The first one, in our opinion, is unique. They accepted and

recommended to the people of the surrounding counties to accept an

unconditional proposition to remove. But understand, Mr. Mormon,

though we accept it and recommend the surrounding counties to do

so, likewise, (reprobate you, unconditionally) we do not intend to

bring ourselves under any obligation to purchase your property,

or to furnish purchasers; but we will be very kind and obliging,

and will in no way, hinder or obstruct you in your efforts to

sell, provided, nevertheless, this shall not be so construed as to

prevent us from running off the purchaser. But we expect this small

favor of you, viz., that you must dispose of your property, and

leave at the appointed time. [5]

This mass meeting closed its business by arranging a plan for adopting

a preliminary military organization for prompt future action, if

occasion should demand.

On the first and second of October an anti-Mormon convention assembled

at Carthage, in which nine counties, those immediately surrounding

Hancock, were represented. A committee on evidence, was appointed, on

which Archibald Williams, one of the Saints' bitterest enemies, was

chairman. It was its business to collect evidence in relation to the

depredations of the Mormons. The chairman made a report to which were

appended a number of affidavits, charging various crimes on the people

of Nauvoo. It is needless to say that the whole thing was an _ex patre_

affair, and sustained by the men who had assisted in the murder of

Joseph and Hyrum Smith; and it was upon their evidence the convention

acted.

The convention adopted the course followed by the mass meeting at

Quincy--that is, it agreed to accept the propositions of The Church

authorities, to remove, in the same spirit they were received at

Quincy, and proceeded to prepare a preliminary military organization

to act with promptitude, provided the Saints did not remove. The

convention also,

_Resolved_, that it is expected as an indispensable condition to

the pacification of the county, that the old citizens be permitted

to return to their homes unmolested by the present sheriff

(Backenstos,) and the Mormons, for anything alleged against them;

any attempt on their part to arrest or prosecute such persons for

pretended offenses, will inevitably lead to a renewal of the late

disorder.

O. H. Browning moved the following:

_Resolved_, that the Hon. W. N. Purple, judge of this judicial

circuit court be requested not to hold a court in Hancock County

this fall; as, in the opinion of this convention, such court could

not be holden without producing a collision between the Mormons and

anti-Mormons, and renewing the excitement and disturbances which

have recently affected said county.

And thus those guilty of mob violence and house burning were to be

protected by the Carthage convention from prosecution before the

courts; and those who might have the temerity to prosecute them and

vindicate the law, were threatened by a renewal of that same lawless

violence! Where, then, proud State of Illinois, was your majesty! Your

honor! Can you answer? If you, out of very shame, cannot look up and

reply, history answers for you, and tells you it was trailed in the

dust, under the very feet of as vile a set of traitors as ever brought

shame to their country! And where was your virtuous populace, the true

watch and guard of a State's honor? Alas, they were blinded by the

falsehoods prompted by malice and envy, and started on foot to shield

the guilty murderers of innocence, or quelled by the bold front of a

traitorous but successful mob.

In the meantime every exertion was made by the citizens of Nauvoo, to

be ready for the great exodus in the spring. The temple had been so far

completed that a conference was held in it on the sixth of October, and

committees appointed to negotiate the sale of property and attend to

other branches of business.

Nauvoo presented a busy scene in those days. Men were hurrying to and

fro collecting wagons and putting them in repair; the roar of the

smith's forge was well nigh perpetual, and even the stillness of night

was broken by the steady beating of the sledge and the merry ringing

of the anvil. Committees were seeking purchasers of real estate and

converting both that and personal property into anything that would be

of service to those just about to plunge into an unknown and boundless

wilderness.

But while these efforts were being put forth on the part of the

people of Nauvoo, to fulfill their agreement with the mob forces,

the conditions of removal on the part of the old settlers were

frequently violated; and instances of mob violence were almost every

day occurrences. The people, who were making preparations to leave the

farms, gardens and homes they had redeemed from the wilderness, were

constantly threatened with destruction by the hostile demonstrations of

their heartless neighbors.

To give an earnest of the intentions of the Mormons to leave the State

where they had suffered so much, and to thereby remove all occasion

for the implacable wrath of their enemies, that was so impatient that

it could not wait for the springtime to come, for the sacrifice of

its victims, the Twelve and the High Council, with about four hundred

families, crossed the Mississippi on the ice, on the eleventh of

February, 1846, and were soon lost to view in the wilderness of Iowa.

Others continued to follow as fast as they could make ready, until by

the latter part of April, the great body of The Church at Nauvoo had

gone.

But now, purchasers for their property failed those who remained.

The people surrounding Nauvoo saw no need of purchasing that which

inevitably must become theirs. The result was that it became impossible

for this remnant, consisting for the most part, of the destitute, the

aged, infirm and sick, to remove. And surely a people who had still any

faith left in humanity, would be justified in the belief that these

could remain until an asylum was found for them by their friends, who

had already gone in search of new homes. But in this, be it said, to

the shame of Illinois, they were deceived. In the hardened hearts of

their enemies, however, there was no mercy, even for the helpless; no

pity for the sick or destitute. In their enemies' veins the milk of

human kindness had dried up.

During the preparations for the exodus, Major Warren had been stationed

with a small military force in Hancock, to keep the peace; but about

the middle of April he received orders to disband his force on the

first of May, as that was adjudged by "the public expectation," to use

a phrase of Major Warren's, when the last of the Mormons should have

left the State. So soon as it was understood that there were still

left in Nauvoo a number of Mormons who would likely remain through

the summer to continue their efforts to dispose of property, an

uproar was raised in the surrounding counties, meetings were held and

resolutions adopted, demanding that they leave at once, under threats

of extermination. When the governor saw this new furore breaking out,

he countermanded the order for Major Warren to disband his forces, and

commanded him to hold his position and to preserve the peace until he

received further orders.

