USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 17
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But Joseph Smith had studied law as well as theology, and knew how to defend his rights under the circumstances. Obtaining a writ of habeas corpus from C. A. Warren, Esq., master in chancery at Quincy, he had the hearing in the case set for the 8th of June, at Monmouth, Warren County, before Judge Stephen A. Douglas. Judge Douglas had arrived at Quincy on the night of the arrest. Next morning the Prophet, accompanied by Sheriff King and the Missouri officer, started for Nauvoo. On the way the Sheriff, who was
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in poor health, was taken seriously ill. The Prophet conveyed him to his own home and nursed him with the kindliest care.
The hearing at Monmouth came off in due order on the day appointed. Considerable excitement reigned, and an effort was made by the rabble to mob the Mormon leader as he entered the town. Sheriff King, however, faithfully stood by his prisoner and protected him from assault. A formidable array of attorneys assisted in the prosecution. The Prophet's counsel were C. A. Warren, Sidney H. Little, O. H. Browning, James H. Ralston, Cyrus Walker and Archi- bald Williams. Mr. Browning, in the course of an earnest and elo- quent plea, pictured so vividly the sufferings of the Prophet and his people in Missouri, and the hopeless case of the prisoner if delivered over to his former persecutors, that nearly all present, including Judge Douglas himself, shed tears .*
The defense rested upon two propositions : (1) that the Missouri writ, having once been returned to the Executive unserved, was void; (2) that the entire proceeding on the part of Missouri was illegal. Judge Douglas, without going into the merits of the second proposi- tion, decided that the writ was void and that the prisoner must be liberated. · Amid the rejoicings of his friends, and to the chagrin of his enemies, the Prophet returned to Nauvoo.
But press and pulpit now took up the controversy, the tone of the former, once so favorable to the Saints, being now much modi- fied. Some papers were openly hostile. Beneath the burning rays of political jealousy and religious hatred the flowers of friendship were fast fading. Even Judge Douglas was censured for his decision
* Said Browning: "Great God! have I not seen it? Yes, mine eyes have beheld the blood-stained traces of innocent women and children, in the drear winter, who had traveled hundreds of miles bare-foot through frost and snow, to seek a refuge from their savage pursuers. It was a scene of horror, sufficient to enlist sympathy from an adaman- tine heart. And shall this unfortunate man, whom their fury has seen proper to select for sacrifice, be driven into such a savage land, and none dare to enlist in the cause of justice? If there was no other voice under heaven ever to be heard in this cause, gladly would I stand alone, and proudly spend my latest breath in defence of an oppressed American citizen."
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which had set the Mormon leader free. The Prophet's personal foes, the more radical anti-Mormons, sought in every way to prejudice the public mind against him. That they succeeded the tragic issue amply showed.
One charge preferred against the Mormons in Illinois was that of "spoiling the Philistines,"-in other words stealing from the Gentiles; a practice which it was said their leaders sanctioned. This accusa- tion, being noised abroad and believed by many, was an effective weapon for the anti-Mormons. It was particularly gratifying to the thieving bands that continued plying their nefarious trade up and down the Mississippi. Screening them from suspicion, by placing the onus of their misdeeds upon others, it enabled them to pursue their dangerous vocation with greater security.
That some Mormons practiced thievery was doubtless true,-as true as that some anti-Mormons did,-but the allegation that the Mormon leaders sanctioned such a practice was totally false. On the contrary they denounced it, in public and in private, publishing, in December, 1841, their emphatic denial of the charge of teaching their followers that it was right and proper for them to prey upon "the Philistines." They made examples, too, of such of their community as were convicted of stealing. Two subordinate officers of the Nauvoo Legion, being found guilty of theft, were promptly cashiered and their names stricken from the rank roll.
With the return of the Apostles from Europe, the work of build- ing up Nauvoo and the surrounding stakes was much accelerated. The Nauvoo Temple and the Nauvoo House-the latter designed for the entertainment of strangers-were now progressing favorably ; also other edifices and public improvements. What gave the Temple a special impetus about this time was the enunciation by the Prophet of the tenet of baptism for the dead. A Masonic Temple was like- wise projected at Nauvoo, and Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young and many other leading Mormons became Free Masons.
