlement called Hawn's Mill (of which there are various spellings), some miles from Far West, where there were a flour mill, blacksmith shop, and other buildings. The Mormons there were advised, the day after the fight on Crooked River, to move into Far West for protection, but the owners of the buildings, knowing that these would be burned as soon as deserted, decided to remain and defend their property.

On October 30 a mounted force of Missourians appeared before the place. The Mormons ran into the log blacksmith shop, which they thought would serve them as a blockhouse, but it proved to be a slaughter-pen. The Missourians surrounded it, and, sticking their rifles into every hole and crack, poured in a deadly fire, killing, some reports say eighteen, and some thirty-one, of the Mormons. The only persons in the town who escaped found shelter in the woods. The Missourians did not lose a man. When the firing ceased, they still showed no mercy, shooting a small boy in the leg after dragging him out from under the bellows, and hacking to death with a corn cutter an old man while he begged for his life. Dead and wounded were thrown into a well, and some of the wounded, taken out by rescuers from Far West, recovered. "I heard one of the militia tell General Clark," says Corrill, "that a well twenty or thirty feet deep was filled with their dead bodies to within three feet of the top."*

* Details of this massacre will be found in Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 78-80; in the Missouri "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 82; the Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 507, and in Greene's "Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri," pp. 21-24.

The Mormons have always considered this "massacre," as they called it, the crowning outrage of their treatment in Missouri, and for many years were especially bitter toward all participants in it. A letter from two Mormons in the Frontier Guardian, dated October, 1849, describing the disinterred human bones seen on their journey across the plains, said that they recognized on the rude tombstone the names of some of their Missouri persecutors: "Among others, we noted at the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains the grave of one E. Dodd of Gallatin, Missouri. The wolves had completely disinterred him. It is believed that he was the same Dodd that took an active part as a prominent mobocrat in the murder of the Saints at Hawn's Mill, Missouri; if so, it is a righteous retribution." Two Mormon elders, describing a visit in 1889 to the scenes of the Mormon troubles in Missouri, said, "The notorious Colonel W. O. Jennings, who commanded the mob at the [Hawn's Mill] massacre, was assaulted in Chillicothe, Missouri, on the evening of January 20, 1862, by an unknown person, who shot him on the street with a revolver or musket, as the Colonel was going home after dark." * They are silent as to the avenger.

* "Infancy of the Church" (pamphlet).

Governor Boggs now began to realize the seriousness of the situation that he was called to meet, and on October 26 he directed General John B. Clark (who was not the ranking general) to raise, for the protection of the citizens of Daviess County, four hundred mounted men. This order he followed the next day with the following, which has become the most famous of the orders issued during this campaign, under the designation "the order of extermination":--

"HEADQUARTERS OF THE MILITIA,

"CITY OF JEFFERSON, Oct. 27, 1838.

"GEN. JOHN B. CLARK,

"Sir:--Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your Division, I have received by Amos Rees, Esq., of Ray County and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., one of my aids, information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operations with all possible speed.

"The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace--their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary. I have just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Willock, of Marion County, to raise five hundred men, and to march them to the northern part of Daviess, and there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five hundred men to proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the Mormons to the north. They have been directed to communicate with you by express; you can also communicate with them if you find it necessary.

"Instead therefore of proceeding, as at first directed, to reinstate the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to Richmond and then operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks, of Ray, has been ordered to have four hundred of his brigade in readiness to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command.

"I am very respectfully,

"Your ob't serv't,

"L. W. Boggs, Commander-in-chief."

The "appalling information" received by the governor from his aids was contained in a letter dated October 25, which stated that the Mormons were "destroying all before them"; that they had burned Gallatin and Mill Pond, and almost every house between these places, plundered the whole country, and defeated Captain Bogart's company, and had determined to burn Richmond that night. "These creatures," said the letter, "will never stop until they are stopped by the strong hand of force, and something must be done, and that speedily."*

* For text of letter, see "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 59.

The language of Governor Boggs's letter to General Clark cannot be defended. The Mormons have always made great capital of his declaration that the Mormons "must be exterminated," and a man of judicial temperament would have selected other words, no matter how necessary he deemed it, for political reasons, to show his sympathy with the popular cause. But, on the other hand, the governor was only accepting the challenge given by Rigdon in his recent Fourth of July address, when the latter declared that if a mob disturbed the Mormons, "it shall be between us and them a war of extermination, for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us." What compromise there could have been between a band of fanatics obeying men like Smith and Rigdon, and the class of settlers who made up the early Missouri population, it is impossible to conceive. The Mormons were simply impossible as neighbors, and it had become evident that they could no more remain peaceably in the state than they could a few years previously in Jackson County.

General Atchison, of Smith's counsel, was not called on by the governor in these latest movements, because, as the governor explained in a letter to General Clark, "there was much dissatisfaction manifested toward him by the people opposed to the Mormons." But he had seen his mistake, and he united with General Lucas in a letter to the governor under date of October 28, in which they said, "from late outrages committed by the Mormons, civil war is inevitable," and urged the governor's presence in the disturbed district. Governor Boggs excused himself from complying with this request because of the near approach of the meeting of the legislature.

General Lucas, acting under his interpretation of the governor's order, had set out on October 28 for Far West from near Richmond, with a force large enough to alarm the Mormon leaders. Robinson, speaking of the outlook from their standpoint at this time, says, "We looked for warm work, as there were large numbers of armed men gathering in Daviess County, with avowed determination of driving the Mormons from the county, and we began to feel as determined that the Missourians should be expelled from the county."* The Mormons did not hear of the approach of General Lucas's force until it was near the town. Then the southern boundary was hastily protected with a barricade of wagons and logs, and the night of October 30-31 was employed by all the inhabitants in securing their possessions for flight, in anticipation of a battle the next day.

* The Return, Vol. I, p. 189.

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IX. THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE

At eight o'clock the next morning the commander of the militia sent a flag of truce to the Mormons which Colonel Hinckle, for the Mormons, met. General Lucas submitted the following terms, as necessary to carry out the governor's orders:

1. To give up their leaders to be tried and punished.

2. To make an appropriation of their property, all who have taken up arms, to the payment of their debts and indemnity for damage done by them.

3. That the balance should leave the State, and be protected out by the militia, but be permitted to remain under protection until further orders were received by the commander-in-chief.

4. To give up the arms of every description, to be receipted for.

While these propositions were under consideration, General Lucas asked that Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, P. P. Pratt, and G. W. Robinson be given up as hostages, and this was done. Contemporary Mormon accounts imputed treachery to Colonel Hinckle in this matter, and said that Smith and his associates were lured into the militia camp by a ruse. General Lucas's report to the governor says that the proposition for a conference came from Hinckle. Hyrum Smith, in an account of the trial of the prisoners, printed some years later in the Times and Seasons, said that all the men who surrendered were that night condemned by a court-martial to be shot, but were saved by General Doniphan's interference. Lee's account agrees with this, but says that Smith surrendered voluntarily, to save the lives of his followers.

General Lucas received the surrender of Far West, on the terms named, in advance of the arrival of General Clark, who was making forced marches. After the surrender, General Lucas disbanded the main body of his force, and set out with his prisoners for Independence, the original site of Zion. General Clark, learning of this, ordered him to transfer the prisoners to Richmond, which was done.

Hearing that the guard left by General Lucas at Far West were committing outrages, General Clark rode to that place accompanied by his field officers. He found no disorder,* but instituted a military court of inquiry, which resulted in the arrest of forty-six additional Mormons, who were sent to Richmond for trial. The facts on which these arrests were made were obtained principally from Dr. Avard, the Danite, who was captured by a militia officer. "No one," General Clark says, "disclosed any useful matter until he was captured."

* "Much property was destroyed by the troops in town during their stay there, such as burning house logs, rails, corn cribs, boards, etc., the using of corn and hay, the plundering of houses, the killing of cattle, sheep, and hogs, and also the taking of horses not their own."--"Mormon Memorial to Missouri Legislature," December 10, 1838.

After these arrests had been made, General Clark called the other Mormons at Far West together, and addressed them, telling them that they could now go to their fields for corn, wood, etc., but that the terms of the surrender must be strictly lived up to. Their leading men had been given up, their arms surrendered, and their property assigned as stipulated, but it now remained for them to leave the state forthwith. On that subject the general said:--

"The character of this state has suffered almost beyond redemption, from the character, conduct, and influence that you have exerted; and we deem it an act of justice to restore her character to its former standing among the states by every proper means. The orders of the governor to me were that you should be exterminated and not allowed to remain in the state. And had not your leaders been given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with, before this time you and your families would have been destroyed, and your houses in ashes. There is a discretionary power vested in my hands, which, considering your circumstances, I shall exercise for a season. You are indebted to me for this clemency.

"I do not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in crops, for the moment you do this the citizens will be upon you; and if I am called here again, in a case of a non-compliance of a treaty made, do not think that I shall do as I have done now. You need not expect any mercy, but extermination, for I am determined the governor's orders shall be executed. As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter into your mind, that they will be delivered and restored to you again, for their fate is fixed, their die is cast, their doom is sealed.

"I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so many apparently intelligent men found in the situation you are; and O! if I could invoke the great spirit, the unknown God, to rest upon and deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound, that you no longer do homage to a man. I would advise you to scatter abroad, and never organize yourselves with bishops, presidents, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you. You have always been the aggressors: you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being subject to rule. And my advice is that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable ruin."

General Clark then marched with his prisoners to Richmond, where the trial of all the accused began on November 12, before Judge A. A. King. By November 29 the called-out militia had been disbanded, and on that date General Clark made his final report to the governor. In this he asserted that the militia under him had conducted themselves as honorable citizen soldiers, and enclosed a certificate signed by five Mormons, including W. W. Phelps, Colonel Hinckle, and John Corrill, confirming this statement, and saying, "We have no hesitation in saying that the course taken by General Clark with the Mormons was necessary for the public peace, and that the Mormons are generally satisfied with his course."

In his summing up of the results of the campaign, General Clark said:

"It [the Mormon insurrection] had for its object Dominion, the ultimate subjugation of this State and the Union to the laws of a few men called the Presidency. Their church was to be built up at any rate, peaceably if they could, forcibly if necessary. These people had banded themselves together in societies, the object of which was to first drive from their society such as refused to join them in their unholy purposes, and then to plunder the surrounding country, and ultimately to subject the state to their rule."

"The whole number of the Mormons killed through the whole difficulty, so far as I can ascertain, are about forty, and several wounded. There has been one citizen killed, and about fifteen badly wounded."*

* "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 92.

Brigadier General R. Wilson was sent with his command to settle the Mormon question in Daviess County. Finding the town of Adamondi-Ahman unguarded, he placed guards around it, and gathered in the Mormons of the neighborhood, to the number of about two hundred. Most of these, he explained in his report, were late comers from Canada and the northern border of the United States, and were living mostly in tents, without any adequate provision for the winter. Those against whom criminal charges had been made were placed under arrest, and the others were informed that General Wilson would protect them for ten days, and would guarantee their safety to Caldwell County or out of the state. "This appeared to me," said General Wilson, in his report to General Clark, "to be the only course to prevent a general massacre." In this report General Wilson presented the following picture of the situation there as he found it: "It is perfectly impossible for me to convey to you anything like the awful state of things which exists here--language is inadequate to the task. The citizens of a whole county first plundered, and then their houses and other buildings burnt to ashes; without houses, beds, furniture, or even clothing in many instances, to meet the inclemency of the weather. I confess that my feelings have been shocked with the gross brutality of these Mormons, who have acted more like demons from the infernal regions than human beings. Under these circumstances, you will readily perceive that it would be perfectly impossible for me to protect the Mormons against the just indignation of the citizens.... The Mormons themselves appeared pleased with the idea of getting away from their enemies and a justly insulted people, and I believe all have applied and received permits to leave the county; and I suppose about fifty families have left, and others are hourly leaving, and at the end of ten days Mormonism will not be known in Daviess county. This appeared to me to be the only course left to prevent a general massacre."*

* "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 78.

The Mormons began to depart at once, and in ten days nearly all had left. Lee, who acted as guide to General Wilson, and whose wife and babe were at Adamondi-Ahman, says:

"Every house in Adamondi-Ahman was searched by the troops for stolen property. They succeeded in finding very much of the Gentile property that had been captured by the Saints in the various raids they made through the country. Bedding of every kind and in large quantities was found and reclaimed by the owners. Even spinning wheels, soap barrels, and other articles were recovered. Each house where stolen property was found was certain to receive a Missouri blessing from the troops. The men who had been most active in gathering plunder had fled to Illinois to escape the vengeance of the people, leaving their families to suffer for the sins of the believing Saints."*

* "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 89.

We may now follow the fortunes of the Mormon prisoners. On arriving at Richmond, they were confined in the unfinished brick court-house. The only inside work on this building that was completed was a partly laid floor, and to this the prisoners were restricted by a railing, with a guard inside and out. "Two three-pail iron kettles for boiling our meat, and two or more iron bake kettles, or Dutch ovens, were furnished us," says Robinson, "together with sacks of corn meal and meat in bulk. We did our own cooking. This arrangement suited us very well, and we enjoyed ourselves as well as men could under such circumstances."*

* The Return, Vol. I, p. 234.

Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin, and A. McRea were soon transferred to the jail at Liberty. The others were then put into the debtor's room of Richmond jail, a two-story log structure which was not well warmed, but they were released on light bail in a few days.

