USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
Wm Miller
237
HISTORY OF UTAH.
their journey's end, where "Bill Miller" was recognized, and it is safe to say anathematized. Meantime the real Brigham had got well out of the way and was laughing at the chagrin of his outwitted pursuers.
The lives of the Mormon leaders, no less than their liberties, were in constant jeopardy, and their houses and places of con- cealment were carefully guarded to prevent assassination. Foremost among their foes were men and women who had once been their brethren and sisters in the Church. Emma Smith, the Prophet's widow, was one of these. She refused to follow Brigham, whom she hated and regarded as a usurper. She taught her children that he, and not their father, introduced polygamy into the Church, and that the Prophet had never practiced it. Yet there are women still living in Utah who solemnly aver that they were Joseph Smith's plural wives, and they with others testify that Emma, to their per- sonal knowledge, gave those wives to her husband in the sealing covenant.
In January, 1845, the Legislature of Illinois, yielding to long continued popular pressure, repealed the Nauvoo charter. Josiah Lamborn, Esq., Attorney-General of Illinois writing of this event to Brigham Young, said : "I have always considered that your enemies have been prompted by political and religious prejudices, and by a desire for plunder and blood, more than for the common good. By the repeal of your charter, and by refusing all amendments and modifications, our legislature has given a kind of sanction to the barbarous manner in which you have been treated.
It is truly a melancholy spectacle to witness the law-makers of a sovereign State condescending to pander to the vices, ignorance and malevolence of a class of people who are at all times ready for riot, murder and rebellion.
"Your Senator, Jacob C. Davis, has done much to poison the minds of the members against anything in your favor. He walks at large in defiance of law, an indicted murderer. If a Mormon was in
238
HISTORY OF UTAH.
his position the Senate would afford no protection, but he would be dragged forth to gaol or the gallows, or be shot down by a cowardly and brutal mob."
In April following, the Saints in general conference, attended by many thousands of people, voted to change the name Nauvoo to the City of Joseph, in honor of their martyred Prophet. A small portion of the city was afterwards incorporated as the town of Nauvoo.
Governor Ford, on the 8th of April, wrote to President Young, advising him to migrate with his people to California. In this letter the following passages occur :
If you can get off by yourselves you may enjoy peace; but, surrounded by such neighbors, I confess that I do not see the time when you will be permitted to enjoy quiet. I was informed by General Joseph Smith last summer that he contemplated a removal west; and from what I learned from him and others at that time, I think, if he had lived, he would have begun to move in the matter before this time. I would be will- ing to exert all my feeble abilities and influence to further your views in this respect if it was the wish of your people.
I would suggest a matter in confidence. California now offers a field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern times. It is but sparsely inhabited, and by none but the Indians or imbecile Mexican Spaniards. I have not enquired enough to know how strong it is in men and means. But this we know, that if conquered from Mexico, that country is so physically weak and morally distracted that she could never send a force there to reconquer it. Why should it not be a pretty operation for your people to go out there, take possession of and conquer a portion of that vacant country, and establish an independent Government of your own, subject only to the laws of nations ? You would remain there a long time before you would be disturbed by the proximity of other settlements. If you conclude to do this, your design ought not to be known, or otherwise it would become the duty of the United States to prevent your emigration. If once you cross the line of the United States Territories, you would be in no danger of being interfered with."
Brigham Young, however, had already decided upon his course. It was in this, as in all else pertaining to the general conduct of Mormonism, to follow in the footsteps and build upon the foundation of his predecessor. Never, it is believed, during his entire adminis- tration did the President knowingly deviate from this fixed rule. It was one of the secrets of his great influence with the Saints. Let not lack of originality be imputed to him, however, because of this deference to the designs of the Prophet. Brigham believed Joseph to
239
HISTORY OF UTAH.
be inspired. He recognized the worth and wisdom of his plans, and his own genius and originality found ample play in their execution. As a designer Joseph Smith was without a peer among his fellows; as an executor Brigham Young without a parallel. Each was the other's complement, and neither career alone, in the eternal fitness of things would have been complete.