Joseph Smith's fame was now the property of two hemispheres. He was styled, from his rank as Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo
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Legion, "a military prophet," and referred to both in Europe and America as "the Western Mohamet." All sorts of rumors as to his alleged intended conquests, with the sword in one hand and his Koran-the Book of Mormon-in the other, began to fill the air.
Early in 1842 the great journals of the land, which had hith- erto ignored or treated lightly the subject of Mormonism, began to send representatives to Nauvoo to write up the question, or solicit from the Prophet contributions to their columns touching that topic, which had become one of the most interesting of the hour. The first of these journals to give the Mormons a fair and full presenta- tion to the public was the New York Herald, in which a series of letters appeared over the signature of James Arlington Bennett, of Long Island, who visited Nauvoo to see for himself, and as the repre- sentative of James Gordon Bennett, this Mecca and its Mohamet of the West. So pleased were the authorities at Nauvoo with the fair and impartial letters published in the Herald that the City Council passed resolutions thanking the editor for his courtesy and liberality, while upon the author of the articles was gratefully conferred the honorary title of Inspector-General of the Nauvoo Legion.
John Wentworth, Esq., proprietor of the Chicago Democrat-an influential journal-solicited from the Prophet's pen a concise sketch of his personal history with that of the Church from its inception to the year 1842. The sketch was furnished and published. It con- tained what are known as the Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It stated, among other things, that the Prophet's followers at Nauvoo, were from six to eight thousand souls, with "vast numbers in the county around and in almost every county of the State." Other pens and tongues, of tourists and visitors, praised the hospitality, enterprise, industry, good order and morality of the City Beautiful and its inhabitants.
We have stated that Stephen A. Douglas regarded Joseph Smith as a master spirit. He was not alone in that opinion of the founder of Mormonism. James Arlington Bennett styled him "one of the greatest characters of the age." Josiah Quincy, who, in company
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with Charles Francis Adams, senior, was at Nauvoo shortly before the Prophet's death, said of him :
It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this : What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen ? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written : Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious common-place to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High,-such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. Fanatic, imposter, charlatan, he may have been; but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents to us. Fanatics and impostors are living and dying every day, and their memory is buried with them; but the wonderful influence which this founder of a religion exerted and still exerts throws him into relief before us, not as a rogue to be criminated, but as a phenomenon to be explained.
" A fine looking man," continues Mr. Quincy, "is what the passer-by would instinctively have murmured. But Smith was more than this, and one could not resist the impression that capacity and resource were natural in his stalwart person."
In May, 1842, the treachery and rascality of a man whom the Mormon leader had befriended and loaded with honors, became known to his benefactor. That man was Dr. John C. Bennett, Mayor of Nauvoo, Chancellor of its University, and Major-General of its Legion. He had become associated with the Saints soon after their exodus from Missouri. Though a great egotist, he was a man of education, address and ability. That he had little or no principle was not immediately apparent. Considerable of a diplomat and possessing some influence in political circles, he rendered valuable aid in securing the passage by the Illinois Legislature of the act incorporating the city of Nauvoo. * Hence the honors bestowed upon
* It was to such men as Senator Little and Judge Douglas that the Mormons were most indebted for the passage of the act. Abraham Lincoln, the future martyr President, then a member of the Illinois Legislature, voted, it is said, for the Nauvoo Charter and congratulated the Morinons on its passage. Lincoln was never an enemy to the Saints, and they much esteemed him.
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him by the Mormon people. Prior to that, and subsequently, he was Quartermaster-General of Illinois. Bennett professed great sympathy for the Saints. He joined the Church and apparently was a sincere convert to the faith.
Governor Thomas Ford, in his history of Illinois, styles Bennett " probably the greatest scamp in the western country." But this was not until long after the Mormons, thrice victimized, had become aware of his villainy.