A report of the testimony given at the hearing of the Mormon prisoners before judge King will be found in the "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," published by order of the Missouri legislature, pp. 97-149. Among the Mormons who gave evidence against the prisoners were Avard, the Danite, John Whitmer, W. W. Phelps, John Corrill, and Colonel Hinckle. There were thirty-seven witnesses for the state and seven for the defence. As showing the character of the testimony, the following selections will suffice.

Avard told the story of the origin of the Danites, and said that he considered Joseph Smith their organizer; that the constitution was approved by Smith and his counsellors at Rigdon's house, and that the members felt themselves as much bound to obey the heads of the church as to obey God. Just previous to the arrival of General Lucas at Far West, Smith had assembled his force, and told them that, for every one they lacked in numbers as compared with their opponents, the Lord would send angels to fight for them. He presented the text of the indictment against Cowdery, Whitmer, and others, drawn up by Rigdon.

John Corrill testified about the effect of Rigdon's "salt sermon," and also that he had attended meetings of the Danites, and had expressed disapproval of the doctrine that, if one brother got into difficulty, it was the duty of the others to help him out, right or wrong; that Smith and Rigdon attended one of these meetings, and that he had heard Smith declare at a meeting, "if the people would let us alone, we would preach the Gospel to them in peace, but if they came on us to molest us, we would establish our religion by the sword, and that he would become to this generation a second Mohammed"; just after the expulsion of the Mormons from Dewitt, Smith declared hostilities against their opponents in Caldwell and Daviess counties, and had a resolution passed, looking to the confiscation of the property of the brethren who would not join him in the march; and on a Sunday he advised the people that they might at times take property which at other times it would be wrong to take, citing David's eating of the shew bread, and the Saviour's plucking ears of corn.* Reed Peck testified to the same effect.

* Corrill, Avard, Hinckle, Marsh, and others were formally excommunicated at a council held at Quincy, Illinois, on March 17, 1839, over which Brigham Young presided.

John Clemison testified to the presence of Smith at the early meetings of the Danites; that Rigdon and Smith had advised that those who were backward in joining his fighting force should be placed in the front ranks at the point of pitchforks; that a great deal of Gentile property was brought into Mormon camps, and that "it was frequently observed among the troops that the time had come when the riches of the Gentiles should be consecrated to the state."

W. W. Phelps testified that in the previous April he had heard Rigdon say, at a meeting in Far West, that they had borne persecution and lawsuits long enough, and that, if a sheriff came with writs against them, they would kill him, and that Smith approved his words. Phelps said that the character of Rigdon's "salt sermon" was known and discussed in advance of its delivery.

John Whitmer testified that, soon after the preaching of the "salt sermon," a leading Mormon told him that they did not intend to regard any longer "the niceties of the law of the land," as "the kingdom spoken of by the Prophet Daniel had been set up."

The testimony concerning the Danite organization and Smith's threats against the Missourians received confirmation in an affidavit by no less a person than Thomas B. Marsh, the First President of the twelve Apostles, before a justice of the peace in Ray County, in October, 1838. In this Marsh said:--

"The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this state; and he professes to his people to intend taking the United States and ultimately the whole world. The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith's prophecies are superior to the law of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; that, if he was not let alone, he would be a second Mohammed to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean."

This affidavit was accompanied by an affidavit by Orson Hyde, who was afterward so prominent in the councils of the church, stating that he knew most of Marsh's statements to be true, and believed the others to be true also.

Of the witnesses for the defence, two women and one man gave testimony to establish an alibi for Lyman Wight at the time of the last Mormon expedition to Daviess County; Rigdon's daughter Nancy testified that she had heard Avard say that he would swear to a lie to accomplish an object; and J. W. Barlow gave testimony to show that Smith and Rigdon were not with the men who took part in the battle on Crooked Creek.

Rigdon, in an "Appeal to the American People," which he wrote soon after, declared that this trial was a compound between an inquisition and a criminal court, and that the testimony of Avard was given to save his own life. "A part of an armed body of men," he says, "stood in the presence of the court to see that the witnesses swore right, and another part was scouring the country to drive out of it every witness they could hear of whose testimony would be favorable to the defendants. If a witness did not swear to please the court, he or she would be threatened to be cast into prison.... A man by the name of Allen began to tell the story of Bogart's burning houses in the south part of Caldwell; he was kicked out of the house, and three men put after him with loaded guns, and he hardly escaped with his life. Finally, our lawyers, General Doniphan and Amos Rees, told us not to bring our witnesses there at all, for if we did, there would not be one of them left for the final trial.... As to making any impression on King, if a cohort of angels were to come down and declare we were clear, Doniphan said it would be all the same, for he had determined from the beginning to cast us into prison." Smith alleged that judge King was biased against them because his brother-in-law had been killed during the early conflicts in Jackson County.

Several of the defendants were discharged during or after the close of the hearing. Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, and three others were ordered committed to the Clay County jail at Liberty on a charge of treason; Parley P. Pratt and four others to the Ray County jail on a charge of murder; and twenty-three others were ordered to give bail on a charge of arson, burglary, robbery, and larceny, and all but eight of these were locked up in default of bail. The prisoners confined at Liberty secured a writ of habeas corpus soon after, but only Rigdon was ordered released, and he thought it best for his safety to go back to the jail. He afterward, with the connivance of the sheriff and jailer, made his escape at night, and reached Quincy, Illinois, in February, 1839.

P. P. Pratt, in his "Late Persecution," says that the prisoners were kept in chains most of the time, and that Riodon, although ill, "was compelled to sleep on the floor, with a chain and padlock round his ankle, and fastened to six others." Hyrum Smith, in a "Communication to the Saints" printed a year later, says; "We suffered much from want of proper food, and from the nauseous cell in which I was confined."

Joseph Smith remained in the Liberty jail until April, 1839. At one time all the prisoners nearly made their escape, "but unfortunately for us, the timber of the wall being very hard, our augur handles gave out, which hindered us longer than we expected," and the plan was discovered.

The prophet employed a good deal of his time in jail in writing long epistles to the church. He gave out from there also three "revelations," the chief direction of which was that the brethren should gather up all possible information about their persecutions, and make out a careful statement of their property losses. His letters reveal the character of the man as it had already been exhibited--headlong in his purposes, vindictive toward any enemy. He says in his biography that he paid his lawyers about $50,000 "in cash, lands, etc." (a pretty good sum for the refugee from Ohio to amass so soon), but got little practical assistance from them, "for sometimes they were afraid to act on account of the mob, and sometimes they were so drunk as to incapacitate them for business." In one of his letters to the church he thus speaks of some of his recent allies, "This poor man [W. W. Phelps] who professes to be much of a prophet, has no other dumb ass to ride but David Whitmer, or to forbid his madness when he goes up to curse Israel; but this not being of the same kind as Balaam's, therefore, notwithstanding the angel appeared unto him, yet he could not sufficiently penetrate his understanding but that he brays out cursings instead of blessings."*

* Times and Seasons, Vol. I, p. 82.

On April 6, Smith and his fellow-prisoners were taken to Daviess County for trial. The judge and jury before whom their cases came were, according to his account, all drunk. Smith and four others were promptly indicted for "murder, treason, burglary, arson, larceny, theft, and stealing." They at once secured a change of venue to Boone County, 120 miles east, and set out for that place on April 15, but they never reached there. Smith says they were enabled to escape because their guard got drunk. In a newspaper interview printed many years later, General Doniphan is quoted as saying that he had it on good authority that Smith paid the sheriff and his guards $1100 to allow the prisoners to escape. Ebenezer Robinson says that Joseph and Hyrum were allowed to ride away on two fine horses, and that, a few Weeks later, he saw the sheriff at Quincy making Joseph a friendly visit, at which time he received pay for the animals.* The party arrived at Quincy, Illinois, on April 22, and were warmly welcomed by the brethren who had preceded them. Among these was Brigham Young, who was among those who had found it necessary to flee the state before the final surrender was arranged. The Missouri authorities, as we shall see, for a long time continued their efforts to secure the extradition of Smith, but he never returned to Missouri.

As the Mormons had tried to set aside their original agreement with the Jackson County people, so, while their leaders were in jail, they endeavored to find means to break their treaty with General Lucas. Their counsel, General Atchison, was a member of the legislature, and he warmly espoused their cause. They sent in a petition,* which John Corrill presented, giving a statement in detail of the opposition they had encountered in the state, and asking for the enactment of a law "rescinding the order of the governor to drive us from the state, and also giving us the sanction of the legislature to inherit our lands in peace"; as well as disapproving of the "deed of trust," as they called the second section of the Lucas treaty. The petition was laid on the table. An effort for an investigation of the whole trouble by a legislative committee was made, and an act to that effect was passed in 1839, but nothing practical came of it. When the Mormon memorial was called up, its further consideration was postponed until July, and then the Mormons knew that they had no alternative except to leave the state.

* For full text, see Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, pp. 586-589.

While the prisoners were in jail, things had not quieted down in the Mormon counties. The decisive action of the state authorities had given the local Missourians to understand that the law of the land was on their side, and when the militia withdrew they took advantage of their opportunity. Mormon property was not respected, and what was left to those people in the way of horses, cattle, hogs, and even household belongings was taken by the bands of men who rode at pleasure,* and who claimed that they were only regaining what the Mormons had stolen from them. The legislature appropriated $2000 for the relief of such sufferers.

* See M. Arthur's letter, "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," p. 94.

Facing the necessity of moving entirely out of the state, the Mormons, as they had reached the western border line of civilization, now turned their face eastward to Quincy, Illinois, where some of their members were already established. Not until April 20 did the last of them leave Far West. The migration was attended with much suffering, as could not in such circumstances be avoided. The people of the counties through which they passed were, however, not hostile, and Mormon writers have testified that they received invitations to stop and settle. These were declined, and they pressed on to the banks of the Mississippi, where, in February and March, there were at one time more than 130 families, waiting for the moving ice to enable them to cross, many of them without food, and the best sheltered depending on tents made of their bedclothing.*

* Green's "Facts Relative to the Expulsion."

What the total of the pecuniary losses of the Mormons in Missouri was cannot be accurately estimated. They asserted that in Jackson County alone, $120,000 worth of their property was destroyed, and that fifteen thousand of their number fled from the state. Smith, in a statement of his losses made after his arrival in Illinois, placed them at $1,000,000. In a memorial presented to Congress at this time the losses in Jackson County were placed at $175,000, and in the state of Missouri at $2,000,000. The efforts of the Mormons to secure redress were long continued. Not only was Congress appealed to, but legislatures of other states were urged to petition in their behalf. The Senate committee at Washington reported that the matter was entirely within the jurisdiction of the state of Missouri. One of the latest appeals was addressed by Smith at Nauvoo in December, 1843, to his native state, Vermont, calling on the Green Mountain boys, not only to assist him in attaining justice in Missouri, "but also to humble and chastise or abase her for the disgraces she has brought upon constitutional liberty, until she atones for her sin."

The final act of the Mormon authorities in Missouri was somewhat dramatic. Smith in his "revelation" of April 8, 1838, directing the building of a Temple at Far West, had (the Lord speaking) ordered the beginning to be made on the following Fourth of July, adding, "in one year from this day let them recommence laying the foundation of my house." The anniversary found the latest Missouri Zion deserted, and its occupants fugitives; but the command of the Lord must be obeyed. Accordingly, the twelve Apostles journeyed secretly to Far West, arriving there about midnight of April 26, 1839. A conference was at once held, and, after transacting some miscellaneous business, including the expulsion of certain seceding members, all adjourned to the selected site of the Temple, where, after the singing of a hymn, the foundation was relaid by rolling a large stone to one corner.* The Apostles then returned to Illinois as quietly as possible. The leader of this expedition was Brigham Young, who had succeeded T. B. Marsh as President of the Twelve.

* The modern post-office name of Far West is Kerr. All the Mormon houses there have disappeared. Traces of the foundation of the Temple, which in places was built to a height of three or four feet, are still discernible.

Thus ended the early history of the Mormon church in Missouri.

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I. THE RECEPTION OF THE MORMONS

The state of Illinois, when the Mormons crossed the Missouri River to settle in it, might still be considered a pioneer country. Iowa, to the west of it, was a territory, and only recently organized as such. The population of the whole state was only 467,183 in 1840, as compared with 4,821,550 in 1900. Young as it was, however, the state had had some severe financial experiences, which might have served as warnings to the new-comers. A debt of more than $14,000,000 had been contracted for state improvements, and not a railroad or a canal had been completed. "The people," says Ford, "looked one way and another with surprise, and were astonished at their own folly." The payment of interest on the state debt ceased after July, 1841, and "in a short time Illinois became a stench in the nostrils of the civilized world.... The impossibility of selling kept us from losing population; the fear of disgrace or high taxes prevented us from gaining materially."* The State Bank and the Shawneetown Bank failed in 1842, and when Ford became governor in that year he estimated that the good money in the state in the hands of the people did not exceed one year's interest on the public debt.

* Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VII.

The lawless conditions in many parts of the state in those days can scarcely be realized now. It was in 1847 that the Rev. Owen Lovejoy (handwritten comment in the book says "Elijah P. Lovejoy." Transcriber) was killed at Alton in maintaining his right to print there an abolition newspaper. All over the state, settlers who had occupied lands as "squatters" defended their claims by force, and serious mobs often resulted. Large areas of military lands were owned by non-residents, who were in very bad favor with the actual settlers. These settlers made free use of the timber on such lands, and the non-residents, failing to secure justice at law, finally hired preachers, who were paid by the sermon to preach against the sin of "hooking" timber.*

* Ford's "History of Illinois," Chap. VI.

