FLIGHT OF THE MOB—EXCITEMENT OF THE GOVERNOR—ELDER TAYLOR'S SUFFERING—HYPOCRISY—STILL IN DANGER—THE RETURN TO NAUVOO—GRATITUDE—"WITH THE GREATEST OF PROPHETS HE SUFFERED AND BLED."

Immediately after the terrible tragedy was ended, fear seized upon the perpetrators of it, and they precipitately fled. A number of the inhabitants of Carthage gathered about the jail, and some of these went to the head of the stairs to see the work that had been done.

Elder Taylor was brought out of the cell to the landing at the head of the stairs. Through the open door leading into the room that he and his friends had occupied when the assault was made, he had a full view of Hyrum Smith.

"There he lay as I had left him," he writes. "He had not moved a limb; he lay placid and calm, a monument of greatness even in death: but his noble spirit had left its tenement and had gone to dwell in regions more congenial to its exalted nature. Poor Hyrum! he was a great and good man, and my soul was cemented to his. If ever there was an exemplary, honest and virtuous man, an embodiment of all that is noble in the human form, Hyrum Smith was its representative." Such were his thoughts on the character of his friend, even while suffering excruciating pains from his wounds.

Among those who stood about him on the landing was a doctor, and feeling the ball that had lodged in the palm of Elder Taylor's left hand, he took a pen knife, made an incision and then with a pair of carpenter's compasses pried out the half-ounce ball. The alternate sawing with a dull pen knife and prying with the compasses was simply surgical butchery. The doctor afterwards said that Elder Taylor had nerves "like the devil" to stand that operation.

The crowd now urged him to consent to be removed to Hamilton's hotel, where he could be cared for, to which he replied: "I don't know you. Who am I among? I am surrounded by assassins and murderers; witness your deeds! Don't talk to me of kindness and comfort; look at your murdered victims! Look at me! I want none of your counsel nor comfort. There may be some safety here; I can be assured of none anywhere."

They protested that he was safe with them; it was a shame that he and his friends had been treated in the manner they had; they swore by all the oaths known to the damned that they would stand by him to the death. "In half an hour every one of them had fled from the town," says Elder Taylor.

Meantime a coroner's inquest was being held over the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. Robert F. Smith, the justice of the peace who had issued the warrant for the arrest of the murdered men on the charge of treason, who without a hearing had illegally committed them to prison and then in a few hours as unlawfully dragged them out to appear before his court, who was captain of the Carthage Greys and who had helped to murder them, was the coroner! During the investigation the name of Francis Higbee was mentioned as being in the vicinity.

"Captain Smith, you are a justice of the peace—I want to swear my life against that man," said Elder Taylor. Word was immediately sent to Higbee and he left Carthage.

Through the persuasions of Doctor Richards Elder Taylor was at last removed to Hamilton's hotel, though it was difficult to obtain sufficient help to move him, as a great fear fell upon the people and they had fled the place as though a plague had fallen upon it. It was feared that the Mormons being incensed at the murder of Joseph and Hyrum would call out the Legion and take summary vengeance on the people of Carthage. It was only by earnest entreaty that Doctor Richards could prevail upon the Hamiltons to remain.

All the inhabitants of Carthage knew that a terrible outrage had been perpetrated; that the pledged faith of the state had been broken; that the martyrs had voluntarily gone to Carthage and placed themselves in the power of their enemies at a time when they were amply able to protect themselves against the mob thrice told, and against the governor's troops besides. No wonder the people of Carthage expected that the Mormons would take a terrible vengeance.

Doctor Richards was also afraid that he Saints in their just indignation would rise in their wrath and take vengeance into their own hands. He took counsel with Elder Taylor and concluded to send a note to Nauvoo. "Brother Richards, say that I am slightly wounded," said Elder Taylor. And when the note^[1] making the awful announcement of the murder of the prophets to the Saints was brought to him, he signed his name as quickly as possible lest the tremor of his hand should be noticed, and the fears of his family aroused.

This note was entrusted to George D. Grant, who at once started for Nauvoo. He was met within three miles of the city by the governor and his escort, who, on hearing a cannon fired in the direction of Carthage, had immediately left Nauvoo. Governor Ford had gone to Nauvoo that morning, and during the day delivered a speech to the people. In it he had insulted them by assuming that all their enemies had said of them was true. At this, according to his own account of the matter, the people manifested some impatience and anger, as well they might, for baser slanders were never circulated of any community, nor a grosser insult ever offered to one than for the governor to assume, without investigation, that all that had been said against them was true.

