AN IMPORTANT YEAR—APOSTATES—AGITATION OF THE MORMON QUESTION—THE NAUVOO "EXPOSITOR"—ITS SUPPRESSION—EFFECT OF SUPPRESSION—GOVERNOR FORD'S ORDER—NAUVOO UNDER MARTIAL LAW.

We have now reached the eventful year of 1844, the year of the great tragedy, the martyrdom of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum Smith—a martyrdom which Elder Taylor shared.

The situation of the Saints at that time was, to say the least, remarkable. Besides the arch fiend Bennett, the Church had warmed within her bosom a number of other snakes that turned and stung her. Among these was William Law, Counselor to the Prophet Joseph, and yet his most bitter maligner and enemy. A smooth, dissembling villain! The kind that can look like the innocent flower and yet be the serpent under it. Not only was he guilty of the grossest immorality, but he conspired with assassins from Missouri, to take the life of the Prophet; and even conducted them himself to the house of Joseph. They were only prevented from accomplishing the foul murder that was in their hearts, by the faithfulness of two guards, Josiah Arnold and David Garn, who refused to admit them to the Prophet's presence.

Second to him in treachery and villainy was his natural brother, Wilson Law, a general in the Nauvoo Legion. Dr. R. D. Foster, a man not only inclined to profligacy, but one who had the means to indulge his inclination to the top of his bent, as he was wealthy. Besides these men there were the two Higbees, Francis and Chauncy, the latter a young lawyer. They were both sons of Judge Elias Higbee, a man highly respected by the Church for his upright life and sterling integrity. All the above named apostates were excommunicated from the Church for their wickedness, chiefly for seduction and adultery; and so abandoned and shameful were their crimes that the High Council which tried them had to sit with closed doors. Besides these leaders in wickedness there were a large number of apostates in Nauvoo and vicinity that had been expelled from the Church. They were recreant to every principle of righteousness, and full of bitterness. Fitful anger rankled in their breasts. They seemed to have lost the power to repent, and even the desire for forgiveness. They were possessed wholly with a fierce determination to destroy the structure—the Church—where in the days of their righteousness they were wont to find spiritual repose.

In addition to these enemies, the sectarian religionists, maddened to frenzy because unable to cope successfully with Mormonism, stood ready to persecute to the death those whom they could not convert. Then there were the two political parties, Whigs and Democrats, so equally balanced that whichever party the Saints voted with gained the victory. It often happened that candidates for office made an issue of the Mormon question—promising to exterminate them, or lend their influence to that end if elected. As often as this was done the Saints were compelled in self-defense to vote against them, and their opponents were generally defeated. But whichever party the Saints voted with the other was sure to be offended, and would heap unstinted abuse on their uncovered heads, filling their press with accounts of "the enormities of Nauvoo, and of the awful wickedness of a party which would consent to receive the support of such miscreants."

There was also another class of people that did no end of mischief to the character of the Saints at Nauvoo. They were counterfeiters, horse-thieves, cut-throats and all-round scoundrels, which not only infested Nauvoo and vicinity, but the whole western country. "In some districts", says Elder Taylor, "their influence was so great as to control important state and county offices." Of these Governor Ford bears witness, saying—

"Then again, the northern part of the state was not destitute of its organized bands of rogues, engaged in murders, robberies, horse-stealing, and in making and passing counterfeit money. These rogues were scattered all over the north, but most of them were located in the counties of Ogle, Winnebago, Lee and DeKalb."^[1]

They extended into other counties, however, and even judges, sheriffs, constables, jailors and professional men were privy to their deeds and sharers in the fruits of their robberies. "Their object in persecuting the Mormons," says Elder Taylor—and these characters did persecute them—"was in part to cover their own rascality, and in part to prevent the people of Nauvoo from exposing and prosecuting them; but the principal reason was plunder, believing if the Saints could be removed or driven they would be made fat on Mormon spoils, besides having in the deserted city a good asylum for the prosecution of their diabolical pursuits."

All these elements found it convenient to combine against the Church for its destruction, the overthrow of the Prophet and those who stood near him. A regular system of agitation was began, having for its avowed object the extermination of the Saints from the city founded by their industry. Meetings were held in various parts of Hancock and surrounding counties, at which speeches the most intemperate, resolutions the most inflammatory, and accusations the most vile and false were fulminated against Nauvoo and her inhabitants. The press supported the actions of these meetings, publishing their proceedings, and encouraging them by commendatory comments. Especially was this the case with the Warsaw Signal, edited by one Thomas Sharp, whom Elder Taylor alludes to as "a violent, unprincipled man, who shrunk not at any enormity."

Such were the elements that combined against the peace of Nauvoo and the destruction of her leading citizens. Seeing mischief afoot and an ever growing popular sentiment against the Mormons and in favor of the reckless, not to say lawless, course of the anti-Mormon agitators, the apostates in Nauvoo ventured to publish the most infamous sheet ever issued from the press—the Nauvoo Expositor. Its mendacious slanders were aimed at the most prominent and virtuous of Nauvoo's citizens. No sooner did it appear than a storm of indignation passed through the city; and the people threatened to annihilate it. Wishing to avoid any unlawful procedure, the city council was convened to consider what steps should be taken to suppress the unclean and untruthful thing.