Bands of desperadoes in the northern counties openly defied the officers of the law, and, in one instance, burned down the courthouse (in Ogle County in 1841) in order to release some of their fellows who were awaiting trial. One of these gangs ten years earlier had actually built, in Pope County, a fort in which they defied the authorities, and against which a piece of artillery had to be brought before it could be taken. Even while the conflict between the Mormons was going on, in 1846, there was vitality enough in this old organization, in Pope and Massac counties, to call for the interposition of a band of "regulators," who made many arrests, not hesitating to employ torture to secure from one prisoner information about his associates. Governor Ford sent General J. T. Davies there, to try to effect a peaceable arrangement of the difficulties, but he failed to do so, and the "regulators," who found the county officers opposed to them, drove out of the county the sheriff, the county clerk, and the representative elect to the legislature. When the judge of the Massac Circuit Court charged the grand jury strongly against the "regulators," they, with sympathizers from Kentucky, threatened to lynch him, and actually marched in such force to the county seat that the sheriff's posse surrendered, and the mob let their friends out of jail, and drowned some members of the posse in the Ohio River.

The reception and treatment of the Mormons in Illinois, and the success of the new-comers in carrying out their business and political schemes, must be viewed in connection with these incidents in the early history of the state.

The greeting of the Mormons in Illinois, in its practical shape, had both a political and a business reason.* Party feeling ran very high throughout the country in those days. The House of Representatives at Washington, after very great excitement, organized early in December, 1839, by choosing a Whig Speaker, and at the same time the Whig National Convention, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, nominated General W. H. Harrison for President. Thus the expulsion from Missouri occurred on the eve of one of our most exciting presidential campaigns, and the Illinois politicians were quick to appraise the value of the voting strength of the immigrants. As a residence of six months in the state gave a man the right to vote, the Mormon vote would count in the presidential election.

* "The first great error committed by the people of Hancock County was in accepting too readily the Mormon story of persecution. It was continually rung in their ears, and believed as often as asserted."--Gregg, "History of Hancock County," p. 270.

Accordingly, we find that in February, 1839, the Democratic Association of Quincy, at a public meeting in the court-house, received a report from a committee previously appointed, strongly in favor of the refugees, and adopted resolutions condemning the treatment of the Mormons by the people and officers of Missouri. The Quincy Argus declared that, because of this treatment, Missouri was "now so fallen that we could wish her star stricken out from the bright constellation of the Union." In April, 1839, Rigdon wrote to the "Saints in prison" that Governor Carlin of Illinois and his wife "enter with all the enthusiasm of their nature" into his plan to have the governor of each state present to Congress the unconstitutional course of Missouri toward the Mormons, with a view to federal relief. Governor Lucas of Iowa Territory, in the same year (Iowa had only been organized as a territory the year before, and was not admitted as a state until 1845), replying to a query about the reception the Mormons would receive in his domain, said: "Their religious opinions I consider have nothing to do with our political transactions. They are citizens of the United States, and are entitled to the same political rights and legal protection that other citizens are entitled to." He gave Rigdon at the same time cordial letters of introduction to President Van Buren and Governor Shannon of Ohio, and Rigdon received a similar letter to the President, recommending him "as a man of piety and a valuable citizen," signed by Governor Carlin, United States Senator Young, County Clerk Wren, and leading business men of Quincy. Thus began that recognition of the Mormons as a political power in Illinois which led to concessions to them that had so much to do with finally driving them into the wilderness.

The business reason for the welcome of the Mormons in Illinois and Iowa was the natural ambition to secure an increase of population. In all of Hancock County there were in 1830 only 483 inhabitants as compared with 32,215 in 1900. Along with this public view of the matter was a private one. A Dr. Isaac Galland owned (or claimed title to) a large tract of land on both sides of the border line between Illinois and Iowa, that in Iowa being included in what was known as "the half-breed tract," an area of some 119,000 acres which, by a treaty between the United States government and the Sacs and Foxes, was reserved to descendants of Indian women of those tribes by white fathers, and the title to much of which was in dispute. As soon as the Mormons began to cross into Illinois, Galland approached them with an offer of about 20,000 acres between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers at $2 per acre, to be paid in twenty annual instalments, without interest. A meeting of the refugees was held in Quincy in February, 1839, to consider this offer, but the vote was against it. The failure of the efforts in Ohio and Missouri to establish the Mormons as a distinct community had made many of Smith's followers sceptical about the success of any new scheme with this end in view, and at this conference several members, including so influential a man as Bishop Partridge, openly expressed their doubt about the wisdom of another gathering of the Saints. Galland, however, pursued the subject in a letter to D. W. Rodgers, inviting Rigdon and others to inspect the tract with him, and assuring the Mormons of his sympathy in their sufferings, and "deep solicitude for your future triumphant conquest over every enemy." Rigdon, Partridge, and others accepted Galland's invitation, but reported against purchasing his land, and the refugees began scattering over the country around Quincy.

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II. THE SETTLEMENT OF NAUVOO

Smith's leadership was now to have another illustration. Others might be discouraged by past persecutions and business failures, and be ready to abandon the great scheme which the prophet had so often laid before them in the language of "revelation"; but it was no part of Smith's character to abandon that scheme, and remain simply an object of lessened respect, with a scattered congregation. He had been kept advised of Galland's proposal, and, two days after his arrival in Quincy, we find him, on April 24, presiding at a church council which voted to instruct him with two associates to visit Iowa and select there a location for a church settlement, and which advised all the brethren who could do so to move to the town of Commerce, Illinois. Thus were the doubters defeated, and the proposal to scatter the flock brought to a sudden end. Smith and his two associates set out at once to make their inspection.

The town of Commerce had been laid out (on paper) in 1834 by two Eastern owners of the property, A. White and J. B. Teas, and adjoining its northern border H. R. Hotchkiss of New Haven, Connecticut, had mapped out Commerce City. Neither enterprise had proved a success, and when the Mormon agents arrived there the place had scarcely attained the dignity of a settlement, the only buildings being one storehouse, two frame dwellings and two blockhouses. The Mormon agents, on May 1, bought two farms there, one for $5000 and one for $9000 (known afterward as the White purchase), and on August 9 they bought of Hotchkiss five hundred acres for the sum of $53,500. Bishop Knight, for the church, soon afterward purchased part of the town of Keokuk, Iowa, a town called Nashville six miles above, a part of the town of Montrose, four miles above Nashville, and thirty thousand acres in the "half-breed tract," which included Galland's original offer, and ten thousand acres additional.

Thus was Smith prepared to make another attempt to establish his followers in a permanent abiding-place. But how, it may be asked, could the prophet reconcile this abandonment of the Missouri Zion and this new site for a church settlement with previous revelations? By further "revelation," of course. Such a mouthpiece of God can always enlighten his followers provided he can find speech, and Smith was not slow of utterance. While in jail in Liberty he had advised a committee which was sent to him from Illinois to sell all the lands in Missouri, and in a letter to the Saints, written while a prisoner, he spoke favorably of Galland's offer, saying, "The Saints ought to lay hold of every door that shall seem to be opened unto them to obtain foothold on the earth." In order to make perfectly clear the new purpose of the Lord in regard to Zion he gave out a long "revelation" (Sec. 124), which is dated Nauvoo, January 19, 1841, and which contains the following declarations:--

"Verily, verily I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work under my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have, to perform that work and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept their offerings.

"And the iniquity and transgression of my holy laws and commandments I will visit upon the heads of those who hindered my work, unto the third and fourth generation, so long as they repent not and hate me, saith the Lord God.

"Therefore for this cause have I accepted the offerings of those whom I commanded to build up a city and house unto my name in Jackson County, Missouri, and were hindered by their enemies, saith the Lord your God."

This announcement seems to have been accepted without question by the faithful, as reconciling the failure in Missouri with the new establishment farther east.

The financiering of the new land purchases did credit to Smith's genius in that line. For some of the smaller tracts a part payment in cash was made. Hotchkiss accepted for his land two notes signed by Smith and his brother Hyrum and Rigdon, one payable in ten, and the other in twenty years. Galland took notes, and, some time later, as explained in a letter to the Saints abroad, the Mormon lands in Missouri, "in payment for the whole amount, and in addition to the first purchase we have exchanged lands with him in Missouri to the amount of $80,000."* Galland's title to the Iowa tract was vigorously assailed by Iowa newspapers some years later. What cash he eventually realized from the transaction does not appear.** Smith had influence enough over him to secure his conversion to the Mormon belief, and he will be found associated with the leaders in Nauvoo enterprises.

* Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 275.

** "Galland died a pauper in Iowa."--"Mormon Portraits," p. 253.

The Hotchkiss notes gave Smith a great deal of trouble. Notwithstanding the influx of immigrants to Nauvoo and the growth of the place, which ought to have brought in large profits from the sale of lots, the accrued interest due to Hotchkiss in two years amounted to about $6000. Hotchkiss earnestly urged its payment, and Smith was in dire straits to meet his demands. In a correspondence between them, in 1841, Smith told Hotchkiss that he had agreed to forego interest for five years, and not to "force payment" even then. Smith assured Hotchkiss that the part of the city bought from him was "a deathly sickly hole" on which they had been able to realize nothing, "although," he added, with unblushing affrontery for the head of a church, "we have been keeping up appearances and holding out inducements to encourage immigration that we scarcely think justifiable in consequence of the mortality that almost invariably awaits those who come from far distant parts."* In pursuance of this same policy (in a letter dated October 12, 1841), the Eastern brethren were urged to transfer their lands there to Hotchkiss in payment of the notes, and to accept lots in Nauvoo from the church in exchange.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 631.

The name of the town was changed to Nauvoo in April, 1840, with the announcement that this name was of Hebrew origin, signifying "a beautiful place."*

* In answer to a query about this alleged derivation of the name of the city, a competent Hebrew scholar writes to me: "The nearest approach to Nauvoo in Hebrew is an adjective which would be transliterated Naveh, meaning pleasant, a rather rare word. The letter correctly represented by v could not possibly do the double duty of uv, nor could a of the Hebrew ever be au in English, nor eh of the Hebrew be oo in English. Students of theology at Middletown, Connecticut, used to have a saying that that name was derived from Moses by dropping 'iddletown' and adding 'mass.'"

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III. THE BUILDING UP OF THE CITY--FOREIGN PROSELYTING

The geographical situation of Nauvoo had something in its favor. Lying on the east bank of the Mississippi, which is there two miles wide, it had a water frontage on three sides, because of a bend in the stream, and the land was somewhat rising back from the river. But its water front was the only thing in its favor. "The place was literally a wilderness," says Smith. "The land was mostly covered with trees and bushes, and much of it so wet that it was with the utmost difficulty a foot man could get through, and totally impossible for teams. Commerce was so unhealthy very few could live there, but, believing it might become a healthy place by the blessing of heaven to the Saints, and no more eligible place presenting itself, I considered it wisdom to make an attempt to build up a city."

Contemporary accounts say that most of the refugees from Missouri suffered from chills and fevers during their first year in the new settlement. Smith, in his autobiography, laments the mortality among the settlers. The Rev. Henry Caswall, in his description of three days at Nauvoo in 1842, says:--

"I was informed again and again in Montrose, Iowa, that nearly half of the English who emigrated to Nauvoo in 1841 died soon after their arrival... In his sermon at Montrose in May 9, 1841, the following words of most Christian consolation were delivered by the Prophet to the poor deluded English: 'Many of the English who have lately come here have expressed great disappointment on their arrival. Such persons have every reason to be satisfied in this beautiful and fertile country. If they choose to complain, they may; but I don't want to be troubled with their complaints. If they are not satisfied here, I have only this to say to them, "Don't stay whining about me, but go back to England, and go to h--l and be d--d."'"*

*"City of the Mormons," p. 55.

Brigham Young, in after years, thus spoke of Smith's exhibition of miraculous healing during the year after their arrival in Illinois: "Joseph commenced in his own house and dooryard, commanding the sick, in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and be made whole, and they were healed according to his word. He then continued to travel from house to house, healing the sick as he went."* Any attempt to reconcile this statement by Young with the previously cited testimony about the mortality of the place would be futile.

* "Life of Brigham Young" (Cannon & Son, publishers), p. 32.

The growth of the town, however, was more rapid than that of any of the former Mormon settlements. The United States census shows that the population of Hancock County, Illinois, increased from 483 in 1830 to 9946 in 1840. Statements regarding the population of Nauvoo during the Mormon occupancy are conflicting and often exaggerated. In a letter to the elders in England, printed in the Times and Seasons of January, 1841, Smith said, "There are at present about 3000 inhabitants in Nauvoo." The same periodical, in an article on the city, on December 15, 1841, said that it was "a densely populated city of near 10,000 inhabitants." A visitor, describing the place in a letter in the Columbus (Ohio) Advocate of March, 1842, said that it contained about 7000 persons, and that the buildings were small and much scattered, log cabins predominating. The Times and Seasons of October, 1842, said, "It will be no more than probably correct if we allow the city to contain between 7000 and 8000 houses, with a population of 14,000 or 15,000," with two steam mills and other manufacturing concerns in operation. W. W. Phelps estimated the population in 1844 at 14,000, almost all professed Mormons. The Times and Seasons in 1845 said that a census just taken showed a population of 11,057 in the city and one third more outside the city limits.