The governor compelled George D. Grant to return to Carthage with him, that he might have time to remove the county records from the court house and give the citizens a chance to escape before the people of Nauvoo should learn of the murder; for he, too, expected the Mormons would wreak a terrible vengeance. He reached Carthage about midnight, and having conferred with Dr. Richards, and promising that all things should be inquired into, and telling what few people remained in Carthage to flee for their lives, Governor Ford listened to the voice of his own fears and with his posse fled in the direction of Quincy.

It was morning before Elder Taylor's wounds could be dressed and he made in any way comfortable. The day following, the 29th, his wife Leonora came to him, and also his father and mother, as well as a number of the brethren who had come to render assistance in removing the remains of the martyrs to Nauvoo.

General Demming of the Hancock County militia and also Colonel Jones, treated Elder Taylor with marked courtesy, and seemed solicitous for his welfare. There were also a number of gentlemen from Quincy and other places, among them Judge Ralston, who called to inquire after his welfare. Among them was a doctor who extracted a ball that was giving him great pain from his thigh.

"Will you be tied during the operation, Mr. Taylor?"

"Oh, no; I shall endure the cutting all right," was the reply, and he did.

The ball was buried in the flesh, and flattened against the bone to the size of a 25 cent piece, and the thigh was badly swollen; but the cutting was a relief from the pain he had endured.

During the performance of the operation Sister Taylor retired to another room to pray for him, that he might have strength to endure it and be restored to her and her family. While thus engaged an old Methodist lady of the name of Bedell entered the room and seeing Sister Taylor on her knees, approvingly patted her on the back, saying, "There's a good lady, pray for God to forgive your sins; pray that you may be converted, and the Lord may have mercy on your soul!"

While in that house, where the inmates talked of praying for the forgiveness of sins and for mercy, Sister Taylor had heard the murder of the prophets approved of, at least by the old gentleman Hamilton, father of the one who kept the house, and she expressed her belief that the other branches of the family approved of it.

"These were the associates of the old lady referred to," says Elder Taylor, "and yet she could talk of conversion and saving souls in the midst of blood and murder: such is man and such consistency!"

Some of the brethren had considerable anxiety for the safety of Elder Taylor. They by no means thought him secure from the attack of the mob, some of whom hung about Carthage, and others who began to return there when they saw the Mormons did not rise en masse and destroy their neighbors. A brother of the name of Alexander Williams feared his enemies had some motive in keeping Elder Taylor in Carthage, and one day he remarked to him that he had fifty men at a given point in some woods adjacent, and he would soon raise another fifty and take him to Nauvoo if he would go. Elder Taylor thanked Brother Williams but thought there was no need of his going.

He did seem to be in some danger, however, for the before mentioned Colonel Jones when compelled to be absent from his room would leave a pair of pistols on the table, in case an attack should be made. Some time after his recovery, too, when publishing an account of the assault upon the jail, a lawyer of the name of Backman stated that he prevented the desperado Jackson, before mentioned, from ascending the stairs of the jail and dispatching him while he lay there unable to move. Backman at the time of making the statement expressed his regrets at having prevented the deed. There were others also who said that he ought to be killed; but that it "was too d—d cowardly to shoot a wounded man." "And thus," remarks the Elder, "by the chivalry of murderers, I was prevented from being a second time mutilated or killed."

The motive prompting such a deed, apart from the murderous spirit of the wretches who contemplated it, would be found in the fact that Elder Taylor had been a witness of their damning deed, and it was uncertain how many and whom among them he had recognized. It was important to the mob that such a witness should be silenced.

How many days Elder Taylor remained in Carthage after he was wounded is not certain, but it was not many; from three to five only. The people at Carthage were anxious for him to remain, since they looked upon him as a sort of hostage; and thought his removal would doubtless be the signal for the uprising of the Mormons.

At last Brother Marks, the President of the Nauvoo Stake, Doctor Ellis, a number of brethren on horseback, and James Allred with a wagon, came to Carthage to remove him to Nauvoo. When asked if he could talk, he could but barely whisper, "No;" so weak was he from the loss of blood and the discharge of his wounds. The physicians and people of Carthage protested that it would be his death if he were removed; but his friends were anxious for his removal if possible.