The Rocky Mountains was the place of refuge that Joseph had fore- told. California, Texas, Oregon were but after-thoughts, vague and undetermined. To the Rocky Mountains, therefore, the Saints would go,-possibly pass beyond,-but precisely how far into that terra incognita, that unknown wilderness they might penetrate, they knew not, not even their leaders knew. It is a fact, however, that the region of the Great Basin, of which they had read in Colonel Fremont's reports, was in their thoughts, though not as a definite destination, when contemplating a removal from Illinois .*
It was not their destiny to colonize and people the Pacific coast; though undoubtedly they did much to hasten that great achievement. If not the first American settlers of California, they were the first to establish there a newspaper, among the first to turn up gold with their shovels at Sutter's Mill, and set agog the excitement which rolled, a mighty billow, over the civilized world, and staid not nor subsided till it had revolutionized the commerce of two hemispheres. If not the very point, therefore, they certainly were, as we shall see, a very important part of the entering wedge of western civilization.
Nor was it their design, in moving westward, to set up an independent government,-at least not in the sense that Governor Ford and Senator Douglas had suggested. Not knowing where they were going or what awaited them, whether the Union spreading
* The following is an extract from Heber C. Kimball's journal : "Nauvoo Temple, December 31st, 1845. Prest. Young and myself are superintending the operations of the day, examining maps with reference to selecting a location for the Saints west of the Rocky Mountains, and reading the various works which have been written and published by travelers in those regions."
Vancouver's Island was suggested to the Mormons about this time as a suitable place for them to settle.
240
HISTORY OF UTAH.
westward would overtake them, or Mexican or British rule be their portion, how could they have formed any such definite design ? It was certainly not their purpose to alienate themselves from that government which their forefathers had fought and bled to establish, whose starry standard they revered, whose glorious Constitution they believed to have been God-inspired. No; they were Mormons, hated, despised, defamed, but still Americans, loyal to their country and her cause: though that country now, they could not help but feel, was acting the part of a cold step-mother rather than of a tender parent to them. Some day, perchance, their countrymen would know them better, and for past contempt and cruelty would make amends. Perhaps they felt, as felt the poet,-"pilgrim of eternity."*
" But I have lived, and have not lived in vain : My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire, And my frame perish even in conquering pain ; But there is that within me which shall tire Torture and time, and breathe when I expire ; Something unearthly, which they deem not of, Like the remembered tone of a mute lyre, Shall on their softened spirits sink, and move In hearts all rocky now the late remorse of love."
Till then, as pilgrims too-pilgrims of time and of eternity- they would retire into the wilderness, taking with them the starry flag, the traditions of Bunker Hill and Yorktown, and seeking some isolated spot behind the rocky ramparts of the Everlasting Hills, found a new state for the Union, foreseen to be spreading from sea to sea, and patiently wait the fulfillment of what had been predicted,- that the Saints should become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.
Before expatriating themselves, they resolved to make a last appeal to the country which they felt was casting them forth. To this end they addressed a memorial to the President of the United States-James K. Polk-and sent copies of the same to the Governors
* The poet Shelley so styled Lord Byron.
241
HISTORY OF UTAH.
of all the States, excepting Missouri and Illinois. This memorial ran as follows :
NAUVOO, April, 24tlı, 1845.
His Excellency James K. Polk, President of the United States.
HON. SIR: Suffer us, in behalf of a disfranchised and long afflicted people, to prefer a few suggestions for your serious consideration, in hope of a friendly and unequivocal response, at as early a period as may suit your convenience, and the extreme urgency of the case seems to demand.
It is not our present design to detail the multiplied and aggravated wrongs that we have received in the midst of a nation that gave us birth. Most of us have long been loyal citizens of some one of these United States, over which you have the honor to pre- side, while a few only claim the privilege of pcaceable and lawful emigrants, designing to make the Union our permanent residence.
We say we are a disfranchised people. We are privately told by the highest authori- ties of the State that it is neither prudent nor safe for us to vote at the polls ; still we have continued to maintain our right to vote, until the blood of our best men has been slied, both in Missouri and Illinois, with impunity.