As soon as the Mormons arrived, Nauvoo was laid out in blocks measuring about 180 by 200 feet, with a river frontage of more than three miles. An English visitor to the place in 1843 wrote "The city is of great dimensions, laid out in beautiful order; the streets are wide and cross each other at right angles, which will add greatly to its order and magnificence when finished. The city rises on a quick incline from the rolling Mississippi, and as you stand near the Temple you may gaze on the picturesque scenery round. At your side is the Temple, the wonder of the world; round about and beneath you may behold handsome stores, large mansions, and fine cottages, interspersed with varied scenery."*

* Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 128.

Whatever the exact population of the place may have been, its rapid growth is indisputable. The cause of this must be sought, not in natural business reasons, such as have given a permanent increase of population to so many of our Western cities, but chiefly in active and aggressive proselyting work both in this country and in Europe. This work was assisted by the sympathy which the treatment of the Mormons had very generally secured for them. Copies of Mormon Bibles were rare outside of the hands of the brethren, and the text of Smith's "revelations" bearing on his property designs in Missouri was known to comparatively few even in the church. While the Nauvoo edition of the "Doctrine and Covenants" was in course of publication, the Times and Seasons, on January 1, 1842, said that it would be published in the spring, "but, many of our readers being deprived of the privilege of perusing its valuable pages, we insert the first section." Mormon emissaries took advantage of this situation to tell their story in their own way at all points of the compass. Meetings were held in the large cities of the Eastern states to express sympathy with these victims of the opponents of "freedom of religious opinion," and to raise money for their relief, and the voice of the press, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, was, without a discovered exception, on the side of the refugees.

This paved the way for a vast extension of that mission work which began with the trip of Cowdery and his associates in 1830, was expanded throughout this country while the Saints were at Kirtland, and was extended to foreign lands in 1837. The missionaries sent out in the early days of the church represented various degrees of experience and qualification. There were among them men like Orson Hyde and Willard Richards, who, although they gave up secular callings on entering the church, were close students of the Scriptures and debaters who could hold their own, when it came to an interpretation of the Scriptures, before any average audience. Many were sent out without any especial equipment for their task. John D. Lee, describing his first trip, says:--

"I started forth an illiterate, inexperienced person, without purse or scrip. I could hardly quote a passage of Scripture. Yet I went forth to say to the world that I was a minister of the Gospel." He was among the successful proselyters, and rose to influence in the church.* Of the requirement that the missionaries should be beggars, Lorenzo Snow, who was sent out on a mission from Kirtland in 1837, says, "It was a severe trial to my natural feelings of independence to go without purse or scrip especially the purse; for, from the time I was old enough to work, the feeling that 'I paid my way' always seemed a necessary adjunct to self respect."

* For an account of his travels and successes, see "Mormonism Unveiled."

Parley P. Pratt, in a letter to Smith from New York in November, 1839, describing the success of the work in the United States, says, "You would now find churches of the Saints in Philadelphia, in Albany, in Brooklyn, in New York, in Sing Sing, in Jersey, in Pennsylvania, on Long Island, and in various other places all around us," and he speaks of the "spread of the work" in Michigan and Maine.

The importance of England as a field from which to draw emigrants to the new settlement was early recognized at Nauvoo, and in 1840 such lights of the church as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, P. P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and George A. Smith, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, were sent to cultivate that field. There they ordained Willard Richards an Apostle, preached and labored for over a year, established a printing-office which turned out a vast amount of Mormon literature, including their Bible and "Doctrine and Covenants," and began the publication of the Millennial Star.

In 1840 Orson Hyde was sent on a mission to the Jews in London, Amsterdam, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, and the same year missionaries were sent to Australia, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the East Indies. In 1844 a missionary was sent to the Sandwich Islands; in 1849 others were sent to France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, Italy, and Switzerland; in 1850 ten more elders were sent to the Sandwich Islands; in 1851 four converts were baptized in Hindostan; in 1852 a branch of the church was organized at Malta; in 1853 three elders reached the Cape of Good Hope; and in 1861 two began work in Holland, but with poor success. We shall see that this proselyting labor has continued with undiminished industry to the present day, in all parts of the United States as well as in foreign lands.

England provided an especially promising field for Mormon missionary work. The great manufacturing towns contained hundreds of people, densely ignorant,* superstitious, and so poor that the ownership of a piece of land in their own country was practically beyond the limit of their ambition. These people were naturally susceptible to the Mormon teachings, easily imposed upon by stories of alleged miracles, and ready to migrate to any part of the earth where a building lot or a farm was promised them. The letters from the first missionaries in England gave glowing reports of the results of their labors. Thus Wilford Woodruff, writing from Manchester in 1840, said, "The work has been so rapid it was impossible to ascertain the exact number belonging to each branch, but the whole number is 33 churches, 534 members, 75 officers, all of which had embraced the work in less than four months." Lorenzo Snow, in a letter from London in April, 1841, said: "Throughout all England, in almost every town and city of any considerable importance, we have chapels or public halls in which we meet for public worship. All over this vast kingdom the laws of Zion are rolling onward with the most astonishing rapidity."

* "It has been calculated that there are in England and Wales six million persons who can neither read nor write, that is to say, about one-third of the population, including, of course, infants; but of all the children more than one-half attend no place of public instruction."--Dickens, "Household Words."

The visiting missionaries began their work in England at Preston, Lancashire, in 1836 or 1837, and soon secured there some five hundred converts. Then they worked on each side of the Ribble, making converts in all the villages, and gaining over a few farm owners and mechanics of some means. Their method was first to drop hints to the villagers that the Holy Bible is defective in translation and incomplete, and that the Mormon Bible corrects all these defects. Not able to hold his own in any theological discussion, the rustic was invited to a meeting. At that meeting the missionary would announce that he would speak simply as the Lord directed him, and he would then present the Mormon view of their Bible and prophet. As soon as converts were won over, they were immersed, at night, and given the sacrament. Then they were initiated into the secret "church meeting," to which only the faithful were admitted, and where the flock were told of visions and "gifts," and exhorted to stand firm (along with their earthly goods) for the church, and warned against apostasy.

One way in which the prophetic gift of the missionaries was proved in the early days in England was as follows: "Whenever a candidate was immersed, some of the brethren was given a letter signed by Hyde and Kimball, setting forth that 'brother will not abide in the spirit of the Lord, but will reject the truth, and become the enemy of the people of God, etc., etc.' If the brother did not apostatize, this letter remained unopened; if he did, it was read as a striking verification of prophecy."*

* Caswall's "City of the Mormons," appendix.

Miracles exerted a most potent influence among the people in England with whom the early missionaries labored, and the Millennial Star contains a long list of reported successes in this line. There are accounts of very clumsy tricks that were attempted to carry out the deception. Thus, at Newport, Wales, three Mormon elders announced that they would raise a dead man to life. The "corpse" was laid out and surrounded by weeping friends, and the elders were about to begin their incantations, when a doubting Thomas in the audience attacked the "corpse" with a whip, and soon had him fleeing for dear life.*

* Tract by Rev. F. B. Ashley, p. 22.

Thomas Webster, who was baptized in England in 1837 by Orson Hyde and became an elder, saw the falsity of the Mormon professions through the failure of their miracles and other pretensions, and, after renouncing their faith, published a pamphlet exposing their methods. He relates many of the declarations made by the first missionaries in Preston to their ignorant hearers. Hyde declared that the apostles Peter, James, and John were still alive. He and Kimball asserted that neither of them would "taste death" before Christ's second coming. At one meeting Kimball predicted that in ten or fifteen years the sea would be dried up between Liverpool and America. "One of the most glaring things they ever brought before the public," says Webster, "was stated in a letter written by Orson Hyde to the brethren in Preston, saying they were on the way to the promised land in Missouri by hundreds, and the wagons reached a mile in length. They fell in with some of their brethren in Canada, who told him the Lord had been raining down manna in rich profusion, which covered from seven to ten acres of land. It was like wafers dipped in honey, and both Saints and sinners partook of it. I was present in the pulpit when this letter was read."

However ridiculous such methods may appear, their success in Great Britain was great.* In three years after the arrival of the first missionaries, the General Conference reported a membership of 4019 in England alone; in 1850 the General Conference reported that the Mormons in England and Scotland numbered 27,863, and in Wales 4342. The report for June, 1851, showed a total of 30,747 in the United Kingdom, and said, "During the last fourteen years more than 50,000 have been baptized in England, of which nearly 17,000 have migrated from her shores to Zion." In the years between 1840 and 1843 it was estimated that 3758 foreign converts settled in and around Nauvoo.**

* "There is no page of religious history which more proudly tells its story than that which relates this peculiar phase of Mormon experience. The excitement was contagious, even affecting persons in the higher ranks of social life, and the result was a grand outpouring of spiritual and miraculous healing power of the most astonishing description. Miracles were heard of everywhere, and numerous competent and most reliable witnesses bore testimony to their genuineness."--"Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 10.

** Two of the most intelligent English converts, who did proselyting work for the church and in later years saw their error, have given testimony concerning this work in Great Britain. John Hyde, Jr., summing up in 1857 the proselyting system, said: "Enthusiasm is the secret of the great success of Mormon proselyting; it is the universal characteristic of the people when proselyted; it is the hidden and strong cord that leads them to Utah, and the iron clamp that keeps them there."--"Mormonism," p. 171.

Stenhouse says: "Mormonism in England, Scotland and Wales was a grand triumph, and was fast ripening for a vigorous campaign in Continental Europe" (when polygamy was pronounced). The emigration of Mormon converts from Great Britain to the United States, in its earlier stages, was thoroughly systemized by the church authorities in this country. The first record of the movement of any considerable body tells of a company of about two hundred who sailed for New York from Liverpool in August, 1840, on the ship North American, in charge of two elders. A second vessel with emigrants, the Shefeld, sailed from Bristol to New York in February, 1841. The expense of the trip from New York to Nauvoo proved in excess of the means of many of these immigrants, some of whom were obliged to stop at Kirtland and other places in Ohio. This led to a change of route, by which vessels sailed from British ports direct to New Orleans, the immigrants ascending the Mississippi to Nauvoo.

The extent of this movement to the time of the departure of the Saints from Nauvoo is thus given by James Linforth, who says the figures are "as complete and correct as it is possible now to make them*":--

* "Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley," 1855.

Year *** No. of Vessels *** No. of Emigrants

1840 1 200

1841 6 1177

1842 8 1614

1843 5 769

1844 5 644

1845-46 3 346

Total 3750

The Mormon agents in England would charter a vessel at an English port* when a sufficient company had assembled and announce their intention to embark. The emigrants would be notified of the date of sailing, and an agent would accompany them all the way to Nauvoo. Men with money were especially desired, as were mechanics of all kinds, since the one sound business view that seems to have been taken by the leaders at Nauvoo was that it would be necessary to establish manufactures there if the people were to be able to earn a living. In some instances the passage money was advanced to the converts.

* For Dickens's description of one of these vessels ready to sail, see "The Uncommercial Traveller," Chap. XXII

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IV. THE NAUVOO CITY GOVERNMENT--TEMPLE AND OTHER BUILDINGS

A tide of immigration having been turned toward the new settlement, the next thing in order was to procure for the city a legal organization. Several circumstances combined to place in the hands of the Mormon leaders a scheme of municipal government, along with an extensive plan for buildings, which gave them vast power without incurring the kind of financial rocks on which they were wrecked in Ohio.

Dr. Galland* should probably be considered the inventor of the general scheme adopted at Nauvoo. He was at that time a resident of Cincinnati, but his intercourse with the Mormons had interested him in their beliefs, and some time in 1840 he addressed a letter to Elder R. B. Thompson, which gave the church leaders some important advice.** First warning them that to promulgate new doctrinal tenets will require not only tact and energy, but moral conduct and industry among their people, he confessed that he had not been able to discover why their religious views were not based on truth. "The project of establishing extraordinary religious doctrines being magnificent in its character," he went on to say, would require "preparations commensurate with the plan." Nauvoo being a suitable rallying-place, they would "want a temple that for size, proportions and style shall attract, surprise and dazzle all beholders"; something "unique externally, and in the interior peculiar, imposing and grand." The "clergymen" must be of the best as regards mental and vocal equipment, and there should be a choir such as "was never before organized." A college, too, would be of great value if funds for it could be collected.

* "In the year 1834 one Dr. Galland was a candidate for the legislature in a district composed of Hancock, Adams, and Pike Counties. He resided in the county of Hancock, and, as he had in the early part of his life been a notorious horse thief and counterfeiter, belonging to the Massac gang, and was then no pretender to integrity, it was useless to deny the charge. In all his speeches he freely admitted the fact."--"FORD's History of Illinois," p. 406.

** Times and Seasons, Vol. II, pp. 277-278. The letter is signed with eight asterisks Galland's usual signature to such communications.

These suggestions were accepted by Smith, with some important additional details, and they found place in the longest of the "revelations" given out by him in Illinois (Sec. I 24), the one, previously quoted from, in which the Lord excused the failure to set up a Zion in Missouri. There seemed to be some hesitation about giving out this "revelation." It is dated after the meeting of the General Conference at Nauvoo which ordered the building of a church there, and it was not published in the Times and Seasons until the following June, and then not entire. The "revelation" shows how little effect adversity had had in modifying the prophet's egotism, his arrogance, or his aggressiveness.

