  THE MARTYRDOM. The next morning—the 25th of June—the city authorities of Nauvoo and some persons who had assisted the marshal to remove the Expositor press, appeared before Robert F. Smith, a justice of the peace, to answer again to the charge of riot. Owing to the excitement prevailing, the aforesaid parties consented to be bound over to appear before the circuit court at its next session; and became security for each other in $500 bonds each. No sooner was this matter thus disposed of than one Henry O. Norton and Augustine Spencer—two worthless scoundrels whose words were utterly unreliable, went before the justice of the peace who had just dismissed the brethren, and charged Joseph and Hyrum Smith with having committed the crime of treason. The warrant for their arrest was placed in the hands of Constable Bettisworth, an over-bearing, insolent officer. He went to the Hamilton House, where the Messrs. Smith and their friends were staying: he arrested them and was for dragging them off to jail. They demanded to see the mittimus committing them to prison, a request which at first was denied, but finally the instrument was produced. Carthage Jail CARTHAGE JAIL It recited that the parties under arrest had been before the justice for trial, but that said trial had been necessarily postponed because of the absence of material witnesses. That was an infamously false statement, unless the accused could have appeared before the justice without being present in person or by counsel. It afforded Constable Bettisworth an excuse, however, to drag these men off to jail, and this he was determined to do, their vigorous protest to the contrary notwithstanding. Seeing his friends thus illegally and brutally dealt with aroused the righteous indignation of Elder Taylor. He sought out the governor, informed him of what was going on, and the character of the men who had made the charge. The governor regretted that the thing had occurred, he did not believe the charges, but thought the best thing to do was to let the law take its course. All this was unsatisfactory to Elder Taylor. He reminded the governor that they had all come to Carthage at his instance, not to satisfy the law, for that had no claim upon them; but to manifest a willingness to meet their action in relation to the Expositor affair; that at his suggestion they had given bonds to appear before the circuit court; that they had come without arms at his request, and relied upon him to shield them from insult; that after his solemn pledge to Doctor Bernhisel and himself he thought they had a right to expect protection from him: but if in his very presence they were to be subject to mob rule, and, contrary to law, be dragged into prison at the instance of every infernal scoundrel whose oath could be bought for a dram of whiskey, his protection did not amount to much and they had miscalculated his promises. Leaving the presence of the governor he hurried back to his friends. A great rabble, a mixture of soldiers and citizens and partly under the influence of liquor, had gathered in the street about the hotel, and rowdyism and excitement were running high. Fearing a design was on foot to kill the prisoners on the way to the jail, Elder Taylor hailed a soldier and said: "I am afraid there is a design against the lives of the Messrs. Smith; will you go immediately and bring your captain, and if not convenient, any other captain of a company, and I will pay you well for your trouble." The man departed and soon returned with his captain, who, when Elder Taylor told him of his fears, went after his company and brought them up just as the constable was hurrying off his victims to jail; this company of militia guarded them to the prison. The next day—the 26th of June—there was a long interview between Governor Ford and the Prophet, at which Elder Taylor was present. All the difficulties that had arisen were related by the Prophet and the action of himself and associates explained and defended. In concluding that conversation the Prophet said: "Governor Ford, I ask nothing but what is legal; I have a right to expect protection, at least from you; for independent of law, you have pledged your faith and that of the state for my protection, and I wish to go to Nauvoo." "And you shall have protection, General Smith," replied the governor. "I did not make this promise without consulting my officers, who all pledged their honor to its fulfillment. I do not know that I shall go tomorrow to Nauvoo, but if I do, I will take you along." In the afternoon of the same day Joseph and Hyrum were as illegally dragged out of prison as they had been unlawfully thrust into it; for the justice having committed them to prison, "there to remain until discharged by due process of law," had no more power over them. But notwithstanding this fact, he ordered the constable to bring them from jail into his court; and when the prisoners refused to go at the bidding of this autocratic justice, the constable, under instructions from the magistrate, called to his assistance a detachment of the Carthage Greys under Frank Worrell, and again presented himself at the jail, and in spite of the protests