You are doubtless somewhat familiar with the history of our expulsion from the State of Missouri, wherein scores of our brethren were massacred. Hundreds died through want and sickness, occasioned by their unparalleled sufferings. Some millions worth of our property was destroyed, and some fifteen thousand souls fled for their lives to the then hospitable and peaceful shores of Illinois ; and that the State of Illinois granted to us a liberal charter, for the term of perpetual succession, under whose provision private rights have become invested, and the largest city in the State has grown up, numbering about twenty thousand inhabitants.
But, sir, the startling attitude recently assumed by the State of Illinois, forbids us to think that her designs are any less vindictive than those of Missouri. She has already used the military of the State, with the executive at their head, to coerce and surrender up our best men to unparalleled murder, and that too under the most sacred pledges of pro- tection and safety. As a salve for such unearthly perfidy and guilt, she told us, through her highest executive officers, that the laws should be magnified and the murderers brought to justice ; but the blood of her innocent victims had not been wholly wiped from the floor of the awful arena, ere the Senate of that State rescued one of the indicted actors in that mournful tragedy from the sheriff of Hancock County, and gave him a seat in her hall of legislation ; and all who were indicted by the grand jury of Hancock County for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, are suffered to roam at large, watching for further prey.
To crown the climax of those bloody deeds, the State has repealed those chartered rights, by which we might have lawfully defended ourselves against aggressors. If we defend ourselves hereafter against violence, whether it comes under the shadow of law or otherwise (for we have reason to expect it in both ways), we shall then be charged with treason and suffer the penalty ; and if we continue passive and non-resistant, we must certainly expect to perish, for our enemies have sworn it. .
And here, sir, permit us to state that General Joseph Smith, during his short life, was arraigned at the bar of his country about fifty times, charged with criminal offences, but
242
HISTORY OF UTAH.
was acquitted every time by his country ; his enemies, or rather his religious opponents, almost invariably being his judges. And we further testify that, as a people, we are law- abiding, peaceable and without crime ; and we challenge the world to prove to the contrary ; and while other less cities in Illinois have had special courts instituted to try their criminals, we have been stript of every source of arraigning marauders and murderers who are prowling around to destroy us, except the common magistracy.
With these facts before you, sir, will you write to us without delay as a father and a friend, and advise us what to do. We are members of the same great confederacy. Our fathers, yea some of us, have- fought and bled for our country, and we love her constitu- tion dearly.
In the name of Israel's God, and by virtue of multiplied ties of country and kindred, we ask your friendly interposition in our favor. Will it be too much for us to ask you to convene a special session of Congress, and furnish us an asylum, where we can enjoy our rights of conscience and religion unmolested ? Or will you, in a special message to that body, when convened, recommend a remonstrance against such unhallowed acts of oppres- sion and expatriation as this people have continued to receive from the States of Missouri and Illinois ? Or will you favor us by your personal influence and by your official rank ? Or will you express your views concerning what is called the "Great Western Measure" of colonizing the Latter-day Saints in Oregon, the north-western Territory, or some loca- tion remote from the States, where the hand of oppression shall not crush every noble principle and extinguish every patriotic feeling ?
And now, honored sir, having reached out our imploring hands to you, with deep solemuity, we would importune you as a father, a friend, a patriot and the head of a mighty nation, by the constitution of American liberty, by the blood of our fathers who have fought for the independence of this republic, by the blood of the martyrs which has been shed in our midst, by the wailings of the widows and orphans, by our murdered fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and children, by the dread of immediate destruction from secret combinations, now forming for our overthrow, and by every endearing tie that binds man to man and renders life bearable, and that too, for aught we know, for the last time,-that you will lend your immediate aid to quell the violence of mobocracy, and exert your influence to establish us as a people in our civil and religious rights, where we now are, or in some part of the United States, or in some place remote therefrom, where we may colonize in peace and safety as soon as circumstances will permit.
We sincerely hope that your future prompt measures toward us will be dictated by the best feelings that dwell in the bosom of humanity, and the blessings of a grateful people, and many ready to perish, shall come upon you.