On the 7th of May the Nauvoo Legion, now consisting of twenty-six companies, aggregating two thousand troops, assembled for a grand parade and sham battle, which was witnessed by thousands of spectators. Among the visitors present, as guests of General Joseph Smith, were Judge Stephen A. Douglas and other legal lights, who had adjourned the circuit court at Carthage in order to attend the Mormon military review. Wilson Law and Charles C. Rich,-the latter successor to Don Carlos Smith, deceased,-were the Brigadier-Generals of the Legion. As such, it devolved upon them to lead the two cohorts in the battle. For some reason, however, Major-General Bennett tried hard to induce the Prophet to take part in the fight and lead one of the cohorts. Suspecting Bennett's motive, General Smith declined, and subsequently recorded his impression that the purpose was to have him treacherously slain, in such a way that none but the guilty might know who did the deed.
Bennett's after course gave color to the Prophet's suspicion. The same month he was convicted of seduction,-a crime which seems to have been common with him,-and expelled from the Mormon Church. He was also deprived of the various offices given him by the people of Nauvoo. Joseph Smith succeeded him as Mayor, Orson Spencer as Chancellor of the University, and Wilson Law as Major-General of the Legion.
Bennett, to subserve his licentious practices, had secretly taught that the Prophet sanctioned illicit relations between the sexes. Pro- fessing deep contrition after his exposure, he voluntarily went before Alderman Daniel H. Wells and made oath to the effect that Joseph
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Smith had never taught him anything contrary to virtue and morality, and that so far as he knew the Prophet's private life was above reproach. These statements he repeated in public meetings. Finding, however, that he had become morally bankrupt in the eyes of the community, and could not, even if forgiven, regain their con- fidence, he withdrew from Nauvoo and joined the anti-Mormons.
He now repeated his former tale of Joseph Smith's licentious teachings and practices, claiming that his denial of the charge had been forced from him by threats of violence. He revived the story of the Danites, originated by Dr. Avard at Far West. Bennett declared that these "Avenging Angels," were following him to take his life, as they had previously taken other lives at the Prophet's com- mand. He also wrote and published a book against Mormonism, and devoted himself assiduously to the task of bringing trouble upon his former friends. The more intelligent and reputable anti-Mormons despised Bennett and distrusted his story, but others believed and made use of it, and prejudice against the Saints increased correspond- ingly .* During August the Prophet sent out the Apostles and a large number of Elders to preach in the country round and refute the vile slanders of this vengeful apostate.
Coming events now cast their solemn shadows before. The Prophet foresaw the inevitable. He more than once had hinted at his own death, and, as seen, had singled out intuitively his successor. To him a mighty destiny was opening for his people, but the far West, and not the East, nor even the intermediary region was the fated arena of Mormonism's immediate future. On Saturday, August 6th, 1842, at Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, he uttered in the presence of several friends a prediction, recorded in his own words as follows:
"I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains. Many would
Governor Carlin being informed by Joseph Smith of Bennett's conduct at Nauvoo, replied, "Bennett's meanness is in accordance with representations of his character made to me more than two years since, and which I felt constrained to believe were truc, since which time I have desired to have as little intercourse with him as possible."
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apostatize ; others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease; and some would live to go and assist in making settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."
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CHAPTER XII.
1842-1843.
AGAIN IN THE TOILS-JOSEPH SMITH
AND PORTER ROCKWELL ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER-EX-GOVERNOR BOGGS OF MISSOURI THE ALLEGED VICTIM-HOW THE DEED WAS DONE-THE PRISONERS RELEASED BY HABEAS CORPUS-THEY EVADE RE-ARREST -ROCKWELL KIDNAPPED AND CARRIED TO MISSOURI-GOVERNOR FORD SUCCEEDS GOVERNOR CARLIN-THE PROPHET SUBMITS TO A JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION-JUDGE POPE-THE MORMON LEADER AGAIN LIBERATED-ANOTHER REQUISITION-JOSEPH SMITH KIDNAPPED-HIS RESCUE AND RELEASE-ANTI-MORMON DEPREDATIONS AROUND NAUVOO.
