1843.
A BLOODY WAR PREDICTED--THE PROPHET'S INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN A.
DOUGLAS--A PROPHECY--THE CELESTIAL ORDER OF MARRIAGE--JOSEPH KIDNAPPED
AND ABUSED--HE ENTERTAINS THE MEN WHO SOUGHT TO TAKE HIS LIFE.
When Judge Pope declared that Joseph was a free man again after the
trial at Springfield, on the fifth of January, 1843, a few months of
peace followed his long hiding. It was a happy, busy time for the
Prophet--a time when many prophecies were uttered by him and much
precious truth given to the Saints. In the early part of this year
there was a great stir made about the prophecy of a man named Miller
who said that Jesus and the day of judgment were to come on April 3rd.
A committee of young men came from New York to see Joseph about this,
and he said positively that the Lord would not come in the year 1843 to
reign in this world. At a later time in a conference, he declared to
the Saints that Jesus would not come before he, Joseph, was eighty-five
years old.
Orrin P. Rockwell was captured by the Missourians and thrown into
prison in the month of March, and when the Prophet heard it, he
prophesied in the most positive terms that Brother Rockwell would get
away honorably from his captors.
One night about the same time Joseph, Wilford Woodruff and Willard
Richards saw a great streak of light in the sky in the shape of a sword
with the hilt downward. The Prophet told them that as sure as God sits
on a throne in heaven, so sure would there be a bloody war, and the
flaming sword was a certain sign thereof. A short time after this he
repeated the prophecy that the bloodshed should begin in South Carolina.
On the eighteenth of May, Joseph passed through Quincy, and on the
invitation of Stephen A. Douglas, stopped and dined with him. Judge
Douglas asked for an account of the Missouri persecutions, and when
Joseph finished it, Douglas spoke in the strongest terms against Boggs
and the other officials and said that they should be punished. After
dinner Joseph said to his host:
Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States, and
if you ever turn your hand against the Latter-day Saints, you will
feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon you; and you will
live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you, for
the conversation of this day will be with you through life.
The prophecy was fulfilled. Douglas did turn his hand against the
Latter-day Saints, in the hope of winning favor thereby, and when he
ran for president against Abraham Lincoln in the fall of 1860, he was
defeated, and soon after died.
A great trial came to the Prophet in the latter part of his life and a
very severe test was made of his willingness to obey the word of God
unto him. The Lord revealed that He wished his faithful servants to
take more than one wife, as did the patriarchs and righteous men of
old. This was so new and strange a practice that the Prophet hesitated
and did not at once obey. He put it off from time to time until at
length an angel of God appeared before him with a drawn sword, and said
that unless he obeyed the command to teach this doctrine and establish
it his priesthood would be taken from him and he would be destroyed.
Of course two warnings of this kind were not needed, and Joseph at once
began to teach Hyrum and other faithful, true men the will of the Lord.
He told Emma, his wife, but at first she looked at it as he had done.
After a struggle she consented that her husband take other wives and
she herself gave them unto him. Even then Joseph did not think it wise
to make the revelation public, and not until the twelfth day of July
was it written down. Just one month later it was read before the High
Council at Nauvoo, by Hyrum Smith. In speaking on the principle Hyrum
declared that those who accepted it would be blessed with the Spirit
of God and the confidence of the Saints, while those who rejected it
should lose their faith and power, and this proved true.
The Prophet was not engaged entirely in spiritual matters during the
first half of 1843. He had been elected mayor of Nauvoo, and gave much
attention to his various duties. He was full of life and vigor and kept
up his athletic practices. It was during this time that he met William
Wall, a champion wrestler of Ramus, Illinois, and had a friendly bout
with him. It must have been a fine thing to see those two powerful men
struggling with all the skill they had for the mastery, but Wall had
met a match and Joseph came off victor.
In the month of June a plot was laid for Bennett, the apostate, and
Samuel Owens, the old leader of the Jackson county mobs, to bring
Joseph back to Missouri. They worked upon Governors Reynolds and Ford;
and two men, Sheriff Reynolds of Jackson county and Sheriff Wilson of
Hancock county, were sent to capture him. The Prophet was visiting near
Dixon, about one hundred and fifty miles from Nauvoo, when the two
officers, disguised as Mormon missionaries, came to the house where
he was staying and said, "We want to see Brother Joseph." As soon as
he came to the door they drew their pistols and threatened, with many
curses, to kill him. He told them to shoot, he was not afraid to die,
but he demanded that they show some writ on which they made the arrest.
