USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 57
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No one can blame the inhabitants of Missouri for desiring to be rid of such neighbors. But the threat to extirminate sounds very savage in our country and in this age. The people of Jackson County, to induce them to leave peaceably, made them the extra- ordinary offer that they would purchase the lands and improve- ments of the Mormons at a price to be fixed by three disinterested arbitrators, with one hundred per cent. in addition.
They refused to leave. Four thousand of the militia were sent against them. They were disarmed. Joe Smith and about forty leading Mormons were made prisoners. They were compelled to enter into a treaty, by which they agreed to withdraw from the state. Five commissioners were appointed to sell their property, pay their debts, and aid them in removing. The state appropri- ated two thousand dollars for their relief. The citizens.of the adjacent counties also contributed liberally. Still, there was much suffering, as, in midwinter, these numerous families traversed nearly the whole breadth of Missouri, and crossing the Missis- sippi River entered the State of Illinois.
The cry of persecution had preceded them, and the inhabitants of Illinois received the fugitives very kindly. They established themselves in Hancock County, on the eastern bank of the Mis- sissippi, and commenced with great energy rearing a new city, which they called Nauvoo. Missionaries of the new faith had been sent abroad in all directions. Converts were multiplied. They flocked to Nauvoo. But a short time elapsed ere the new
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city contained fifteen thousand inhabitants. Smith had a new revelation. The faithful were enjoined "to bring gold and pre- cious materials for the building of a temple for the worship of God and a house for the dwelling-place of his prophet."
Ere long it was estimated that, by the labors of missionaries in this country and in Europe, the Mormons numbered one hundred and fifty thousand. Nauvoo assumed a very thriving aspect. A military band was organized, consisting of four thousand men, well-armed and disciplined. And now Joe Smith had a new rev- elation, not only authorizing the "saints " to take more than one wife, but enjoining it as a duty that each should take several maidens to wife, and thus lead them to heaven.
This step shocked quite a number of the simple-minded vic- tims of this strange fanaticism, and led them to withdraw. But more were lured to join them by the license, and converts were multiplied more rapidly than ever. Joe Smith was accused of attempting to seduce the wife of Dr. Foster. The injured hus- band published affidavits clearly proving the charge. A warrant from a neighboring magistrate was secured for the arrest of the culprit. Joe Smith summoned his armed band and drove the sheriff from the city. The majesty of law being thus insulted, caused great excitement in the community around. The militia was ordered out to enforce the laws. There was every prospect of civil war. The governor repaired to Nauvoo.
Joe Smith knew that the whole military power of the United States was pledged for the maintenance of law, and that in such a conflict he must be crushed. Joe and his brother Hyrum sur- rendered to the governor, under the warrant, upon pledge of safety from personal violence. They were both taken to the county jail at Carthage, where they were held on the charge of treason. Pop- ular excitement and indignation were intense. A guard was placed around the jail to protect the prisoners from an exasperated com- munity. The cry was loud for the destruction of Nauvoo, and the expulsion of all of its inhabitants.
At six o'clock on the evening of the 27th of November, 1844, two hundred men in disguise approached the jail, thrust the guard aside, broke open the doors, and shot the two Smiths. Joe's last words were, as the bullets pierced his body, "O Lord my God." The governor was deeply aggrieved by this violation of the public faith. He issued a manifesto, in which he said :
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" I desire to make a brief but true statement of the recent dis- graceful affair at Carthage in regard to the Smiths. They have been assassinated in jail. By whom it is not known, but it will be ascertained. I pledged myself for their safety. Upon the assurance of that pledge they surrendered themselves as prisoners. The Mormons surrendered the public arms in their possession, and the Nauvoo legion submitted to the command of Captain Singleton, of Brown County, deputed for that purpose by me. All these things were required to satisfy the old citizens of Hancock that the Mormons were peaceably disposed, and to allay jealousy and excitement in their minds. It appears, how- ever, that the compliance of the Mormons with every requisition made upon them failed of that purpose. The pledge of security to the Smiths was not given upon my individual responsibility. Before I gave it I obtained a pledge of honor, by a unanimous vote from the officers and men under my command, to sustain me in performing it. If the assassination of the Smiths was com- mitted by any portion of these, they have added treachery to murder, and have done all they could to disgrace the state and sully the public honor.