Starting out with, "Verily, thus with the Lord unto you, my servant Joseph Smith, I am well pleased with your offerings and acknowledgments," it calls on him to make proclamation to the kings of the world, the President of the United States, and the governors of the states concerning the Lord's will, "fearing them not, for they are as grass," and warning them of "a day of visitation if they reject my servants and my testimony." Various direct commands to leading members of the church follow. Galland here found himself in Smith's clutches, being directed to "put stock" into the boardinghouse to be built.

The principal commands in this "revelation" directed the building of another "holy house," or Temple, and a boardinghouse. With regard to the Temple it was explained that the Lord would show Smith everything about it, including its site. All the Saints from afar were ordered to come to Nauvoo, "with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities,... and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth, and with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your most precious things of the earth."

The boarding-house ordered built was to be called Nauvoo House, and was to be "a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein... a resting place for the weary traveler, that he may contemplate the glory of Zion." It was explained that a company must be formed, the members of which should pay not less than $50 a share for the stock, no subscriber to be allotted more than $1500 worth.

This "revelation" further announced once more that Joseph was to be "a presiding elder over all my church, to be a translator, a revelator, a seer and a prophet," with Sidney Rigdon and William Law his counsellors, to constitute with him the First Presidency, and Brigham Young to be president over the twelve travelling council.

Legislation was, of course, necessary to carry out the large schemes that the Mormon leaders had in mind; but this was secured at the state capital with a liberality that now seems amazing. This was due to the desire of the politicians of all parties to conciliate the Mormon vote, and to the good fortune of the Mormons in finding at the capital a very practical lobbyist to engineer their cause. This was a Dr. John C. Bennett, a man who seems to have been without any moral character, but who had filled positions of importance. Born in Massachusetts in 1804, he practised as a physician in Ohio, and later in Illinois, holding a professorship in Willoughby University, Ohio, and taking with him to Illinois testimonials as to his professional skill. In the latter state he showed a taste for military affairs, and after being elected brigadier general of the Invincible Dragoons, he was appointed quartermaster general of the state in 1840, and held that position at the state capital when the Mormons applied to the legislature for a charter for Nauvoo.

With his assistance there was secured from the legislature an act incorporating the city of Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Legion, and the University of the City of Nauvoo. The powers granted to the city government thus established were extraordinary. A City Council was authorized, consisting of the mayor, four aldermen, and nine councillors, which was empowered to pass any ordinances, not in conflict with the federal and state constitutions, which it deemed necessary for the peace and order of the city. The mayor and aldermen were given all the power of justices of the peace, and they were to constitute the Municipal Court. The charter gave the mayor sole jurisdiction in all cases arising under the city ordinances, with a right of appeal to the Municipal Court. Further than this, the charter granted to the Municipal Court the right to issue writs of habeas corpus in all cases arising under the city ordinances. Thirty-six sections were required to define the legislative powers of the City Council.

A more remarkable scheme of independent local government could not have been devised even by the leaders of this Mormon church, and the shortsightedness of the law makers in consenting to it seems nothing short of marvellous. Under it the mayor, who helped to make the local laws (as a member of the City Council), was intrusted with their enforcement, and he could, as the head of the Municipal Court, give them legal interpretation. Governor Ford afterward defined the system as "a government within a government; a legislature to pass ordinances at war with the laws of the state; courts to execute them with but little dependence upon the constitutional judiciary, and a military force at their own command." *

* A bill repealing this charter was passed by the Illinois House on February 3, 1843, by a vote of fifty-eight to thirty-three, but failed in the Senate by a vote of sixteen ayes to seventeen nays.

This military force, called the Nauvoo Legion, the City Council was authorized to organize from the inhabitants of the city who were subject to military duty. It was to be at the disposal of the mayor in executing city laws and ordinances, and of the governor of the state for the public defence. When organized, it embraced three classes of troops--flying artillery, lancers, and riflemen. Its independence of state control was provided for by a provision of law which allowed it to be governed by a court martial of its own officers. The view of its independence taken by the Mormons may be seen in the following general order signed by Smith and Bennett in May, 1841, founded on an opinion by judge Stephen A. Douglas:--"The officers and privates belonging to the Legion are exempt from all military duty not required by the legally constituted authorities thereof; they are therefore expressly inhibited from performing any military service not ordered by the general officers, or directed by the court martial."*

* Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 417. Governor Ford commissioned Brigham Young to succeed Smith as lieutenant general of the Legion from August 31, 1844. To show the Mormon idea of authority, the following is quoted from Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 30: "It is a singular fact that, after Washington, Joseph Smith was the first man in America who held the rank of lieutenant general, and that Brigham Young was the next. In reply to a comment by the author upon this fact Brigham Young said: 'I was never much of a military man. The commission has since been abrogated by the state of Illinois; but if Joseph had lived when the (Mexican) war broke out he would have become commander-in chief of the United States Armies.'"

In other words, this city military company was entirely independent of even the governor of the state. Little wonder that the Presidency, writing about the new law to the Saints abroad, said, "'Tis all we ever claimed." In view of the experience of the Missourians with the Mormons as directed by Smith and Rigdon, it would be rash to say that they would have been tolerated as neighbors in Illinois under any circumstances, after their actual acquaintance had been made; but if the state of Illinois had deliberately intended to incite the Mormons to a reckless assertion of independence, nothing could have been planned that would have accomplished this more effectively than the passage of the charter of Nauvoo.

What next followed remains an unexplained incident in Joseph Smith's career. Instead of taking the mayoralty himself, he allowed that office to be bestowed upon Bennett, Smith and Rigdon accepting places among the councillors, Bennett having taken up his residence in Nauvoo in September, 1840. His election as mayor took place in February, 1841. Bennet was also chosen major general of the Legion when that force was organized, was selected as the first chancellor of the new university, and was elected to the First Presidency of the church in the following April, to take the place of Sidney Rigdon during the incapacity of the latter from illness. Judge Stephen A. Douglas also appointed him a master in chancery.

Bennett was introduced to the Mormon church at large in a letter signed by Smith, Rigdon, and brother Hyrum, dated January 15, 1841, as the first of the new acquisitions of influence. They stated that his sympathies with the Saints were aroused while they were still in Missouri, and that he then addressed them a letter offering them his assistance, and the church was assured that "he is a man of enterprise, extensive acquirements, and of independent mind, and is calculated to be a great blessing to our community." When his appointment as a master in chancery was criticised by some Illinois newspapers, the Mormons defended him earnestly, Sidney Rigdon (then attorney-at-law and postmaster at Nauvoo), in a letter dated April 23, 1842, said, "He is a physician of great celebrity, of great versatility of talent, of refined education and accomplished manners; discharges the duties of his respective offices with honor to himself and credit to the people." All this becomes of interest in the light of the abuse which the Mormons soon after poured out upon this man when he "betrayed" them.

Bennett's inaugural address as mayor was radical in tone. He advised the Council to prohibit all dram shops, allowing no liquor to be sold in a quantity less than a quart. This suggestion was carried out in a city ordinance. He condemned the existing system of education, which gave children merely a smattering of everything, and made "every boarding school miss a Plato in petticoats, without an ounce of genuine knowledge," pleading for education "of a purely practical character." The Legion he considered a matter of immediate necessity, and he added, "The winged warrior of the air perches upon the pole of American liberty, and the beast that has the temerity to ruffle her feathers should be made to feel the power of her talons."

Smith was commissioned lieutenant general of this Legion by Governor Carlin on February 3, 1841, and he and Bennett blossomed out at once as gorgeous commanders. An order was issued requiring all persons in the city, of military obligation, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, to join the Legion, and on the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone of the Temple, on April 6, 1841, it comprised fourteen companies. An army officer passing through Nauvoo in September, 1842, expressed the opinion that the evolutions of the Legion would do honor to any militia in the United States, but he queried: "Why this exact discipline of the Mormon corps? Do they intend to conquer Missouri, Illinois, Mexico? Before many years this Legion will be twenty, perhaps fifty, thousand strong and still augmenting. A fearful host, filled with religious enthusiasm, and led on by ambitious and talented officers, what may not be effected by them? Perhaps the subversion of the constitution of the United States." *

* Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 121.

Contemporary accounts of the appearance of the Legion on the occasion of the laying of the Temple corner-stone indicate that the display was a big one for a frontier settlement. Smith says in his autobiography, "The appearance, order, and movements of the Legion were chaste, grand, imposing." The Times and Seasons, in its report of the day's doings, says that General Smith had a staff of four aides-de-camp and twelve guards, "nearly all in splendid uniforms. The several companies presented a beautiful and interesting spectacle, several of them being uniformed and equipped, while the rich and costly dresses of the officers would have become a Bonaparte or a Washington." Ladies on horseback were an added feature of the procession. The ceremonies attending the cornerstone laying attracted the people from all the outlying districts, and marked an epoch in the church's history in Illinois.

The Temple at Nauvoo measured 83 by 128 feet on the ground, and was nearly 60 feet high, surmounted by a steeple which was planned to be more than 100 feet in height. The material was white limestone, which was found underlying the site of the city. The work of construction continued throughout the occupation of Nauvoo by the Mormons, the laying of the capstone not being accomplished until May 24, 1845, and the dedication taking place on May 1, 1846. The cost of the completed structure was estimated by the Mormons at $1,000,000.* Among the costly features were thirty stone pilasters, which cost $3000 each.

* "The Temple is said to have cost, in labor and money, a million dollars. It may be possible, and it is very probable, that contributions to that amount were made to it, but that it cost that much to build it few will believe. Half that sum would be ample to build a much more costly edifice to-day, and in the three or four years in which it was being erected, labor was cheap and all the necessaries of life remarkably low."--GREGG'S "History of Hancock County," p. 367.

The portico of the Temple was surrounded by these pilasters of polished stone, on the base of which was carved a new moon, the capital of each being a representation of the rising sun coming from under a cloud, supported by two hands holding a trumpet. Under the tower were the words, in golden letters: "The House of the Lord, built by the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Commenced April 6, 1841. Holiness to the Lord." The baptismal font measured twelve by sixteen feet, with a basin four feet deep. It was supported by twelve oxen "carved out of fine plank glued together," says Smith, "and copied after the most beautiful five-year-old steer that could be found." From the basement two stairways led to the main floor, around the sides of which were small rooms designed for various uses. In the large room on this floor were three pulpits and a place for the choir. The upper floor contained a large hall, and around this were twelve smaller rooms.

The erection of this Temple was carried on without incurring such debts or entering upon such money-making schemes as caused disaster at Kirtland. Labor and material were secured by successful appeals to the Saints on the ground and throughout the world. Here the tithing system inaugurated in Missouri played an efficient part. A man from the neighboring country who took produce to Nauvoo for sale or barter said, "In the committee rooms they had almost every conceivable thing, from all kinds of implements and men and women's clothing, down to baby clothes and trinkets, which had been deposited by the owners as tithing or for the benefit of the Temple." *

* Gregg's "History of Hancock County," p. 374

Nauvoo House, as planned, was to have a frontage of two hundred feet and a depth of forty feet, and to be three stories in height, with a basement. Its estimated cost was $100,000.* A detailed explanation of the uses of this house was thus given in a letter from the Twelve to the Saints abroad, dated November 15, 1841:--

* Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 369.

"The time set to favor the Stakes of Zion is at hand, and soon the kings and the queens, the princes and the nobles, the rich and the honorable of the earth, will come up hither to visit the Temple of our God, and to inquire concerning this strange work; and as kings are to become nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers in the habitation of the righteous, it is right to render honor to whom honor is due; and therefore expedient that such, as well as the Saints, should have a comfortable house for boarding and lodging when they come hither, and it is according to the revelations that such a house should be built... All are under equal obligations to do all in their power to complete the buildings by their faith and their prayers; with their thousands and their mites, their gold and their silver, their copper and their zinc, their goods and their labors."

Nauvoo House was not finished during the Prophet's life, the appeals in its behalf failing to secure liberal contributions. It was completed in later years, and used as a hotel.

Smith's residence in Nauvoo was a frame building called the Mansion House, not far from the r*iver side. It was opened as a hotel on October 3, 1843, with considerable ceremony, one of the toasts responded to being as follows, "Resolved, that General Joseph Smith, whether we view him as a prophet at the head of the church, a general at the head of the Legion, a mayor at the head of the City Council, or a landlord at the head of the table, has few equals and no superiors."

Another church building was the Hall of the Seventies, the upper story of which was used for the priesthood and the Council of Fifty. Galland's suggestion about a college received practical shape in the incorporation of a university, in whose board of regents the leading men of the church, including Galland himself, found places. The faculty consisted of James Keeley, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as president; Orson Pratt as professor of mathematics and English literature; Orson Spencer, a graduate of Union College and the Baptist Theological Seminary in New York, as professor of languages; and Sidney Rigdon as professor of church history. The tuition fee was $5 per quarter.

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V. THE MORMONS IN POLITICS--MISSOURI REQUISITIONS FOR SMITH

The Mormons were now equipped in their new home with large landed possessions, a capital city that exhibited a phenomenal growth, and a form of local government which made Nauvoo a little independency of itself; their prophet wielding as much authority and receiving as much submission as ever; a Temple under way which would excel anything that had been designed in Ohio or Missouri, and a stream of immigration pouring in which gave assurance of continued numerical increase. What were the causes of the complete overthrow of this apparent prosperity which so speedily followed? These causes were of a twofold character, political and social. The two were interwoven in many ways, but we can best trace them separately.

We have seen that a Democratic organization gave the first welcome to the Mormon refugees at Quincy. In the presidential campaign of 1836 the vote of Illinois had been: Democratic, 17,275, Whig, 14,292; that of Hancock County, Democratic, 260, Whig, 340. The closeness of this vote explained the welcome that was extended to the new-comers.