We are, sir, with great respect, your obedient servants,
BRIGHAM YOUNG, WILLARD RICHARDS, ORSON SPENCER, ORSON PRATT, W. W. PHELPS,
Committee.
A. W. BABBITT, J. M. BERNHISEL,
In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Nauvoo, Illinois.
243
HISTORY OF UTAH.
P. S .- As many of our communications, post marked at Nauvoo, have failed of their destination, and the mails around us have been intercepted by our enemies, we shall send this to some distant office by the hand of a special messenger.
The appeals were unanswered save in a single instance, that of the Governor of Arkansas, who replied in a respectful and sympa- thetic epistle.
On the 19th of May, 1845, began the trial, at Carthage, of certain men who had been indicted for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Sixty names had been presented to the Grand Jury of the Hancock Circuit Court in October, 1844, as being implicated in the assassination. Only nine, however, had been indicted. They were Levi Williams, Jacob C. Davis, Mark Aldrich, Thomas C. Sharp, William Voras, John Wills, William N. Grover, - Gallagher, and - Allen.
Of these, Levi Williams, as stated, was a Baptist preacher ; Jacob C. Davis a State Senator, and Thomas C. Sharp the editor of the Warsaw Signal. Judge Richard M. Young presided at the trial, and James H. Ralston and Josiah Lamborn conducted the prosecu- tion. The defense was represented by William A. Richardson, O. H. Browning, Calvin A. Warren, Archibald Williams, O. C. Skinner and Thomas Morrison. The panel of the trial jury was as follows : Jesse Griffits, Joseph Jones, William Robertson, William Smith, Joseph Massey, Silas Grifitts, Jonathan Foy, Solomon J. Hill, James Gittings, F. M. Walton, Jabez A. Beebe and Gilmore Callison.
The trial lasted until May 30th .* During its progress, Calvin A. Warren, Esq, of counsel for the defense, in the course of his plea is said to have argued that if the prisoners were guilty of murder, then he himself was guilty ; that it was the public opinion that the Smiths ought to be killed, and public opinion made the laws, conse- quently it was not murder to kill them. Evidently this logic had
* "The Judge," says Governor Ford, "was compelled to admit the presence of
armed bands to browbeat and overawe the administration of justice. * * * The Judge himself was in duress, and informed me that he did not consider his life secure any part of the time. The consequence was that the crowd had everything their own way."
244
HISTORY OF UTAH.
its weight with the jury, for they promptly returned a verdict of not guilty .*
Emboldened by the outcome of the trial, the tactics of the anti- Mormons now underwent a radical range. Trumping up charges against the Mormon leaders it was found would not effect the desired purpose. Extreme measures only would avail, and these the uncon- scionable crusaders were now prepared to execute, regardless of every consideration of right. Their own writers admit as much. Thomas Gregg, the historian of Hancock County, Illinois, whom none familiar with his work. will accuse of partiality to the Mormons, is constrained to allow that the acts of their opponents now in question were absolutely unjustifiable. "Acts," says he, "which had no warrant in law or order, and which cannot be reconciled with any correct principles of reasoning, and which we then thought, and still think, were condemned by every consideration looking to good government; acts which had for their object, and which finally resulted in the forcible expulsion of the Mormon people from the county."
At a Mormon settlement called Morley, a few miles from Nauvoo, a band of incendiaries, on the night of September 10th, began opera- tions. Deliberately setting fire to the house of Edmund Durfee they turned the inmates out of doors and threatened them with death if they did not at once leave the settlement. Durfee they subsequently killed. The mob continued its nefarious work until Morley was in ashes, and its people homeless. Green Plains and Bear Creek, localities also settled by the Saints, were next visited by the house- burners, and in like manner devastated.+ Such scenes continued for
* Colonel John Hay, of the State Department at Washington, in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1869, in an article reminiscent of the Prophet's murder and the trial of his assassins, says; " The case was closed. There was not a man on the jury, in the court, in the county, that did not know the defendants had done the murder. But it was not proven, and the verdict of Not Guilty was right in law."