" On the morning of the day the deed was committed, we had proposed to march the army under my command into Nauvoo. I had, however, discovered the evening before that nothing but the utter destruction of the city would satisfy a portion of the troops, and that, if we marched into the city, pretexts would not be wanting for commencing hostilities. The Mormons had done every thing required, or which ought to have been required of them. Offensive operations, on our part, would have been as unjust and disgraceful as they would have been impolitic, in the present critical season of the year, the harvest and the crops.
"For these reasons I decided, in a council of officers, to dis- band the army, except three companies, two of which were reserved as a guard for the jail. With the other company I marched into Nauvoo to address the inhabitants there, and tell them what they might expect in case they designedly or im- prudently provoked a war. I performed this duty, as I think, plainly and emphatically, and then set out to return to Carthage. When I had marched about three miles a messenger informed me of the occurrences at Carthage. I hastened on to that place. The guard, it is said, did their duty, but were overpowered."
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The news of the prophet's death created the wildest excitement at Nauvoo. In their organization a man by the name of Brigham Young was president of a band called The Twelve Apostles. The Twelve chose Brigham as the successor of Joe Smith, to be the head of the church. Sidney Rigdon rebelled, demanding the position for himself. Brigham arrested him, declared him to be an emissary of the devil, excommunicated him, and "delivered him over to the buffetings of Satan in the name of the Lord."
For a short time the Mormons had a respite from trouble. A very imposing temple was reared at Nauvoo, one hundred and twenty-eight feet long by eighty-eight wide. It was very substan- tially built, and of pleasing architecture. The Mormon Times and Seasons says :
" Our temple, when finished, will show more wealth, more art, more science, more revelation, more splendor and more God, than all the rest of the world."
The calm in the outside community after the assassination of the Smiths was but a lull in the tempest. It was extensively believed that Nauvoo was a vast depository of stolen goods, and that in the seclusion of its harems every loathsome vice was per- petrated. A convention was held of delegates from the surround- ing counties. The resolution was adopted that the Mormons must leave the state. Brigham Young saw that it was impossible to oppose the popular fury. Immediate preparations were made to emigrate beyond the boundaries of the United States into the territory of Mexico. Brigham Young displayed consummate skill in the arrangements to remove a community of fifteen thousand souls many hundred miles, over an almost pathless wilderness, to a new home which they were to hew out for themselves.
The first band of about two thousand crossed the Mississippi on the ice in February, 1846. The Nauvoo Times and Seasons says :
"To see such a large body of men, women and children com- pelled by the inefficiency of the law to leave a great city in the month of February, for the sake of the enjoyment of pure religion, fills the soul with astonishment, and gives the world a sample of fidelity and faith brilliant as the sun, forcible as a tempest, and enduring as eternity.'
The journey before them, as their heavily-laden wagons were slowly drawn by mules and oxen, occupied nearly three months.
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Colonel Thomas L. Kane, brother of Dr. Elisha Kane, who be- came so illustrious by his polar tour, witnessed this emigration. He writes :
" There were, along three hundred miles of the road, over two thousand emigrating wagons, besides a large number of nonde- script turn-outs, the motley make-shifts of poverty, from the unsuitably heavy cart that lumbered along mysteriously, with its sick driver hidden under its counterpane cover, to the crazy two- wheeled trundle, such as our poor employ for the conveyance of their slop-barrels; this pulled along perhaps by a little dry, drugged heifer, and rigged up only to drag some such light weight as a baby, a sack of meal, or a pack of clothes and bedding."