It does not appear that Smith had any original party predilections. But he was not pleased with questions which President Van Buren asked him when he was in Washington (from November, 1839, to February, 1840) seeking federal aid to secure redress from Missouri, and he wrote to the High Council from that city, "We do not say the Saints shall not vote for him, but we do say boldly (though it need not be published in the streets of Nauvoo, neither among the daughters of the Gentiles), that we do not intend he shall have our votes."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p.452.

On his return to Illinois Smith was toadied to by the workers of both parties. He candidly told them that he had no faith in either; but the Whigs secured his influence, and, by an intimation that there was divine authority for their course, the Mormon vote was cast for Harrison, giving him a majority of 752 in Hancock County. In order to keep the Democrats in good humor, the Mormons scratched the last name on the Whig electoral ticket (Abraham Lincoln)* and substituted that of a Democrat. This demonstration of their political weight made the Mormons an object of consideration at the state capital, and was the direct cause of the success of the petition which they sent there, signed by some thousands of names, asking for a charter for Nauvoo. The representatives of both parties were eager to show them favor. Bennett, in a letter to the Times and Seasons from Springfield, spoke of the readiness of all the members to vote for what the Mormons wanted, adding that "Lincoln had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final vote and congratulated me on its passage."

*This is mentioned in "Joab's" (Bermett's) letter, Times and Seasons, Vol, II, p. 267.

In the gubernatorial campaign of 1841-1842 Smith swung the Mormon vote back to the Democrats, giving them a majority of more than one thousand in the county. This was done publicly, in a letter addressed "To my friends in Illinois,"* dated December 20, 1841, in which the prophet, after pointing out that no persons at the state capital were more efficient in securing the passage of the Nauvoo charter than the heads of the present Democratic ticket, made this declaration:--

* Times and Seasons, Vol. III, p. 651.

"The partisans in this county who expect to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will find themselves mistaken. We care not a fig for Whig or Democrat; they are both alike to us; but we shall go for our friends, OUR TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of human liberty which is the cause of God.... Snyder and Moore are known to be our friends.... We will never be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude,--they have served us, and we will serve them."

If Smith had been a man possessing any judgment, he would have realized that the political course which he was pursuing, instead of making friends in either party, would certainly soon arraign both parties against him and his followers. The Mormons announced themselves distinctly to be a church, and they were now exhibiting themselves as a religious body already numerically strong and increasing in numbers, which stood ready to obey the political mandate of one man, or at least of one controlling authority. The natural consequence of this soon manifested itself.

A congressional and a county election were approaching, and a mass meeting, made up of both Whigs and Democrats of Hancock County, was held to place in the field a non-Mormon county ticket. The fusion was not accomplished without heart-burnings on the part of some unsuccessful aspirants for nominations. A few of these went over to Smith, and the election resulted in the success of the state Democratic and the Mormon local ticket, legislative and county, Smith's brother William being elected to the House. It is easy to realize that this victory did not lessen Smith's aggressive egotism.

Some important matters were involved in the next political contest, the congressional election of August, 1843. The Whigs nominated Cyrus Walker, a lawyer of reputation living in McDonough County, and the Democrats J. P. Hoge, also a lawyer, but a weaker candidate at the polls. Every one conceded that Smith's dictum would decide the contest.

On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while sitting near a window in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded so severely that his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime was naturally charged to his Mormon enemies,* and was finally narrowed down to O. P. Rockwell,** a Mormon living in Nauvoo, as the agent, and Joseph Smith, Jr., as the instigator. Indictments were found against both of them in Missouri, and a requisition for Smith's surrender was made by the governor of that state on the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested under the governor's warrant. Now came an illustration of the value to him of the form of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken before his own municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of habeas corpus. This assumption of power by a local court aroused the indignation of non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin characterized it somewhat later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as "most absurd and ridiculous; to attempt to exercise it is a gross usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated."***

* The hatred felt toward Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was not concealed. Thus, an editorial in the Times and Seasons of January 1, 1841, headed "Lilburn W. Boggs," began, "The THING whose name stands at the head of this article," etc. Referring to the ending of his term of office, the article said, "Lilburn has gone down to the dark and dreary abode of his brother and prototype, Nero, there to associate with kindred spirits and partake of the dainties of his father's, the devil's, table."

Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith say, on July 10, 1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be exterminated," and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do it; also that in the spring of that year he heard Smith, at a meeting of Danites, offer to pay any man $500 who would secretly assassinate the governor. Bennett's statement is only cited for what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired the shot is within the limit of strict probability.

** Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was employed by General Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that he fired the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill him.--"Mormon Portraits," p. 255.

*** Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23.

Notwithstanding his release, Smith thought it best to remain in hiding for some time to escape another arrest, for which the governor ordered a reward of $200. About the middle of August his associates in Nauvoo concluded that the outlook for him was so bad, notwithstanding the protection which his city court was ready to afford, that it might be best for him to flee to the pine woods of the North country. Smith incorporates in his autobiography a long letter which he wrote to his wife at this time,* giving her directions about this flight if it should become necessary. Their goods were to be loaded on a boat manned by twenty of the best men who could be selected, and who would meet them at Prairie du Chien: "And from thence we will wend our way like larks up the Mississippi, until the towering mountains and rocks shall remind us of the places of our nativity, and shall look like safety and home; and there we will bid defiance to Carlin, Boggs, Bennett, and all their whorish whores and motley clan, that follow in their wake, Missouri not excepted, and until the damnation of Hell rolls upon them by the voice and dread thunders and trump of the eternal God."

* Ibid., pp. 693-695.

In October Rigdon obtained from Justin Butterfield, United States attorney for Illinois, an opinion that Smith could not be held on a Missouri requisition for a crime committed in that state when he was in Illinois. In December, 1842, Smith was placed under arrest and taken before the United States District Court at Springfield, Illinois, under a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Roger B. Taney of the State Supreme Court. Butterfield, as his counsel, secured his discharge by Judge Pope (a Whig) who held that Smith was not a fugitive from Missouri.

While these proceedings were pending, the Nauvoo City Council (Smith was then mayor), passed two ordinances in regard to the habeas corpus powers of the Municipal Court, one giving that court jurisdiction in any case where a person "shall be or stand committed or detained for any criminal, or supposed criminal, matter."* This was intended to make Smith secure from the clutches of any Missouri officer so long as he was in his own city.

* For text of these ordinances, see millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 165.

But Smith's enemy, General Bennett (who before this date had been cast out of the fold), was now very active, and through his efforts another indictment against Smith on the old charges of treason, murder, etc., was found in Missouri, in June, 1843, and under it another demand was made on the governor of Illinois for Smith's extradition. Governor Ford, a Democrat, who had succeeded Carlin, issued a warrant on June 17, 1843, and it was served on Smith while he was visiting his wife's sister in Lee County, Illinois. An attempt to start with him at once for Missouri was prevented by his Mormon friends, who rallied in considerable numbers to his aid. Smith secured counsel, who began proceedings against the Missouri agent and obtained a writ in Smith's behalf returnable, the account in the Times and Seasons says, before the nearest competent tribunal, which "it was ascertained was at Nauvoo"--Smith's own Municipal Court. The prophet had a sort of triumphal entry into Nauvoo, and the question of the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court in his case came up at once. Both of the candidates for Congress, Walker (who was employed as his counsel) and Hoge, gave opinions in favor of such jurisdiction, and, after a three hours' plea by Walker, the court ordered Smith's release. Smith addressed the people of Nauvoo in the grove after his return. From the report of his remarks in the journal of Discourses (Vol. II, p. 163) the following is taken:

"Before I will bear this unhallowed persecution any longer, before I will be dragged away again among my enemies for trial, I will spill the last drop of blood in my veins, and will see all my enemies in hell.... Deny me the writ of habeas corpus, and I will fight with gun, sword, cannon, whirlwind, thunder, until they are used up like the Kilkenny cats.... If these [charter] powers are dangerous, then the constitutions of the United States and of this state are dangerous. If the Legislature has granted Nauvoo the right of determining cases of habeas corpus, it is no more than they ought to have done, or more than our fathers fought for."

Smith expressed his gratitude to Walker for what the latter had accomplished in his behalf, and the Whig candidate now had no doubt that the Mormon vote was his.

But the Missouri agent, indignant that a governor's writ should be set aside by a city court, hurried to Springfield and demanded that Governor Ford should call out enough state militia to secure Smith's arrest and delivery at the Missouri boundary. The governor, who was not a man of the firmest purpose, had no intention of being mixed up in the pending congressional fight and struggle for the Mormon vote; so he asked for delay and finally decided not to call out any troops.

The Hancock County Democrats were quick to see an opportunity in this situation, and they sent to Springfield a man named Backenstos (who took an active part in the violent scenes connected with the subsequent history of the Mormons in the state) to ascertain for the Mormons just what the governor's intentions were. Backenstos reported that the prophet need have no fear of the Democratic governor so long as the Mormons voted the Democratic ticket.*

* Governor Ford, in his "History of Illinois," says that such a pledge was given by a prominent Democrat, but without his own knowledge.

When this news was brought back to Nauvoo, a few days before the election, a mass meeting of the Mormons was called, and Hyrum Smith (then Patriarch, succeeding the prophet's father, who was dead) announced the receipt of a "revelation" directing the Mormons to vote for Hoge. William Law, an influential business man in the Mormon circle, immediately denied the existence of any such "revelation." The prophet alone could decide the matter. He was brought in and made a statement to the effect that he himself proposed to vote for Walker; that he considered it a "mean business" to influence any man's vote by dictation, and that he had no great faith in revelations about elections; "but brother Hyrum was a man of truth; he had known brother Hyrum intimately ever since he was a boy, and he had never known him to tell a lie. If brother Hyrum said he had received such a revelation, he had no doubt it was a fact. When the Lord speaks, let all the earth be silent." *

* Ford's"History of Illinois," p. 318.

The election resulted in the choice of Hoge by a majority of 455!

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VI. SMITH A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Smith's latest triumph over his Missouri enemies, with the feeling that he had the governor of his state back of him, increased his own and his followers' audacity. The Nauvoo Council continued to pass ordinances to protect its inhabitants from outside legal processes, civil and criminal. One of these provided that no writ issued outside of Nauvoo for the arrest of a person in that city should be executed until it had received the mayor's approval, anyone violating this ordinance to be liable to imprisonment for life, with no power of pardon in the governor without the mayor's consent! The acquittal of O. P. Rockwell on the charge of the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs caused great delight among the Mormons, and their organ declared on January 1, 1844, that "throughout the whole region of country around us those bitter and acrimonious feelings, which have so long been engendered by many, are dying away."

Smith's political ideas now began to broaden. "Who shall be our next President?" was the title of an editorial in the Times and Seasons of October 1, 1843, which urged the selection of a man who would be most likely to give the Mormons help in securing redress for their grievances.

The next month Smith addressed a letter to Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who were the leading candidates for the presidential nomination, citing the Mormons' losses and sufferings in Missouri, and their failure to obtain redress in the courts or from Congress, and asking, "What will be your rule of action relative to us as a people should fortune favor your ascendancy to the chief magistracy? "Clay replied that, if nominated, he could "enter into no engagements, make no promises, give no pledges to any particular portion of the people of the United States," adding, "If I ever enter into that high office, I must go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are to be drawn from my whole life, character and conduct." He closed with an expression of sympathy with the Mormons "in their sufferings under injustice." Calhoun replied that, if elected President, he would try to administer the government according to the constitution and the laws, and that, as these made no distinction between citizens of different religious creeds, he should make none. He repeated an opinion which he had given Smith in Washington that the Mormon case against the state of Missouri did not come within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

These replies excited Smith to wrath and he answered them at length, and in language characteristic of himself. A single quotation from his letter to Clay (dated May 13, 1844) will suffice:--

"In your answer to my question, last fall, that peculiar trait of the modern politician, declaring 'if you ever enter into that high office, you must go into it unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are to be drawn from your whole life, character and conduct,' so much resembles a lottery vender's sign, with the goddess of good luck sitting on the car of fortune, astraddle of the horn of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude, without reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming, 'O, frail man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can anything be drawn from your LIFE, CHARACTER OR CONDUCT that is worthy of being held up to the gaze of this nation as a model of VIRTUE, CHARACTER AND WISDOM?'... 'Your whole life, character and conduct' have been spotted with deeds that causes a blush upon the face of a virtuous patriot; so you must be contented with your lot, while crime, cowardice, cupidity or low cunning have handed you down from the high tower of a statesman to the black hole of a gambler.... Crape the heavens with weeds of woe; gird the earth with sackcloth, and let hell mutter one melody in commemoration of fallen splendor! For the glory of America has departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree of liberty, while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs, Benton, Calhoun, and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue as fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness--vox reprobi, vox Diaboli."

Calhoun was admonished to read the eighth section of article one of the federal constitution, after which "God, who cooled the heat of a Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, or shut the mouths of lions for the honor of a Daniel, will raise your mind above the narrow notion that the general government has no power, to the sublime idea that Congress, with the President as executor, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in his." 1

*For this correspondence in full, see Times and Seasons, January 1, and June 1, 1844, or Mackay's "The Mormons," p. 143.

Smith's next step was to have judge Phelps read to a public meeting in Nauvoo on February 7, 1844, a very long address by the prophet, setting forth his views on national politics.* He declared that "no honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty is on the wane, and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later destroy the peace of the people," while "the motto hangs on the nation's escutcheon, `every man has his price.'"