Being unable to ride in a wagon or carriage, a litter was prepared for him, and a number of men living in Carthage, some of whom had been engaged in the mob, assisted in carrying him. Once on the way, word was sent to some of the Saints living along the route, not far from Carthage, to come and meet them. Meantime the men from Carthage made one excuse after another for leaving until all were gone, much to the relief of the wounded man, who expressed himself as glad to get rid of them.

The tramping of those who carried him at last produced violent pain. A sleigh was therefore obtained and hitched to the back of James Allred's wagon. A bed was made on the sleigh, and with Sister Taylor by his side to bathe his wounds with ice-water, the company moved on towards Nauvoo. The sleigh slipped along over the grass of the prairie almost without a jar. Five or six miles from Nauvoo the Saints who had learned of his coming turned out to meet him, and they increased in numbers as the party with the wounded man drew nearer, until soon there were troops of friends about him on every hand.

With what joy the storm-tossed, ship-wrecked sailor enters the port from whence he sailed! How buoyant with delight is the soldier who, after many a hard-fought field, and a thousand dangers past, returns at last, weary and worn perhaps, to his native village! But more grateful, and more joyous than either of these was Elder Taylor to return into the midst of his friends, after passing through the fearful ordeal at Carthage jail.

"Never shall I forget the difference of feeling," he writes, "that I experienced between the place that I had left and the one that I had now arrived at. I had left a lot of reckless, blood-thirsty murderers, and had come to the city of the Saints, the people of the living God; friends of truth and righteousness, all of whom stood there with warm, true hearts to offer their friendship and services, and to welcome my return."

One thing only cast a shadow upon his happiness—the recollection that Joseph and Hyrum were not there—that they were dead!

When Doctor Richards left Carthage with the bodies of the prophets to convey them to Nauvoo, Elder Taylor suggested that he had better take his purse and watch as he feared the people might steal them. At this suggestion the doctor put the purse and watch into one of the owner's pantaloon pockets, then cutting it off tied a string around the top. It was thus returned to him after he reached Nauvoo. On opening the pocket it was found that the crystal to the watch was literally smashed to powder by the ball that had struck it at the time he had felt himself falling from the jail window. Up to that time, however, his being thrown back into the room when he felt himself falling out had been a mystery; but now it was all clear to him. Had he fallen on the outside he would have dropped into the very midst of his enemies and would have been instantly dispatched; but the bullet aimed at his heart was turned by an over-ruling Providence into a messenger of mercy—it saved his life.

"I shall never forget the feelings of gratitude that I then experienced towards my Heavenly Father," he writes in speaking of the discovery of how his life was saved; "the whole scene was vividly portrayed before me, and my heart melted before the Lord. I felt that the Lord had preserved me by a special act of mercy; that my time had not yet come, and that I had still a work to perform upon the earth." The hands of the watch stood at five o'clock, sixteen minutes, and twenty-six seconds, thus marking the moment when its possessor stood between time and eternity.

The trying ordeal through which he had passed with the martyrs, his devotion and faithfulness to them in those fearful scenes in the jail, his undaunted courage, the cruel wounds he himself had received, and the patience with which he endured his suffering—all bound Elder Taylor in still stronger bands of affection to the Saints in Nauvoo and throughout the world.

Shortly after his return to Nauvoo, Eliza R. Snow addressed the following lines to him:

Thou chieftain of Zion, henceforward thy name
Will be classed with the martyrs, and share in their fame;
Thro' ages eternal, of thee 'twill be said,
With the greatest of prophets he suffered and bled.

When the shafts of injustice were pointed at him,
When the cup of his suff'ring was fill'd to the brim,
When his innocent blood was inhumanly shed,
You shar'd his afflictions and with him you bled.

When around you like hailstones, the rifle balls flew,
When the passage of death opened wide to your view,
When the prophet's free'd spirit thro' martyrdom fled,
In your gore you lay welt'ring—with martyrs you bled.

All the scars from your wounds, like the trophies of yore,
Shall be ensigns of HONOR, till you are no more;
And by all generations of thee shall be said,
With the best of the prophets, in prison, he bled.

Footnotes

1. Following is a copy of it:

CARTHAGE JAIL,

8 o'clock 5 min. p. m., June 27, 1844.

Joseph and Hyrum are dead. Taylor wounded, not very badly. I am well. Our guard was forced, as we believe, by a band of Missourians from 100 to 200. The job was done in an instant, and the party fled towards Nauvoo instantly. This is as I believe it. The citizens here are afraid of the Mormons attacking them; I promise them no.

W. RICHARDS.

N. B. The citizens promise us protection. Alarm guns have been fired.

JOHN TAYLOR.