MOBS DRIVE THE SETTLERS INTO FAR WEST—HEROIC DEATH OF APOSTLE PATTEN—TREACHERY OF COL. HINKLE, AND FALL OF THE MORMON CAPITAL—FAMOUS SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CLARK.

But the iliad of Mormondom was now in Far West.

Haun's Mill massacre was merely a tragic episode; a huge tragedy in itself, it is true, such as civilized times scarcely ever present, yet merely an episode of this strange religious iliad of America and the nineteenth century.

The capital of Mormondom was now the city of Far West, in Missouri.

There was Joseph the prophet. There was Brigham Young—his St. Peter—who by this time fairly held the keys of the latter-day kingdom. There were the apostles. There were two armies marshaled—the army of the Lord and the army of Satan. And these were veritable hosts, of flesh and blood, equipped and marshaled in a religious crusade—not merely spiritual powers contending.

"On the 4th of July, 1838," writes Apostle Parley Pratt, "thousands of the citizens who belonged to the church of the saints assembled at the city of Far West, the county seat of Caldwell, in order to celebrate our nation's birth.

"We erected a tall standard, on which was hoisted our national colors, the stars and stripes, and the bold eagle of American liberty. Under its waving folds we laid the corner-stone of a temple of God, and dedicated the land and ourselves and families to him who had preserved us in all our troubles.

"An address was then delivered by Sidney Rigdon, in which was portrayed in lively colors the oppression which we had suffered at the hands of our enemies.

"We then and there declared our constitutional rights as American citizens, and manifested our determination to resist, with our utmost endeavors, from that time forth, all oppression, and to maintain our rights and freedom, according to the holy principles of liberty as guaranteed to every person by the constitution and laws of our country.

"This declaration was received with shouts of hosanna to God and the Lamb, and with many long cheers by the assembled thousands, who were determined to yield their rights no more unless compelled by superior power."

Very proper, too were such resolutions of these sons and daughters of sires and mothers who were among the pilgrim founders of this nation, and among the heroes and heroines of the Revolution.

But Missouri could not endure this temple-building to the God of Israel, nor these mighty shouts of hosanna to his name; while the all-prevailing faith of the sisters brought more of the angels down from the New Jerusalem than earth just then was prepared to receive. In popular words, this formidable gathering of a modern Israel and this city building within its borders loomed up to Missouri as the rising of a Mormon empire.

Soon the State was alive with mobs determined on the extermination of the saints; soon those mobs numbered ten thousand armed men; soon also were they converted into a State army, officered by generals and major-generals, with the governor as the commander-in-chief of a boldly avowed religious crusade, with rival priests as its "inspiring demons."

One feature, all worthy of note, in this Hebraic drama of Mormondom, is that while modern Israel was ever in the action inspired by archangels of the new covenant, the anti-Mormon crusade was as constantly inspired by sectarian priests at war with a dispensation of angels.

Even the mobber, Captain Comstock, who was bold enough to perpetrate a Haun's Mill massacre, was in consternation over the magic prayers of a few stricken women who honored the God of Israel in the hour of direst calamity.

Thus throughout Missouri. And so the exterminating order of Governor Boggs prevailed like the edict of a second Nebuchadnezzar.

There was a Mormon war in the State. So it was styled.

Mobs were abroad, painted like Indian warriors, committing murder, robbery, burning the homesteads of the saints, and spreading desolation.

Next, one thousand men were ordered into service by the Governor, under the command of Major-General Atchison and Brigadier-Generals Park and Doniphan.

This force marched against the saints in several counties. A Presbyterian priest, Rev. Sashel Woods, was its chaplain. He said prayers in the camp, morning and evening. 'Twas a godly service in an ungodly crusade, but the Rev. Sashel Woods was equal to it. The Philistines drove modern Israel before them, and their priest prayed Jehovah out of countenance.

In Far West a thousand men of our Mormon Israel flew to arms, and in Davies county several hundred men assembled for defence. Colonel David Patten, an apostle, with his company put to flight some of the mob; but the crusaders in general drove the saints from settlement after settlement.

Hundreds of men, women and children fled from their homes to the cities and strongholds of their people. From Davies county and the frontiers of Caldwell the refugees daily poured into the city of Far West. Lands and crops were abandoned to the enemy. The citizens in the capital of the saints were constantly under arms. Men slept in their clothes, with arms by their side, ready to muster at a given signal at any hour of the night.

A company under Colonel Patten went out to meet the enemy across the prairies, a distance of twelve miles, to stop the murder and spoliation of a settlement of their people. Parley Pratt was one of the posse.

"The night was dark," he says; "the distant plains far and wide were illuminated by blazing fires; immense columns of smoke were seen rising in awful majesty, as if the world was on fire. This scene, added to the silence of midnight, the rumbling sound of the tramping steeds over the hard and dried surface of the plain, the clanking of swords in their scabbards, the occasional gleam of bright armor in the flickering firelight, the gloom of surrounding darkness, and the unknown destiny of the expedition, or even of the people who sent it forth, all combined to impress the mind with deep and solemn thoughts."