+ "At Lima and Green Plains," says Governor Ford, "the anti-Mormons appointed persons to fire a few harmless shots at their own meeting-house where services were in progress, whereupon the conspirators and their dupes rode all over the country and spread
245
HISTORY OF UTAH.
a week, during which nearly two hundred houses, shops and sheds were destroyed and the people driven away. A hundred and thirty- five teams went out from Nauvoo to bring in the homeless refugees, with what grain had been saved from the flames.
Intense excitement now reigned, not only at Nauvoo, and the out-lying Mormon settlements that nightly anticipated attack, but throughout Hancock County. Non-Mormons not of the radical class disapproved of these deeds of vandalism,* and Sheriff Backenstos, of Carthage-to his honor be it said-did everything in his power to quell the riots and punish the guilty parties. He first issued a proclamation, demanding that they desist. This order they ignored. He then called upon the posse comitatus-the power of the County- to assist him in dispersing the rioters. But there was no response. Finally he applied to the Mormons for a posse, which was furnished him, and he proceeded at once against the house-burners.
In the encounters that ensued two mobocrats were killed. One of these was Frank A. Worrell, the same who, as sergeant of the Carthage Greys, had charge of the Jail when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered. Worrell was shot by Porter Rockwell at the order of Sheriff Backenstos. Worrell at the time was approaching the Sheriff who, fearing for his own life, ordered Rockwell to fire. The two were tried for murder in this case, but were acquitted. The other man killed was Samuel McBratney, who was among the house- burners on Bear Creek. The Sheriff and his posse, after scattering the mob, surrounded Carthage and made several arrests. But most of
dire alarm. As a result a mob arose and burnt one hundred and seventy-five houses and huts belonging to Mormons, who fled for their lives in utter destitution, in the middle of the sickly season."
* The Quincy Whig, edited by a Mr. Bartlett, said : "Seriously, these outrages should be put a stop to at once ; if the Mormons have been guilty of crime, why punish them, hut do not visit their sins upon defenseless women and children. This is as bad as the savages. * * * It is feared that this rising against the Mormons is not confined to the Morley settlement, but that there is an understanding among the anties in the northern part of this and Hancock counties to make a general sweep, burning and destroying the property of the Mormons wherever it can be found."
246
HISTORY OF UTAH.
the rioters had fled. The Mormon settlements around Nauvoo were now evacuated, the people, fearing pillage and massacre, gathering into the city for protection.
At this juncture Governor Ford put forth his hand to restore order. General John J. Hardin, with troops, was sent into Hancock County for that purpose. Accompanying him were J. A. McDougal, Attorney-General of Illinois -; Senator Stephen A. Douglas, and Major W. B. Warren. Having issued a proclamation to the people of the county, enjoining peace, good order, and obedience to law and authority, General Hardin and his associates next held a consultation with the Mormon leaders at Nauvoo. The result was an agreement by the Latter-day Saints to leave Illinois; the exodus to begin in the spring. This demand came from a meeting of representatives of nine counties of the State, assembled at Carthage. The following correspondence, in relation to the proposed exodus, passed between General Hardin and his friends-representing Governor Ford and the anti-Mormons-and the Church leaders at Nauvoo:
NAUVOO, Oct. 1, 1845.
To the First President and Council of the Church at Nauvoo:
Having had a free and full conversation with you this day, in reference to your pro- posed removal from this county, together with the members of your Church, we have to request you to submit the facts and intentions stated to us in said conversation to writing, in order that we may lay them before the Governor and people of the State. We hope that by so doing it will have a tendency to allay the excitement at present existing in the public mind.
We have the honor to subscribe ourselves, respectfully yours, etc.,
JOHN J. HARDIN,
S. A. DOUGLAS, W. B. WARREN,
J. A. MCDOUGAL.
NAUVOO, October 1, 1845.
To Gen. John J. Hardin, W. B. Warren, S. A. Douglas, and J. A. McDougal :
MESSRS :- In reply to your letter of this date, requesting us to " submit the facts and intentions stated by us to writing, in order that you may lay them before the Governor and people of the State," we would refer you to our communication of the 24th ultimo, to the " Quincy Committee," etc, a copy of which is herewith inclosed.
In addition to this, we would say, that we had commenced making arrangements to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.