It was necessary on this long journey over the prairies occa- sionally to go into camp for a few days to give rest to the women, the children and the sick, and to replenish the strength of the weary cattle. This advance-guard laid out for those who were to follow a road through the Indian Territory twelve hundred miles in length. Over all the small streams they constructed substan- tial bridges. At the larger rivers they established permanent ferries. Here and there on the route they erected what they called tabernacle camps, where all conveniences were held in store for the sick and the weary. Mr. Kane gives the following pleasing description of one of these temporary settlements :
"The summer camps of the Mormons formed an interesting spectacle. They were gay with bright white canvas and alive with the busy stir of swarming occupants. In the clear blue morning air the smoke streamed up from more than a thousand cooking fires. Countless roads and by-paths checkered all man- ner of geometric figures on the hill-sides. On the slope herd- boys were seen, lazily watching immense herds of cattle, sheep, horses, cows, and oxen. Along the creeks where the tents were sometimes pitched, women in great force would be washing and rinsing all manner of white muslins, red flannels, and parti-col- ored calicoes, and covering acres of grass-plat with their variously- hued garments. Groups of merry children were playing among the tents.
" The romantic devotional observances of the Mormons, and their admirable concert of purpose and action, met the eye at once. After these the stranger was most struck, perhaps, by the trict order of march, the unconfused closing up to meet attacks,
WILLIAM ALLEN Governor 1874.
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the skillful securing of the cattle upon the halt, the system with which the watches were set at night to guard them, with other similar circumstances, indicative of a high state of discipline.
" Every ten of their wagons was under the care of a captain. This captain of ten obeyed a captain of fifty, who, in turn, obeyed his captain of a hundred, or directly what they call a member of the High Council of the Church. All these were responsible and determined men, approved of by the people for their courage, dis- cretion, and experience. So well recognized were the results of this organization, that bands of hostile Indians have passed by comparatively small parties of Mormons to attack much larger, but less compact, bodies of other emigrants.
"The most striking feature, however, of the Mormon emigra- tion was undoubtedly their formation of the tabernacle camps and temporary stakes or settlements, which renewed in the sleep- ing solitudes everywhere along their road the cheering signs of in- telligent and hopeful life.
" I will make this remark plainer by describing to you one of those camps, with the daily routine of its inhabitants. I select at random, for my purpose, a large camp on the delta between the Nebraska and Missouri. The camp remained pitched here for nearly two months, during which period I resided in it. It was situated upon some finely rounded hills, which encircled a favor- ite cool spring. On each of these a square was marked out. The wagons, as they arrived, took their positions along its four sides, in double rows, so as to leave a roomy street or passage-way be- tween them. The tents were disposed also in rows at intervals between the wagons. The cattle were folded in high-fenced yards outside. The quadrangle inside was left vacant for the sake of ventilation ; and the streets, covered in with leafy arbor work and kept scrupulously clean, formed a shaded cloister walk. This was the place of exercise for slowly-recovering invalids, the day- home of the infants, and the evening promenade of all.
"Every day closed as every day begun, with an invocation of the Divine favor, without which, indeed, no Mormon seemed to dare to lay him down to rest. With the first shining of the stars laughter and loud talking were hushed. The neighbor went his way. You heard the last hymn sung, and then the thousand- voice murmur of prayer was heard, like babbling water falling down the hills."
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A few of the Mormons were left behind at Nauvoo. A Missouri mob, impatient at their delay, fiercely attacked them and drove them in penury into the wilderness. The question arises, were these Mormons thus cruelly persecuted simply on account of their religion ? Joe Smith left Palmyra because his reputation was so bad there, where he was known, that he could get no foothold. At Kirtland, he was compelled to run away to escape arrest and imprisonment as a felon, for swindling operatians. In Missouri, they bade defiance to the laws of the state, and all the lewd fel- lows of the baser sort, from far and wide, flocked to their town, for the license which their religion afforded. Nauvoo became a pest house, which no healthy community could endure. Colonel Kane, who regarded the Mormons with the most friendly feelings, gives the following very emphatic testimony respecting the char- acter of the community collected at Nauvoo :
" When the persecution triumphed there, and no alternative re- mained for the steadfast in the faith but flight out of Egypt into the wilderness, all their fair-weather friends forsook them. Priests and elders, scribes and preachers deserted by whole councils at a time; each talented knave, of whose craft they had been the victims, finding his own pretext for abandoning them without sur- rendering the money-bag of which he was the holder.