The Expositor was produced and read in the council. It was held by some that the purpose for which it was published was to provoke the people to some overt act which would make them amenable to the law, and increase the bitterness of the outside prejudice against them. This was doubtless the case. Such it seems was the understanding of the council. In relation to this circumstance Elder Taylor remarks:

"With a perfect knowledge, therefore, of the designs of these infernal scoundrels who were in our midst, as well as those who surrounded us, the city council entered upon an investigation of the matter. They felt that they were in a critical position, and that any move made for the abating of that press would be looked upon, or at least represented, as a direct attack upon the liberty of speech, and that, so far from displeasing our enemies, it would be looked upon by them as one of the best circumstances that could transpire to assist them in their nefarious and bloody designs."

After spending nearly a whole night in considering the best plan to pursue, it was finally decided to declare the Expositor a nuisance, and order its abatement. Elder Taylor made the motion and it was carried unanimously, with the exception of one vote, and that person acknowledged the righteousness of the movement, but feared it would afford the enemies of the city too great an advantage by giving some ground for the cry that would be raised, that the freedom of the press had been overthrown in Nauvoo. It is quite certain, however, that if the city council had not taken this means of suppressing the Expositor, the citizens would have risen en masse and a mob would have destroyed it: and that would have given the enemies of the Saints as good ground for agitation against Nauvoo and her people as the action of the city council did. So Elder Taylor's motion prevailed.

The Expositor Press was destroyed by the city marshal, John P. Green, and a small posse of men he called to his assistance. The type was pied in the streets and the papers in the office taken out and burned. The whole proceeding was done quietly but determinedly. The only force employed was the breaking in of the doors to the Expositor office when admittance was denied. Some of the leading apostates set fire to their houses and fled to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, with the lie on their lips that their lives were in danger. Fortunately the police in Nauvoo discovered the houses of these men on fire and extinguished the flames before any material harm was done, so that they had no blackened ruins to point to as a witness of Mormon atrocity.

All the mischief anticipated from suppressing the Expositor nuisance came to pass. "The Mormons had laid unhallowed hands upon the press!" "They opposed the freedom of speech!" "The laws were no longer a protection to life and property in Nauvoo!" "A mob at Nauvoo under a city ordinance had violated the highest privilege in the government!" Such were the sentences that flew as if on the wings of the wind to all parts of Illinois.

A mass meeting was held at Warsaw, the prevailing sentiment of which was that "to seek redress in the ordinary mode would be utterly ineffectual." The meeting therefore adopted resolutions announcing that those present were at all times ready to co-operate with their fellow citizens in Missouri and Iowa to exterminate—utterly exterminate—the Mormon leaders—the authors their troubles. Another mass meeting was held at Carthage at which the Warsaw resolutions were adopted.

The anti-Mormon press teemed with intemperate articles, outrageously false accusations and frantic appeals to the very worst passions of human nature. The citizens of Nauvoo were represented as a horde of lawless ruffians and brigands; anti-American and anti-republican; steeped in crime and iniquity; opposed to freedom of speech and to progress; among whom neither persons nor property were secure. They were accused also of having designs upon the citizens of Illinois and of the United States; and for these things the people were called upon to rise en masse and utterly exterminate them.

While these falsehoods were being extensively circulated through Illinois and the surrounding states, it was the most difficult thing, almost impossible to get a true statement of the case before the country. True accounts of the proceedings of the city council in the Expositor affair were published in the Times and Seasons and also in the Neighbor; but it was impossible to circulate them in Hancock and surrounding counties, as they were destroyed at the post offices. To get them abroad Elder Taylor had to send them a distance of thirty or forty miles from Nauvoo before posting them. In some instances they had to be taken to St. Louis, a distance of two hundred miles, to ensure their reaching their destination.

The systematic circulation of falsehood on the one hand, and the suppression of the truth on the other, resulted in a tremendous storm of indignation against the Saints—especially against the leading Elders—that threatened to overwhelm them.

In the midst of this excitement, complaint was made by Francis M. Higbee, and a warrant issued against the members of the city council for riot in destroying the Expositor press and fixtures. The warrant was issued by Mr. Morrison, a justice of the peace in Carthage, and required the constable, Mr. Bettisworth, to bring the parties named in it before him, "or some other justice of the peace," to be dealt with according to law. When the writ was served on the members of the council they expressed a perfect willingness to submit to an investigation of their proceedings; but as the law of the state made it the privilege of the accused to "appear before the issuer of the writ or any other justice of the peace," they desired to avail themselves of this privilege, and go before some other magistrate than Justice Morrison, alleging as their reason for this that it was unsafe for them to go to Carthage. The constable refused to grant their request, whereupon they sued for a writ of habeas corpus before the municipal court of Nauvoo, and on a hearing of the case they were dismissed.^[2]

This was declared to be resistance to the law, and made use of to further influence the public mind against the Mormons. Mobs were therefore assembled and the work of violence inaugurated by kidnapping, whipping and otherwise abusing the Saints living in out-lying districts of Nauvoo. For protection the people thus abused fled to Nauvoo, and this was heralded abroad as the massing of the Mormon forces.

Governor Ford was kept informed of all that was transpiring in Nauvoo by the city authorities, and in answer to the question, "What course shall we pursue in the event of an armed mob coming against the city," he replied that Joseph Smith was Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion; it was his duty to protect the city and surrounding country, and issued orders to him to that effect. Thus qualified to act, by the Governor of the state, the Legion was called together and measures were taken for the defense of the city: as the mob forces grew bolder every day, Nauvoo was at last placed under martial law.

Footnotes

1. Ford's History of Illinois, p. 246.2. Subsequently, at the instance of Judge Thomas, the circuit judge of the judicial district in which Nauvoo was located, the city council submitted to a new trial, on the same charge, before Squire Wells and were again acquitted.