* For its text, see Times and Seasons, May 15,1844, or Mackay's "The Mormons," p.133.

Smith proposed an abundance of remedies for these evils: Reduce the members of Congress at least one-half; pay them $2 a day and board; petition the legislature to pardon every convict, and make the punishment for any felony working on the roads or some other place where the culprit can be taught wisdom and virtue, murder alone to be cause for confinement or death; petition for the abolition of slavery by the year 1850, the slaves to be paid for out of the surplus from the sale of public lands, and the money saved by reducing the pay of Congress; establish a national bank, with branches in every state and territory, "whose officers shall be elected yearly by the people, with wages of $2 a day for services," the currency to be limited to "the amount of capital stock in her vaults, and interest"; "and the bills shall be par throughout the nation, which will mercifully cure that fatal disorder known in cities as brokery, and leave the people's money in their own pockets"; give the President full power to send an army to suppress mobs; "send every lawyer, as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of heaven, to preach the Gospel to the destitute, without purse or scrip"; "spread the federal jurisdiction to the west sea, when the red men give their consent"; and give the right hand of fellowship to Texas, Canada, and Mexico. He closed with this declaration: "I would, as the universal friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and open the hearts of all people to behold and enjoy freedom, unadulterated freedom; and God, who once cleansed the violence of the earth with a flood, whose Son laid down his life for the salvation of all his father gave him out of the world, and who has promised that he will come and purify the world again with fire in the last days, should be supplicated by me for the good of all people. With the highest esteem, I am a friend of virtue and of the people."

It seems almost incomprehensible that the promulgator of such political views should have taken himself seriously. But Smith was in deadly earnest, and not only was he satisfied of his political power, but, in the church conference of 1844, he declared, "I feel that I am in more immediate communication with God, and on a better footing with Him, than I have ever been in my life."

The announcement of Smith's political "principles" was followed immediately by an article in the Times and Seasons, which answered the question, "Whom shall the Mormons support for President?" with the reply, "General Joseph Smith. A man of sterling worth and integrity, and of enlarged views; a man who has raised himself from the humblest walks in life to stand at the head of a large, intelligent, respectable, and increasing society;... and whose experience has rendered him every way adequate to the onerous duty." The formal announcement that Smith was the Mormon candidate was made in the Times and Seasons of February 15, 1844, and the ticket--

FOR PRESIDENT,

GENERAL JOSEPH SMITH,

Nauvoo, Illinois.

was kept at the head of its editorial page from March 1, until his death.

A weekly newspaper called the Wasp, issued at Nauvoo under Mormon editorship, had been succeeded by a larger one called the Neighbor, edited by John Taylor (afterward President of the church), who also had charge of the Times and Seasons. The Neighbor likewise placed Smith's name, as the presidential candidate, at the head of its columns, and on March 6 completed its ticket with "General James A. Bennett of New York, for Vice-President."* Three weeks later Bennett's name was taken down, and on June 19, Sidney Rigdon's was substituted for it. There was nothing modest in the Mormon political ambition.

* This General Bennett was not the first mayor of Nauvoo, as some writers like Smucker have supposed, but a lawyer who gave his address as "Arlington House," on Long Island, New York, and who in 1843 had offered himself to Smith as "a most undeviating friend," etc.

Proof of Smith's serious view of his candidacy is furnished in his next step, which was to send out a large body of missionaries (two or three thousand, according to Governor Ford) to work-up his campaign in the Eastern and Southern states. These emissaries were selected from among the ablest of Smith's allies, including Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow, and John D. Lee. Their absence from Nauvoo was a great misfortune to Smith at the time of his subsequent arrest and imprisonment at Carthage.

The campaigners began work at once. Lorenzo Snow, to whom the state of Ohio was allotted, went to Kirtland, where he had several thousand pamphlets printed, setting forth the prophet's views and plans, and he then travelled around in a buggy, distributing the pamphlets and making addresses in Smith's behalf. "To many persons," he confesses, "who knew nothing of Joseph but through the ludicrous reports in circulation, the movement seemed a species of insanity."* John D. Lee was a most devout Mormon, but his judgment revolted against this movement. "I would a thousand times rather have been shut up in jail," he says. He began his canvassing while on the boat bound for, St. Louis. "I told them," he relates, "the prophet would lead both candidates. There was a large crowd on the boat, and an election was proposed. The prophet received a majority of 75 out of 125 votes polled. This created a tremendous laugh."**

* "Biography of Lorenzo Snow."

** "Mormonism Unveiled," p.149.

We have an account of one state convention called to consider Smith's candidacy, and this was held in the Melodeon in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 1, 1844, the news of Smith's death not yet having reached that city. A party of young rowdies practically took possession of the hall as soon as the business of the convention began, and so disturbed the proceedings that the police were sent for, and they were able to clear the galleries only after a determined fight. The convention then adjourned to Bunker Hill, but nothing further is heard of its proceedings. The press of the city condemned the action of the disturbers as a disgrace. Mention is made in the Times and Seasons of July 1, 1844, of a conference of elders held in Dresden, Tennessee, on the 25th of May previous, at which Smith's name was presented as a presidential candidate. The meeting was broken up by a mob, which the sheriff confessed himself powerless to overcome, but it met later and voted to print three thousand copies of Smith's views.

The prophet's death, which occurred so soon after the announcement of his candidacy, rendered it impossible to learn how serious a cause of political disturbance that candidacy might have been in neighborhoods where the Mormons had a following.

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VII. SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN NAUVOO

Having followed Smith's political operations to their close, it is now necessary to retrace our steps, and examine the social conditions which prevailed in and around Nauvoo during the years of his reign--conditions which had quite as much to do in causing the expulsion of the Mormons from the state as did his political mistakes.

It must be remembered that Nauvoo was a pioneer town, on the borders of a thinly settled country. Its population and that of its suburbs consisted of the refugees from Missouri, of whose character we have had proof; of the converts brought in from the Eastern states and from Europe, not a very intelligent body; and of those pioneer settlers, without sympathy with the Mormon beliefs, who were attracted to the place from various motives. While active work was continued by the missionaries throughout the United States, their labors in this country seem to have been more efficient in establishing local congregations than in securing large additions to the population of Nauvoo, although some "branches" moved bodily to the Mormon centre.*

* Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled;" p. 135.

Of the class of people reached by the early missionaries in England we have this description, in a letter from Orson Hyde to his wife, dated September 14,1837:--"Those who have been baptized are mostly manufacturers and some other mechanics. They know how to do but little else than to spin and weave cloth, and make cambric, mull and lace; and what they would do in Kirtland or the city of Far West, I cannot say. They are extremely poor, most of them not having a change of clothes decent to be baptized in."*

* Elders' Journal, Vol. I, No. 2.

In a letter of instructions from Smith to the travelling elders in Great Britain, dated October, 1840, he warned them that the gathering of the Saints must be "attended to in the order that the Lord intends it should"; and he explains that, as "great numbers of the Saints in England are extremely poor,... to prevent confusion and disappointment when they arrive here, let those men who are accustomed to making machinery, and those who can command a capital, though it be small, come here as soon as convenient and put up machinery, and make such other preparations as may be necessary, so that when the poor come on they may have employment to come to."

The invitation to all converts having means was so urgent that it took the form of a command. A letter to the Saints abroad, signed by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, dated January 15, 1841, directed those "blessed of heaven with the possession of this world's goods" to sell out as soon as possible and move to Nauvoo, adding in italics: "This is agreeable to the order of heaven, and the only principal (sic) on which the gathering can be effected."*

* The following is a quotation from a letter written by an American living near Nauvoo, dated October 20, 1842, printed in the postscript to Caswall's "The City of the Mormons":--

"If an English Mormon arrives, the first effort of Joe is to get his money. This in most cases is easily accomplished, under a pledge that he can have it at any time on giving ten days' notice. The man after some time calls for his money; he is treated kindly, and told that it is not convenient to pay. He calls a second time; the Prophet cannot pay, but offers a town lot in Nauvoo for $1000 (which cost perhaps as many cents), or land on the 'half-breed tract' at $10 or $15 per acre.... Finally some of the irresponsible Bishops or Elders execute a deed for land to which they have no valid title, and the poor fellow dares not complain. This is the history of hundreds of cases.... The history of every dupe reaches Nauvoo in advance. When an Elder abroad wins one over to the faith, he makes himself perfectly acquainted with all his family arrangements, his standing in society, his ability, and (what is of most importance) the amount of ready money and other property which he will take to Nauvoo.... They make no converts in Nauvoo, and it appears to me that they would never make another if all could witness their conduct at Nauvoo for one month... . In regard to this communication, I prefer, on account of my own safety, that you should not make known the author publicly. You cannot appreciate these fears [in England]. You have no idea what it is to be surrounded by a community of Mormons, guided by a leader the most unprincipled." We have seen how hard-pressed Smith was for money with which to meet his obligations for the payment of land purchased. It was not necessary that a newcomer should be a Mormon in order to buy a lot, special emphasis being laid on the freedom of religious opinion in the city; but it was early made known that purchasers were expected to buy their lots of the church, and not of private speculators. The determination with which this rule was enforced, as well as its unpopularity in some quarters, may be seen in the following extract from Smith's autobiography, under date of February 13, 1843: "I spent the evening at Elder O. Hyde's. In the course of conversation I remarked that those brethren who came here having money, and purchased without the church and without counsel, must be cut off. This, with other observations, aroused the feelings of Brother Dixon, from Salem, Mass., and he appeared in great wrath."

The Nauvoo Neighbor of December 27, 1843, contained an advertisement signed by the clerk of the church, calling the attention of immigrants to the church lands, and saying, "Let all the brethren, therefore, when they move into Nauvoo, consult President Joseph Smith, the trustee in trust, and purchase their land from him, and I am bold to say that God will bless them, and they will hereafter be glad they did so."

A good many immigrants of more or less means took warning as soon as they discovered the conditions prevailing there, and returned home. A letter on this subject from the officers of the church said:--

"We have seen so many who have been disappointed and discouraged when they visited this place, that we would have imagined they had never been instructed in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, and thought that, instead of coming into a society of men and women, subject to all the frailties of mortality, they were about to enjoy the society of the spirits of just men made perfect, the holy angels, and that this place should be as pure as the third heaven. But when they found that this people were but flesh and blood... they have been desirous to choose them a captain to lead them back."

The additions to the Mormon population from the settlers whom they found in the outlying country in Illinois and Iowa were not likely to be of a desirable class. The banks of the Mississippi River had long been hiding-places for pirate bands, whose exploits were notorious, and the "half-breed tract" was a known place of refuge for the horse thief, the counterfeiter, and the desperado of any calling. The settlement of the Mormons in such a region, with an invitation to the world at large to join them and be saved, was a piece of good luck for this lawless class, who found a covering cloak in the new baptism, and a shield in the fidelity with which the Mormon authorities, under their charter, defended their flock. In this way Nauvoo became a great receptacle for stolen goods, and the river banks up and down the stream concealed many more, the takers of which walked boldly through the streets of the Mormon city. The retaliatory measures which Smith encouraged his followers to practise on their neighbors in Missouri had inculcated a disregard for the property rights of non-Mormons, which became an inciting cause of hostilities with their neighbors in Illinois.

The complaints of thefts by Mormons became so frequent that the church authorities deemed it necessary to recognize and rebuke the practice. Lee quotes from an address by Smith at the conference of April, 1840, in Nauvoo, in which the prophet said: "We are no longer at war, and you must stop stealing. When the right time comes, we will go in force and take the whole state of Missouri. It belongs to us as our inheritance; but I want no more petty stealing. A man that will steal petty articles from his enemies will, when occasion offers, steal from his brethren too. Now I command you that have stolen must steal no more."*

* Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled;" p. 111.

The case of Elder O. Walker bears on this subject. On October 11, 1840, he was brought before a High Council and accused of discourtesy to the prophet, and "suggesting (at different places) that in the church at Nauvoo there did exist a set of pilferers who were actually thieving, robbing and plundering, taking and unlawfully carrying away from Missouri certain goods and chattels, wares and property; and that the act and acts of such supposed thieving, etc., was fostered and conducted by the knowledge and approval of the heads and leaders of the church, viz., by the Presidency and High Council."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 185.

The action of the church authorities themselves shows how serious they considered the reports about thieving. As early as December 1, 1841, Hyrum Smith, then one of the First Presidency, published in the Times and Seasons an affidavit denying that the heads of the church "sanction and approbate the members of said church in stealing property from those persons who do not belong to said church," etc. This was followed by a long denial of a similar character, signed by the Twelve, and later by an affidavit by the prophet himself, denying that he ever "directly or indirectly encouraged the purloining of property, or taught the doctrine of stealing." On March 25, 1843, Smith, as mayor, issued a proclamation beginning with the declaration, "I have not altered my views on the subject of stealing," reciting rumors of a secret band of desperadoes bound by oath to self-protection, and pledging pardon to any one who would give him any information about "such abominable characters." This exhibition of the heads of a church solemnly protesting that they were opposed to thieving is unique in religious history.

The Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, made an announcement to the conference of 1843, which further confirms the charges of organized thieving made by the non-mormons. While denouncing the thieves as hypocrites, he said he had learned of the existence of a band held together by secret oaths and penalties, "who hold it right to steal from anyone who does not belong to the church, provided they consecrate one-third of it to the building of the Temple. They are also making bogus money.... The man who told me this said, 'This secret band referred to the Bible, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and Book of Mormon to substantiate their doctrines; and if any of them did not remain steadfast, they ripped open their bowels and gave them to the catfish.'" He named two men, inmates of his own house, who, he had discovered, were such thieves. The prophet followed this statement with some remarks, declaring, "Thieving must be stopped."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XX, pp. 757-758.

The Rev. Henry Caswall, in a description of a Sunday service in Nauvoo in April, 1842 "City of the Mormons," (p. 15) says:--

"The elder who had delivered the first discourse now rose and said a certain brother whom he named had taken a keg of white lead. 'Now,' said he, 'if any of the brethren present has taken it by mistake, thinking it was his own, he ought to restore it; but if any of the brethren present have stolen a keg, much more ought he to restore it, or else maybe he will get catched.'... Another person rose and stated that he had lost a ten dollar bill. If any of the brethren had found it or taken it, he hoped it would be restored." This introduction of calls for the restoration of stolen property as a feature of a Sunday church service is probably unique with the Mormons.

That the Mormons did not do all the thieving in the counties around Nauvoo while they were there would be sufficiently proved by the character of many of the persons whom they found there on their arrival, and also by the fact that their expulsion did not make those counties a paradise.* The trouble with them was that, as soon as a man joined them, no matter what his previous character might have been, they gave him that protection which came with their system of "standing together." An early and significant proof of this protection is found in the action of the conference held in Nauvoo on October 3, 1840, two months before the charter had given the city government its extended powers, which voted that "no person be considered guilty of crime unless proved by the testimony of two or three witnesses."**

* "Long afterward, while the writer was travelling through Hancock, Pike and Adams Counties, no family thought of retiring at night without barring and doublelocking every ingress."--Beadle, "Life in Utah," p. 65.

** Millennial Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 153.

It became notorious in all the country round that it was practically useless for a non-Mormon to attempt the recovery of stolen property in Nauvoo, no matter how strong the proof in his possession might be. S. J. Clarke* says that a great deal of stolen stock was traced into Nauvoo, but that, "when found, it was extremely difficult to gain possession of it." He cites as an illustration the case of a resident of that county who traced a stolen horse into Nauvoo, and took with him sixty witnesses to identify the animal before a Mormon justice of the peace. He found himself, however, confronted with seventy witnesses who swore that the horse belonged to some Mormon, and the justice decided that the "weight of evidence," numerically calculated, was against the non-Mormon.

* "History of McDonough County," p. 83.

A form of protection against outside inquirers for property, which is well authenticated, was given by what were known as "whittlers." When a non-Mormon came into the city, and by his questions let it be known that he was looking for something stolen, he would soon find himself approached by a Mormon who carried a long knife and a stick, and who would follow him, silently whittling. Soon a companion would join this whittler, and then another, until the stranger would find himself fairly surrounded by these armed but silent observers. Unless he was a man of more than ordinary grit, an hour or more of this companionship would convince him that it would be well for him to start for home.*

* Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 168.

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VIII. SMITH'S PICTURE OF HIMSELF AS AUTOCRAT

Smith's autobiography gives incidentally many interesting glimpses of the prophet as he exercised his authority of dictator during the height of his power at Nauvoo. It is fortunate for the impartial student that these records are at his disposal, because many of the statements, if made on any other authority, would be met by the customary Mormon denials, and be considered generally incredible.

That Smith's life, aside from the constant danger of extradition which the Missouri authorities held over him, was not an easy one at this time may readily be imagined. He had his position to maintain as sole oracle of the church. He was also mayor, judge, councillor, and lieutenant-general. There were individual jealousies to be disposed of among his associates, rivalries of different parts of the city over wished-for improvements to be considered, demands of the sellers of church lands for payment to be met, and the claims of politicians to be attended to. But Smith rarely showed any indication of compromise, apparently convinced that his position at all points was now more secure than it had ever been.

The big building enterprises in which the church was engaged were a heavy tax on the people, and constant urging was necessary to keep them up to the requirements. Thus we find an advertisement in the Wasp dated June 25, 1842, and signed by the "Temple Recorder," saying, "Brethren, remember that your contracts with your God are sacred; the labor is wanted immediately." Smith referred to the discontent of the laborers, and to some other matters, in a sermon on February 21, 1843. The following quotations are from his own report of it. "If any man working on the Nauvoo House is hungry, let him come to me and I will feed him at my table... and then if the man is not satisfied I will kick his backside.... This meeting was got up by the Nauvoo House committee. The Pagans, Roman Catholics, Methodists and Baptists shall have place in Nauvoo--only they must be ground in Joe Smith's mill. I have been in their mill... and those who come here must go through my smut machine, and that is my tongue."* The difficulty of carrying on these building enterprises at this time was increased by the financial disturbance that was convulsing the whole country. It was in these years that Congress was wrestling with the questions of the deposits of the public funds, the United States Bank, the subtreasury scheme, and the falling off of customs and land-sale revenues, with a threatened deficit in the federal treasury. The break-down of the Bank of the United States caused a general failure of the banks of the Western and Southern states, and money was so scarce at Nauvoo that one Mormon writer records the fact that "when corn was brought to my door at ten cents a bushel, and sadly needed, the money could not be raised."

* Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 583.

The relations between Smith and Rigdon had been strained ever since the departure of the Mormons from Missouri. The trouble between them was finally brought before a special conference at Nauvoo, on October 7, 1843, at which Smith stated that he had received no material benefits from Rigdon's labors or counsel since they had left Missouri. He presented complaints against Rigdon's management of the post-office, brought up a charge that Rigdon had been in correspondence with General Bennett and Governor Carlin, and offered "indirect testimony" that Rigdon had given the Missourians information of Smith's whereabouts at the time of his last arrest. Rigdon met these accusations, some with denials and some with explanations, closing with a pitiful appeal to the all-powerful head of the church, whose nod would decide the verdict, reciting their long associations and sufferings, and signifying his willingness to resign his position as councillor to the First Presidency, but not concealing the pain and humiliation that such a step would cause him. Smith became magnanimous. "He expressed entire willingness to have Elder Rigdon retain his station, provided he would magnify his office, and walk and conduct himself in all honesty, righteousness and integrity; but signified his lack of confidence in his integrity and steadfastness."* This incident once more furnishes proof of some great power which Smith held over Rigdon that induced the latter to associate with the prophet on these terms.

* Times and Seasons, Vol. IV, p. 330. H. C. Kimball stated afterward at Rigdon's church trial that Smith did not accept him as an adviser after this, but took Amasa Lyman in his place, and that it was Hyrum Smith who induced his brother to show some apparent magnanimity.

Smith's creditors finally pressed him so hard that he attempted to secure aid from the bankruptcy act. In this he did not succeed,* and he was very bitter in his denunciation of the law because it was interpreted against him. It was about this time that Smith, replying to reports of his wealth, declared that his assets consisted of one old horse, two pet deer, ten turkeys, an old cow, one old dog, a wife and child, and a little household furniture. On March 1, 1843, the Council of the Twelve wrote to the outlying branches of the church, calling on them "to bring to our President as many loads of wheat, corn, beef, pork, lard, tallow, eggs, poultry, venison, and everything eatable, at your command," in order that he might be relieved of business cares and have time to attend to their spiritual interests. It was characteristic of Smith to find him, at a conference held the following month, lecturing the Twelve on their own idleness, telling them it was not necessary for them to be abroad all the time preaching and gathering funds, but that they should spend a part of their time at home earning a living.

* See chapter on this subject in Bennett's "History of the Saints."

At this same conference Smith was compelled to go into the details of a transaction which showed of how little practical use to him were his divining and prophetic powers. A man named Remick had come to him the previous summer and succeeded in getting from him a loan of $200 by misrepresentation. Afterward Remick offered to give him a quit-claim deed for all the land bought of Galland, as well as the notes which Smith had given to Galland, and one-half of all the land that Remick owned in Illinois and Iowa, if Smith would use his influence to build up the city of Keokuk, Iowa. Smith actually agreed to this in writing. At the conference he had to explain this whole affair. After alleging that Remick was a swindler, he said: "I am not so much of a 'Christian' as many suppose I am. When a man undertakes to ride me for a horse I feel disposed to kick up, and throw him off and ride him. David did so, and so did Joshua." *

* Millennial Star, Vol. XX, pp. 758-759.

The old Kirtland business troubles came up to annoy Smith from time to time, but he always found a way to meet them. While his writ of habeas corpus was under argument out of the city in 1841, a man presented to him a five-dollar bill of the Kirtland Bank, and threatened to sue him on it. As the easiest way to dispose of this matter, Smith handed the man $5.

Smith's Ohio experience did not lessen his estimation of himself as an authority on finance. We find him, at the meeting of the Nauvoo City Council on February 25, 1843, denouncing the state law of Illinois making property a legal tender for the payment of debts; asserting that their city charter gave them authority to enact such local currency laws as did not conflict with the federal and state constitutions, and continuing:--

"Shall we be such fools as to be governed by their [Illinois] laws which are unconstitutional? No. We will make a law for gold and silver; then their law ceases, and we can collect our debts. Powers not delegated to the states, or reserved from the states, are constitutional. The constitution acknowledges that the people have all power not reserved to itself. I am a lawyer. I am a big lawyer, and comprehend heaven, earth and hell, to bring forth knowledge that shall cover up all lawyers, doctors and other big bodies."*

*Ibid., p. 616.

Smith had his way, as usual, and on March 4, the Council passed unanimously an ordinance making gold and silver the only legal tender in payment of debts and fines in Nauvoo, and fixing a punishment for the circulation of counterfeit money. Perhaps this Council never took a broader view of its legislative authority than in this instance.

Smith never laid aside his natural inclination for good fellowship, nor took himself too seriously while posing as a mouthpiece of the Lord. Along with the entries recording his predictions he notes such matters as these: "Played ball with the brethren." "Cut wood all day." A visitor at Nauvoo, in 1843, describes him as "a jolly fellow, and one of the last persons whom he would have supposed God would have raised up as a Prophet."* Josiah Quincy said that Smith seemed to him to have a keen sense of the humorous aspects of his position. "It seems to me, General," Quincy said to him, "that you have too much power to be safely trusted in one man." "In your hands or that of any other person," was his reply, "so much power would no doubt be dangerous. I am the only man in the world whom it would be safe to trust with it. Remember, I am a prophet." "The last five words," says Quincy, "were spoken in a rich comical aside, as if in hearty recognition of the ridiculous sound they might have in the ears of a Gentile."**

* This same idea is presented by a writer in the Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p. 820: "When the fact of Smith's divine character shall burst upon the nations, they will be struck dumb with wonder and astonishment at the Lord's choice,--the last individual in the whole world whom they would have chosen."

** "Figures of the Past;" p. 397.

Smith makes this entry on February 20, 1843: "While the [Municipal] Court was in session, I saw two boys fighting in the street. I left the business of the court, ran over immediately, caught one of the boys and then the other, and after giving them proper instruction, I gave the bystanders a lecture for not interfering in such cases. I returned to the court, and told them nobody was allowed to fight in Nauvoo but myself."

In January, 1842, Smith once more became a "storekeeper." Writing to an absent brother on January 5, 1842, he described his building, with a salesroom fitted up with shelves and drawers, a private office, etc. He added that he had a fair stock, "although some individuals have succeeded in detaining goods to a considerable amount. I have stood behind the counter all day," he continued, "dealing out goods as steadily as any clerk you ever saw."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 21.

The following entry is found under date of June 1, 1842: "Sent Dr. Richards to Carthage on business. On his return, old Charley, while on a gallop, struck his knees and breast instead of his feet, fell in the street and rolled over in an instant, and the doctor narrowly escaped with his life. It was a trick of the devil to kill my clerk. Similar attacks have been made upon myself of late, and Satan is seeking our destruction on every hand."

Smith practically gave up "revealing" during his life in Nauvoo. At Rigdon's church trial, after Smith's death, President Marks said, "Brother Joseph told us that he, for the future, whenever there was a revelation to be presented to the church, would first present it to the Quorum, and then, if it passed the Quorum, it should be presented to the church." Strong pressure must have been exerted upon the prophet to persuade him to consent to such a restriction, and it is the only instance of the kind that is recorded during his career. But if he did not "reveal," he could not be prevented from uttering oral prophecies and giving his interpretation of the Scriptures. That he had become possessed with the idea of a speedy ending of this world seems altogether probable. All through his autobiography he notes reports of earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc., and he gives special emphasis to accounts that reached him of "showers of flesh and blood." Under date of February 18, 1843, he notes, "While at dinner I remarked to my family and friends present that, when the earth was sanctified and became like a sea of glass, it would be one great Urim and Thummim, and the Saints could look in it and see as they are seen." Another of his wise sayings is thus recorded, "The battle of Gog and Magog will be after the Millennial."

In some remarks, on April 2, 1843, Smith made the one prediction that came true, and one which has always given the greatest satisfaction to the Saints. This was: "I prophesy in the name of the Lord God that the commencement of the difficulties which will cause much bloodshed previous to the coming of the Son of man will be in South Carolina. It may probably arise through the slave trade." This prediction was afterward amplified so as to declare that the war between the Northern and Southern states would involve other nations in Europe, and that the slaves would rise up against their masters. It would have been better for his fame had he left the announcement in its original shape.

Such is the picture of Smith the prophet as drawn by himself. Of the rumors about the Mormons, current in all the counties near Nauvoo, which cannot be proved by Mormon testimony there were hundreds.

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