WO days after the delivery of the foregoing prediction the Prophet was again arrested. He was charged this time with being an accessory to an attempt to murder. The alleged vic- tim was no other than Lilburn W. Boggs, ex-Governor of Missouri, who, on the night of May 6th, 1842, at his home in Independence, Jackson County, in that State, had indeed been shot and dangerously wounded by some person or persons unknown.
Lying near an open window in a pool of blood, with a ghastly wound in his head, the ex-Governor had been found by his little son, soon after the shooting. Footprints and a smoking pistol on the ground outside afforded the only clue to the perpetrator of the deed. Suspicion, however, at once rested upon the Mormons, whom Boggs had so persistently persecuted while in power, and without further ado the crime was laid at their door. It was said that Joseph Smith had predicted a violent death for Governor Boggs, and lo ! here was an attempt at fulfillment. Could anything be plainer ? The proof was positive-positive enough to suit the Missourians, eager for any excuse to get the Mormon leader back into their power-that he was in some way connected with the commission of the crime.
It was not contended that he had committed the assault in person.
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The Missourians soon learned that Joseph Smith, if so accused, could prove an alibi. The date of the assault was just one day prior to the grand parade and sham battle at Nauvoo, already mentioned, and the distance between that place and Independence was at least two hun- dred miles ; in those days a full week's journey. Besides it was pretty generally known that the Prophet had not been in Missouri since his escape from captivity in that State in the spring of 1839. But then he might have sent a "Danite"-say Porter Rockwell, or some " avenging angel,"-to do the deed of blood, after which the assassin had made good his escape. So reasoned among themselves the Missourians.
It was useless after that for Joseph Smith to deny-as he did- having ever made such a prediction about ex-Governor Boggs. Use- less, also, that he denied sending Porter Rockwell, or anyone else into Missouri for such a purpose ; or that Rockwell had been in that State during the year 1842. Such denials availed nothing. Sus- picion had already decided his guilt. Neither would evidence the most conclusive now clear him. Were not the Mormons all falsifiers ? Had they not slandered Missouri and rendered her name odious by declaring that she had persecuted them for their religious opinions ? Here was a rare chance for revenge. The hated Prophet had lain himself liable, or had been laid liable to fall back into their power. Let them once but "get him on the hip," and they would "feed fat the ancient grudge" they bore him.
Boggs himself shared, or professed to share, in the general opin- ion regarding the Mormon leader's complicity in the crime. As soon, therefore, as he had recovered from his well-nigh fatal wound, and he and his friends had had time to mature their plans, he went before a justice of the peace-Samuel Weston-and swore out a com- plaint charging "Joseph Smith, commonly called the Mormon Prophet," with being "an accessory before the fact of the intended murder." The affidavit stated that " the said Joseph Smith" was "a citizen or resident of the State of Illinois."
Upon this complaint, application was made to the Governor of
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Missouri, Thomas Reynolds, for the issuance of a writ demanding Joseph Smith of the authorities of Illinois. Governor Reynolds promptly responded, issuing the desired requisition. The writ, how- ever, instead of following the language of the affidavit, described Joseph Smith, not as "a citizen or resident of the State of Illinois," but as a "fugitive from justice" who had "fled to the State of Illinois." It also went beyond the affidavit in stating that the assault was "made by one O. P. Rockwell," whose name, it appears, had been left out of the original complaint.
Governor Carlin, on receiving the requisition from Missouri, issued a warrant for Joseph Smith's arrest, stating therein-if Gov- ernor Ford's duplicate warrant upon which the case finally came up for trial was an exact copy of the original-that it had been "made known" to him "by the Executive authority of the State of Mis- souri, that one Joseph Smith stands charged by the affidavit of one Lilburn W. Boggs with being accessory before the fact to an assault with intent to kill, made by one O. P. Rockwell," etc., "and that the said Joseph Smith had fled from the justice of said State and taken refuge in the State of Illinois." Thus Carlin not only repeated the mis-statements of Governor Reynolds, but added one of his own, in saying that the Executive of Missouri had informed him that "Joseph Smith had fled from the justice of said State." It was these discrepancies between the Boggs affidavit and the writs of the two governors ostensibly based thereon, together with the insufficiency of the affidavit, that proved the mouse to gnaw the net and set the lion free.