of the prisoners and the jailer, they forced them to go before Justice Smith. On arraignment before the justice, counsel for the accused asked for a continuation until the next day to procure witnesses. This was granted; a new mittimus was made out and they were again committed to prison. After the departure of the accused, and without consulting them or their counsel, the time for the hearing of the case was further postponed until the 29th. The following day—the ever-memorable 27th of June—the governor broke the promise he had made to Joseph Smith the day previous, viz.: that if he went to Nauvoo he would take him along. He disbanded the mob militia except a small company he detailed to accompany him to Nauvoo, and the Carthage Greys, a company of the very worst enemies the Smiths and their friends had—these he left to guard the prisoners! The mob-militia, after receiving their discharge, before leaving the public square in Carthage, publicly boasted that they would only go a short distance from town, and after the governor left they would return and kill the Smiths and their friends if they had "to tear down the jail to do it." Captain Dan Jones, one of the brethren, heard this threat and informed the governor of it. The only answer he received was that he was too anxious for the safety of his friends. Later in the day Captain Jones was dispatched to Hon. O.H. Browning, a prominent lawyer of Quincy, to secure his professional services in the pending trial. Cyrus Wheelock left for Nauvoo a little after noon to obtain witnesses. Before going he left a six-shooting revolver belonging to Elder Taylor with the Prophet. Stephen Markham being seen on the street was captured, put on his horse and compelled to leave town at the point of the bayonet. The departure of these brethren left only John Taylor and Willard Richards with the Prophet and his brother Hyrum. The afternoon drew its slow length along. The four friends carried on a desultory conversation, in which Elder Richards remarked: "Brother Joseph, if it is necessary that you die in this matter, and if they will take me in your stead, I will suffer for you." Other thoughts were passing through the mind of Elder Taylor. He regarded the whole thing as an outrage on their liberties and rights; and the mob proceedings under the forms of law a legal farce. As he contemplated these acts of injustice he broke out with—"Brother Joseph, if you will permit it, and say the word, I will have you out of this prison in five hours, if the jail has to come down to do it." His idea was to go to Nauvoo, collect a sufficient force of the brethren to liberate his friends. Joseph refused to sanction such a course. The four friends were sitting in a large, square room in the prison, usually occupied by men imprisoned for the lighter offenses. The afternoon was warm and the spirits of the brethren extremely dull and depressed—did the shadow of their impending fate begin to fall upon them? Elder Taylor sang the following song, which had recently been introduced into Nauvoo. The tune is the one to which he sang it on that melancholy occasion: A poor, wayfaring man of grief Hath often crossed me on my way; Who sued so humbly for relief, That I could never answer "Nay." I had not power to ask his name, Whither he went, or whence he came; Yet there was something in his eye That won my love, I knew not why.
Shortly Hyrum asked him to sing the song again, to which he replied: "Brother Hyrum, I do not feel like singing." "Oh, never mind; commence singing and you will get the spirit of it." Soon after finishing the song the second time, as he was sitting at one of the front windows of the jail, he saw a number of men, with painted faces, rushing round the corner towards the stairs. The brethren must have seen this mob simultaneously, for as Elder Taylor started for the door to secure it, he found Hyrum Smith and Doctor Richards leaning against it to prevent its being opened, as the lock and latch were of little use. The mob reaching the landing in front of the door, and thinking it was locked, fired a shot through the key hole. Hyrum and Doctor Richards sprang back, when instantly another ball crashed through the panel of the door and struck Hyrum in the face; at the same instant a ball from the window facing the public square where the main body of the Carthage Greys was stationed, entered his back, and he fell exclaiming, "I am a dead man!" With an expression of deep sympathy in his face, Joseph bent over the prostrate body of the murdered man and exclaimed, "Oh! my poor, dear brother Hyrum!" Then instantly rising to his feet he drew the pistol Cyrus Wheelock had left, and with a quick, firm step, and a determined expression in his face he advanced to the door and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the loads, however, were discharged.