At dawn of day they met the enemy in ambush in the wilderness. The enemy opened fire, mortally wounding a brother named O'Banyon. Soon the brethren charged the enemy in his camp; several fell upon both sides, among whom was the brave apostle, David Patten; but the foemen flung themselves into a stream and escaped on the opposite shore, while the wilderness resounded with the watchword of the heroes, "God and Liberty:"

Six of the brethren were wounded, and one left dead on the ground.

The heroes returned to Far West. Among those who came out to meet them was the wife of the dying apostle, Patten.

"O God! O my husband!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears.

The wounds were dressed. David was still able to speak, but he died that evening in the triumphs of faith.

"I had rather die," he said, "than live to see it thus in my country!"

The young O'Banyon also died about the same time. They were buried together under military honors; a whole people in tears followed them to their grave.

David Patten was the first of the modern apostles who found a martyr's grave. He is said to have been a great and good man, who chose to lay down his life for the cause of truth and right.

Not long now ere Governor Boggs found the opportunity for the grand expulsion of the entire Mormon community—from twelve to fifteen thousand souls. He issued an order for some ten thousand troops to be mustered into service and marched to the field against the Mormons, giving the command to General Clark. His order was expressly to exterminate the Mormons, or drive them from the State.

The army of extermination marched upon the city of Far West.

The little Mormon host, about five hundred strong, marched out upon the plains on the south of the city, and formed in order of battle. Its line of infantry extended near half a mile; a small company of horse was posted on the right wing on a commanding eminence, and another in the rear of the main body extended as a reserve.

The army of extermination halted and formed along the borders of a stream called Goose Creek; and both sides sent out white flags, which met between the armies.

"We want three persons out of the city before we massacre the rest!" was the voice of the white flag from the governor's army.

Small need this, for the flag of mercy! But it was as good as the mercy of Haun's Mill, which was given on the very same day.

That night Major-General Lucas encamped near the city. The brethren continued under arms, and spent the night throwing up temporary breastworks. They were determined to defend their homes, wives and children to the last. Both armies were considerably reinforced during the night, the army of extermination being reinforced with the monsters from the Haun's Mill massacre.

But the prophet and brethren were on the next day betrayed by the traitor Colonel George M. Hinkle, who was in command of the defence of Far West.

Joseph was now a prisoner of war; Parley and others were prisoners also; Brigham was at Far West, but even he could not save the prophet and the saints from this formidable army, nor lessen the blow which a traitor had dealt. The treachery of Colonel Hinkle had, however, perhaps saved the lives of hundreds of women and children, and prevented brave men from fighting in a just cause.

It was November, now, and Major-General Clark was also at Far West with his army of extermination. No book of the persecutions could be properly written without his speech to the Mormons, especially a book of the sisters, whom it so much concerned:

"GENTLEMEN: You, whose names are not on this list, will now have the privilege of going to your fields to obtain grain for your families—wood, etc. Those that compose the list will go hence to prison, to be tried, and receive the due demerits of their crimes. But you are now at liberty, all but such as charges may hereafter be preferred against. It now devolves upon you to fulfill the treaty that you have entered into—the leading items of which I now lay before you.

"The first of these items you have already complied with—which is, that you deliver up your leading men to be tried according to law. Second, that you deliver up your arms—this has been attended to. The third is, that you sign over your property to defray the expenses of the war; this you have also done. Another thing yet remains for you to comply with; that is: that you leave the State forthwith; and, whatever your feeling concerning this affair, whatever your innocence, it is nothing to me. General Lucas, who is equal in authority with me, has made this treaty with you. I am determined to see it executed.

"The orders of the Governor to me, were, that you should be exterminated, and not allowed to remain in the State. And had your leaders not been given up, and the treaty complied with, before this you and your families would have been destroyed and your houses in ashes.

"There is a discretionary power resting in my hands, which I shall try to exercise for a season. I did not say that you must go now, but you must not think of stopping here another season, or of putting in crops; for the moment you do, the citizens will be upon you. I am determined to see the Governor's orders fulfilled, but shall not come upon you immediately. Do not think that I shall act as I have done any more; but if I have to come again because the treaty which you have made is not complied with, you need not expect any mercy, but extermination; for I am determined that the Governor's order shall be executed.

"As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter your minds that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed, their die is cast, their doom is sealed.

"I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so great a number of apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are. And, oh! that I could invoke the spirit of the unknown God to rest upon you, and deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound. I would advise you to scatter abroad and never again organize with bishops, presidents, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people, and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you.

"You have always been the aggressors; you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties by being disaffected, and not being subject to rule; and my advice is, that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves inevitable ruin."