The glaring illegality of the whole proceeding is further shown in the fact that an attempt was here made to transport to Missouri for trial a citizen of the State of Illinois, for an offense committed-if committed at all-in Illinois. Joseph Smith was not charged with assaulting ex-Governor Boggs, but with sending O. P. Rockwell from Illinois to Missouri for that purpose. Rockwell, on a proper show- ing, might indeed have been lawfully tried in Missouri ; but not Joseph Smith, whose alleged offense was against the laws of Illinois.
·
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Whether the two governors erred blindly or wilfully in the parts played by them in this legal burlesque, we know not. The proba- bility is that Reynolds, perceiving the weakness of the affidavit, pur- posely overstated its contents in order to insure the success of the undertaking. Carlin, on his part, was either a co-conspirator with Reynolds, or, to give him the benefit of the doubt, ignorant or careless as to the outcome.
Anyway, Joseph Smith and Orrin Porter Rockwell were both arrested by the deputy sheriff of Adams County, at Nauvoo, on the 8th of August. Immediately after their arrest they obtained a writ of habeas corpus, and were discharged after a hearing before the Municipal Court of Nauvoo. The deputy sheriff and his assistants denied the jurisdiction of the Nauvoo Court, but leaving the prisoners, they returned to Governor Carlin for further instructions. Two days later they reappeared, having been instructed to "re-arrest at all hazards." But the persons wanted were nowhere to be found.
The authority under which the Municipal Court acted in dis- charging the prisoners was the following ordinance passed by the City Council on the day of the arrest :
An Ordinance regulating the mode of proceeding in cases of habeas corpus before the Municipal Court:
Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo, That in all cases where any person or persons shall at any time hereafter be arrested or under arrest, in this city, under any writ or process, and shall be brought before the Municipal Court of this city, by virtue of a writ of habeas corpus, the Court shall in every case have power and authority, and are hereby required to examine into the origin, validity and legality of the writ or process, under which such arrest was made; and if it shall appear to the Court upon sufficient testimony, that said writ or process was illegal, or not legally issued, or did not proceed from the proper authority, then the Court shall discharge the prisoner from under said arrest ; but if it shall appear to the Court that said writ or process had issued from proper authority, and was a legal process, the Court shall then proceed and fully hear the merits of the case upon which said arrest was made, upon such evidence as may be produced and sworn before said Court ; and shall have power to adjourn the hear- ing, and also issue process from time to time, in their discretion, in order to procure the attendance of witnesses, so that a fair and impartial trial and decision may be obtained in every case.
Sec. 2. And be it further ordained, That if upon investigation it shall be proven before the Municipal Court that the writ or process has been issued either through private pique,
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malicious intent, religious or other persecution, falsehood or misrepresentation, contrary to the Constitution of the United States or of this State, the said writ or process shall be quashed, and considered of no force or effect, and the prisoner or prisoners shall be released and discharged therefrom.
Sec. 3. And be it also further ordained, That in the absence, sickness, debility or other circumstances disqualifying or preventing the Mayor from officiating in his office, as Chief Justice of the Municipal Court, the Aldermen present shall appoint one from amongst them to act as Chief Justice or President pro tempore.
Sec. 4. This ordinance to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
HYRUM SMITH, Vice-Mayor and President pro tempore.
Passed August 8, 1842.
JAMES SLOAN, Recorder.
The Prophet, who was determined not to be taken back to Mis- souri, now retired for several weeks, concealing himself in the homes of trusted friends at and near Nauvoo. Rockwell, equally averse to being taken, absented himself for some months, during which he traveled to the eastern states. Returning thence and visiting St. Louis, he was captured and carried in chains to Jackson County. Nothing being proven against him, he was eventually set free and made his way back to Illinois.
The most strenuous efforts were put forth for the capture of the Prophet, but without avail. Besides the regular officers, John C. Ben- nett and others were in the field, seeking to kidnap and carry him to Missouri. Such an event, however, was not destined to be. The fates had not decreed his return to his former captivity.
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