They had no writ to show, but they struck him with their pistols,
dragged him to the wagon and tried to drive away. Stephen Markham,
however, held the horses although the officers swore they would shoot
him, until Emma brought Joseph's coat and hat. It was eight miles to
Dixon, and on the way these bad men kept striking him and punching him
in the sides with their pistols. When they reached the tavern, where
they changed horses, the Prophet was almost fainting. A great spot on
each side was black and blue from their blows.
Brother Markham had followed the kidnappers on horseback to Dixon,
and before they could get away, he told the story of the outrage
and secured a lawyer. The brutal officers were arrested and placed
in charge of Sheriff Campbell and Joseph was given a writ of habeas
corpus, which permitted him to have a hearing before the circuit court
at Ottowa.
Next day Joseph, in the hands of Reynolds and Wilson, and they in the
hands of Sheriff Campbell, started out. They stopped at night at Papaw
grove, where the Prophet was asked to preach. Reynolds jumped up and
yelled that the people must disperse, but an old man with a thick cane
walked up and said to the Missourian:
"You damned infernal puke, we'll learn you to come here and interrupt
our gentlemen. Sit down there, and sit still. Don't you open your head
until General Smith gets through talking. If you never learned manners
in Missouri, we'll teach you that gentlemen are not to be imposed upon
by a nigger-driver. You cannot kidnap men here."
Reynolds knew that he would be lynched if he did not behave, and he
sat down very quietly. The Prophet spoke for an hour and a half on
marriage, the subject called for by the audience.
Judge Caton of the circuit court was found to be in New York. A new
writ was made out and the party started for Quincy to have the trial
before Judge Douglas. Stephen Markham rode quickly on horseback toward
Nauvoo, but on the way met one hundred and seventy-five men, who,
hearing that the Prophet was being kidnapped, had come to rescue him.
When they met him some of them burst into tears and threw their arms
about him. Joseph said to Reynolds and Wilson, "I think I will not go
to Missouri this time, gentlemen, these are my boys." The two sheriffs
were frightened nearly to death, thinking they were going to be
punished at once, and Reynolds asked, "Is Jem Flack in the crowd?" Some
one answered that the Missourian would see him the next day. With a
doleful look Reynolds whined, "Then I am a dead man, for I know him of
old." The Prophet, however, gave the officers his pledge that no harm
should be done them.
It was decided by Joseph's lawyers and the others that the trial might
be held at Nauvoo instead of Quincy and this was very pleasing to the
Prophet. Reynolds and Wilson, however, kept plotting to get Joseph into
the hands of his enemies. They wished to take him to the mouth of Rock
river, which flowed into the Mississippi, where a band of their friends
were waiting to help them, but Sheriff Campbell, who had them under
arrest, took away their arms and kept them from again running away with
the Prophet.
Before they reached Nauvoo one of the lawyers for the kidnappers
challenged any of the party to wrestle at side-hold for a wager.
Stephen Markham offered to wrestle him for fun and the lawyer threw
him. Joseph's enemies, lacking the spirit of true sport, began making
fun of Brother Markham and his friends. The Prophet turned to Philemon
C. Merrill, a young man, and said, "Get up and throw that man."
Brother Merrill was not a side-hold wrestler and he hesitated, but
Joseph again commanded him in such a tone that the young man waited to
offer no excuse. He stood up, held up his arms and told the lawyer to
choose his hold. He did not object when his opponent put his right arm
under. The Prophet said: "Philemon, when I count three, throw him." As
soon as the signal was given, Brother Merrill swung the lawyer over his
shoulder and threw him, head downward, to the ground. All who saw the
act were filled with awe.
At Nauvoo all was gladness at the Prophet's safe return. Hyrum took
his brother in his arms and wept for joy. A feast was prepared at the
Prophet's house and Reynolds and Wilson with about fifty others sat
down at the table. Emma entertained these men who had tried to kidnap
and murder her husband, as if they were guests of honor, but so brutal
had they become that when they left Nauvoo they went to Carthage and
tried to raise the militia to come upon the city of the Saints. This
Governor Ford was wise enough to refuse. Joseph was set free by the
court at Nauvoo, and for a time his troubles were at an end.