"One of these, for instance, bore with him so considerable a congregation that he was able to found quite a thriving community in Northern Wisconsin, which I believe he afterwards transplanted entire to an island in one of the lakes. Other speculative heresi- archs folded for themselves credulous sheep all through the western country. One Rigdon held a cure of them in Pennsyl- vania.
" Quite recently an abandoned clergyman who, shortly before the exode was excommunicated for improper conduct, has presented a memorial to Congress, in which he charges the Mormons with very much more than he himself appears to have been guilty of."
The war with Mexico brought Utah, to which territory the Mor- mons had emigrated, within the enlarged boundaries of the United States. There were sincere and good men among the Mormons beyond all question. Brigham Young was a man of undoubted ability and great sagacity, but with an exceedingly coarse and vulgar mind. Upon the arrival of the Mormons to their place of designation, upon the borders of the Great Salt Lake, he issued a
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proclamation to all the world, from which we make the following extract :
" The Kingdom of God consists in correct principles, and it mattereth not what a man's religious faith is, whether he be a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Latter Day Saint, a Mor- mon, a Campbellite, a Catholic, an Episcopalian, a Mohammedan, or even a Pagan, or anything else. If he will bow the knee, and with the tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him as he stands by us in these things; for every man's faith is a matter between his own soul and his God alone.
" But if he shall deny the Jesus, if he shall curse God, if he shall indulge in drunkenness, debauchery and crime, if he shall lie and swear, and steal, if he shall take the name of the great God in vain, and commit all manner of abominations, he shall have no place in our midst; for we have long sought to find a people that will work righteousness, that will distribute justice equally, that will acknowledge God in all their ways, that will regard those sacred laws and ordinances which are recorded in that sacred book called the Bible, which we verily believe, and which we pro- claim to all the earth."
The Mormons, in their various settlements in Utah, have num- bered perhaps thirty thousand. They have made the extravagant claim that they could count in this country and Europe more than two hundred thousand converts to the Mormon faith. But the extraordinary delusion is now manifestly on the wane. The community is fast crumbling. The flood of emigration now sweep- ing with ever-increasing flow across the plains will doubtless ere long obliterate every vestige of the Mormon faith.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
LIVES OF THE GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS. - EDWARD TIFFIN, SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS, OTHNIEL LOOKER, THOMAS WORTHINGTON.
In the course of this narrative, the action of several of the Governors of Ohio has been interwoven with the story. The lives of Governors St. Clair, Meigs, and General Harrison were inseparably blended with the heroic adventures which attended the organization of the state. But there were other governors, men of no less mark, but whose privilege it was to administer the government in more peaceful times, the memory of whom history should not permit to die.
We are indebted to the courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society, of Cleveland, for opening to us the historical treasures it has accumulated. Among those treasures there is a manuscript collection of a large number of the Governors of Ohio, by the late A. T. Goodman, Esq. Mr. Goodman was the corresponding secretary of that important society. With great labor, and at not a little expense, he collected all the attainable facts in reference to many of the past governors of the state. For this valuable record, the community owe him a debt of gratitude. To his labors we are indebted for many of the incidents in the following brief narrative. We have also availed ourselves of such other sources of information as we have been able to obtain, scattered through the many books of reference which we have had occasion to examine.
HON. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
[See page 153.]
Many of the details of the eventful life of this distinguished man are inter- woven in the preceding pages. He was appointed by the National Govern- ment Governor of the Northwestern Territory from the year 1788 to 1802. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the year 1735 ; received a University edu- cation there ; studied medicine and became a surgeon in the British Army. Crossing the Atlantic, he served as lieutenant under General Wolf in his cam- paign against Quebec in 1759.