[ While Joseph was firing the pistol Elder Taylor stood close behind him, and as soon as he discharged it and stepped back, Elder Taylor took his place next the door, and with a heavy walking stick—left there by Brother Markham—parried the guns as they were thrust through the doorway and discharged. The firing from within made the mob pause, but it was only for an instant, and then the attack was more furious than ever. The scene was terrible! Streams of fire as thick as a man's arm belched forth from the ever increasing number of guns in the door-way, yet calm, energetic and determined, Elder Taylor beat down the muzzles of those murderous guns. "That's right, Brother Taylor, parry them off as well as you can," said Joseph, as he stood behind him. Those were the last words he heard the Prophet speak on earth in the flesh. Meantime the crowd on the landing grew more dense and were forced to the door by the pressure of those below crowding their way up the stairs. The guns of the assailants were pushed further and further into the room—the firing was more rapid and accompanied with demoniac yells and horrid oaths and execrations. Certain that they would be overpowered in a moment if he remained longer at the door, and thinking that they might have some friends outside, Elder Taylor sprang for the open window directly in front of the prison door, and also exposed to the fire of the Carthage Greys from the public square. As he was in the act of leaping from the window, a ball fired from the door-way struck him about midway of his left thigh. He fell helpless on the window sill and would have dropped on the outside of the jail—when another shot from the outside, striking the watch in his vest pocket, threw him back into the room. As soon as he struck the floor his animation returned, and, in order to avoid the range of fire from the door way, he drew himself as rapidly as possible in his crippled condition under the bedstead that stood near the window. While on his way three other bullets struck him; one a little below the left knee—it was never extracted; another tore away the flesh to the size of a man's hand from his left hip and spattered the wall with blood and the mangled fragments; another entered the forepart of his left arm, a little above the wrist, and, passing down by the joint, lodged in the palm of his left hand. As he laid there weltering in his blood, he heard the mob at the door shout: "He has leaped from the window!" There was a cessation of the firing, and a general rush down stairs. At the same instant Dr. Richards crossed the room and looked out of the window. It would seem that the Prophet Joseph also attempted to leap from the window, but on reaching it he was instantly shot and fell to the ground by the side of an old well-curb. It was this that gave rise to the cry, "He has leaped from the window!" which attracted the attention of Elder Taylor. Brother Richards remained but a moment at the window; and then started for the inner prison, the door of which opened on the landing in front of the door to the room the brethren had occupied. As he passed him Elder Taylor said: "Stop, doctor, and take me along." Ascertaining that the iron door to the criminals' cell was open, he returned and dragged his wounded companion into it. Inside the cell he exclaimed: "Oh! Brother Taylor, is it possible that they have killed Brothers Joseph and Hyrum? It cannot surely be, and yet I saw them shoot them! Oh Lord, my God, spare Thy servants!" he exclaimed several times, raising his hands to heaven with each exclamation. "Brother Taylor, this is a terrible event," he went on; and then dragged him still further into the cell. Taking up an old filthy mattress he threw it over the wounded man saying: "I am sorry I cannot do better for you; but that may hide you, and you may yet live to tell the tale, but I expect they will kill me in a few moments." The doctor then went out to learn for certain the fate which had befallen the Prophet. While he was gone Elder Taylor suffered the most excruciating pain. Dr. Richards returned in a few minutes, and confirmed his worst fears—the Prophet was dead! "I felt," says Elder Taylor, "a dull, lonely, sickening sensation at the news." "When I reflected that our noble chieftain, the Prophet of the living God, had fallen, and that I had seen his brother in the cold embrace of death, it seemed as though there was a void or vacuum in the great field of human existence to me, and a dark, gloomy chasm in the kingdom, and that we were left alone. Oh, how lonely was that feeling! How cold, barren and desolate! In the midst of difficulties he was always the first in motion; in critical positions his counsel was always sought. As our Prophet he approached our God, and obtained for us His will; but now our Prophet, our counselor, our general, our leader was gone, and amid the fiery ordeal that we then had to pass through, we were left alone without his aid, and as our future guide for things spiritual or temporal, and for all things pertaining to this world or the next, he had spoken for the last time on earth!" SCENE IN CARTHAGE JAIL SCENE IN CARTHAGE JAIL "These reflections and a thousand others flashed upon my mind. I thought, Why must the good perish, and the virtuous be destroyed? Why must God's nobility, the salt of the earth, the most exalted of the human family, and the most perfect types of all excellence, fall victims to the cruel, fiendish hate of incarnate devils?" Ah, why? Footnotes |
|