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When peace was established between France and England, St. Clair was en- trusted with the command of Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania. Weary of garri- son life, he entered into agricultural pursuits, and held several civil offices under the colonial government.
In the rising troubles with Great Britain, he cordially espoused the colonial cause. In 1776 he was created colonel in the Continental Army, and with wonderful energy, in six days he raised a regiment ready for the field to serve in Canada. In the Autumn of that year, promoted to the rank of brigadier general, he took part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. The next year, as major general, he was entrusted with the command of Fort Ticonderoga.
Here he lost reputation ; for with a garrison of two thousand men he was compelled to evacuate the fort, as Burgoyne took possession of Sugar Hill, which he had neglected to fortify. Afterwards he did good service in protect- ing Congress, and was with the army at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrend- ered.
In 1786, he was sent to the Continental Congress, and the next year was chosen President of that body. The following year he was appointed Gover- nor of the Northwestern Territory. As governor, and with the military rank of major general he entered upon his disastrous campaign against the Miami Indians, which we have already described. This defeat, which was attributed to want of caution, greatly exasperated the country. He was removed from office by President Jefferson in 1802. The following reason has been assigned as the occasion of his removal :
General St. Clair was a strong Federalist. One evening, at Chillicothe, in conversation with Jeremiah Morrow, Judge Dunlevy, and Judge Foster, who were members of a constitutional convention then assembled at Chillicothe, he expressed himself as having no confidence in Republican institutions, and that we must adopt a stronger form of government or anarchy would be the consequence. A copy of these remarks, attested by the three gentlemen, was forwarded to President Jefferson ; St. Clair was immediately removed.
Notwithstanding the deplorable lack of judgment displayed in his terrible de- feat, St. Clair was a man of ability, of fine scholarship, and a true gentleman. His patriotism and integrity were unquestioned. He had neglected his private concerns, and, upon removal from office, was ruined in fortune. His last years were enveloped in gloom, and he died in the extreme of poverty.
NOTE .- Charles W. Byrd, of Hamilton County, was Secretary of the Terri- tory at the time of the removal of General St. Clair in the latter part of 1802, and by virtue of his office became Acting Governor. He performed the duties of the office until the organization of the State of Ohio, and the inauguration of Gov. Edward Tiffin, March 3, 1803. There are no records in existence from which a sketch of his life can be obtained, neither has there been a picture of him preserved from which an engraving can be made.
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HON. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON .*
[See page 171.]
William Henry Harrison was born in Virginia at Berkeley, on the James River, the 9th of February, 1773. His father was a gentleman of wealth and distinction, an intimate friend of George Washington, and a member of the Continental Congress. He was a man of large stature, full of fun, and exceed- ingly popular with all classes. Twice he was chosen Governor of Virginia.
His son, William, enjoyed all the advantages which wealth and intellectual companionship could give. He graduated at Hampden Sidney College with honor, and studied medicine in Philadelphia under the celebrated Dr. Rush. The Indians were committing fearful ravages on our frontiers. St. Clair was stationed with a small military force in the solitudes of the far away waters of Ohio, where Cincinnati now stands. Young Harrison, then but nineteen years of age, joined the army, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his friends. He received a commission as ensign from President Washington, just before St. Clair's awful defeat which we have already described.
The youthful soldier crossed the Alleghanies on foot to Pittsburgh. There he embarked in a flat-bottomed boat and floated down the Ohio to Fort Washing- ton. The heroic character he displayed caused him at once to be entrusted with duties of much responsibility. We hardly know how to account for the fact that even then he had adopted the principles of a thorough temperance man. He was rapidly promoted. As lieutenant, he accompanied General Wayne on his triumphant march. In Wayne's great battle, Lieutenant Harri- son so signalized himself that his commanding officer wrote :
"Lieutenant Harrison was in the foremost front of the hottest battle. His person was exposed from the commencement to the close of the action. Where- ever duty called he hastened, regardless of danger, and, by his efforts and ex- ample, contributed as much to secure the fortunes of the day as any other officer subordinate to the commander in chief."
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