The new impetus given to mob violence, however, was not to spend its

force without perpetrating some outrage, and a number of cowardly

attacks were made upon Mormons. On the eleventh of May, Major Warren

found it necessary to issue a circular from which I quote the following:

The undersigned again deems it his duty to appear before you in a

circular. It may not be known to all of you, that the day after

my detachment was disbanded at Carthage, I received orders from

the executive to muster them into service again, and remain in the

county until further orders.

I have now been in Nauvoo with my detachment a week and can say

to you with perfect assurance that the demonstrations made by the

Mormon population, are unequivocal. They are leaving the State, and

preparing to leave, with every means that God and nature has placed

in their hands. * * * The anti-Mormons desire the removal of the

Mormons; this is being effected peaceably and with all possible

dispatch. All aggressive movements, therefore, against them at this

time, must be actuated by a wanton desire to shed blood, or to

plunder. * * *

A man of near sixty years of age, living about seven miles from

this place, was taken from his house a few nights since, stripped

of his clothing, and his back cut to pieces with a whip, for no

other reason than because he was a Mormon, and too old to make

successful resistance. Conduct of this kind would disgrace a horde

of savages. * * * To the Mormons I would say, go on with your

preparations and leave as fast as you can. Leave the fighting to

be done by my detachment. If we are overpowered, then recross the

river, and defend yourselves and property.

To those busy trying to raise mob forces, principally Squire M'Calla

and Colonel Levi Williams, Major Warren gave warning that a previous

order to the effect that not more than four armed men, other than

State troops, should assemble together, would be enforced; and that

any mob which assembled would be dispersed; his force or the mob would

leave the field in double quick time. This had the effect of quieting

matters down for a season, but only until Major Warren's detachment was

disbanded.

A meeting was held at Carthage on the sixth of June, to make

preparations for celebrating the fourth of July, the nation's natal

day. It was suggested at that meeting that, as all the Mormons had not

left the State, the people of Hancock County could not be considered

free; and under those circumstances, they ought not to celebrate the

fourth with the usual rejoicings. The meeting was therefore adjourned

to meet on the twelfth, for the purpose of taking into consideration

why it was that all Mormons had not left the city of Nauvoo. That

happened to be the day fixed by the governor on which to raise

volunteers for the Mexican war, which, in the meantime, had broken out;

so that there was considerable excitement among the militia of Hancock

County, and the mob leaders doubtless thought the time propitious for

making a demonstration against the few Saints still remaining in Nauvoo.

A large body of men were found willing to march into Nauvoo, but it was

learned that the new citizens who had purchased much of the property of

the now exiled people, were unwilling to allow the mob forces to enter

the city, and meeting with this unexpected opposition, the mob forces

marched to Golden's point, distant from Nauvoo some five or six miles

down the river. At this juncture, Stephen Markham returned to Nauvoo

from the camp of the Apostles for some Church property; but it was

rumored that he had returned with a large body of men, and as Markham's

name was a terror among the enemies of the Saints, the mob took to

flight, though no one was in pursuit. It was a case of the wicked

fleeing when no man pursued.

The committee at Quincy having control of the mob forces, either

chagrined by the cowardice of those who had collected at Golden's

point, or appalled at the prospect of innocent blood being found upon

their skirts, retired from the position which had been assigned them.

This disorganized the mob and they dispersed to their homes, but agreed

to assemble again at the call of their leaders; and laid an injunction

upon the Mormons in Nauvoo not to go outside of the city limits, except

in making their way westward.

This order of the mob was disregarded by a party of new citizens and

a few Saints who went into the country several miles, to harvest a

field of grain. While engaged in their work, they were surrounded by

a mob and captured. They were robbed of their arms, stripped of their

clothing, and cruelly beaten with hickory goads. This outrage created

intense excitement in Nauvoo, and the new citizens and Saints made

common cause in bringing the perpetrators of it to justice. But while

the parties accused of the crime were under arrest in the hands of

the officers, a second party, consisting of P. H. Young and his son,

Richard Ballantyne, James Standing and Mr. Herring were kidnapped, and

held by their tormentors fourteen days, during which time they were

constantly threatened with death. They finally escaped, however, and

returned to Nauvoo.

The parties accused of making the assault on those in the harvest

field, took a change of venue to Quincy, but whether they were ever

brought to trial or not, I cannot learn, but think they were not.

Among those arrested for attacking the party of harvesters was Major

M'Calla; and in his possession was found a gun taken from the party.

The gun was recognized by several persons, among whom was Wm. Pickett,

and taken from him. The mobbers then and there made out a charge of

stealing, and got out warrants for the arrest of Pickett, Furness and

Clifford. Pickett, it would seem, had incurred the hatred of the mob,

and they desired to get him into their power. Word was brought to him

by a friend that the warrant was merely a subterfuge to get him into

the hands of his enemies; consequently, when one John Carlin, a special

constable from Carthage, undertook to arrest him, he asked if he would

guarantee his safety; being answered in the negative, he resisted the

officer and would not be taken. Though it is claimed that afterwards,

in company with several friends he went before the magistrate of Green

Plains, who, it was said, issued the warrant for his arrest. But as he

had no record of the warrant he refused to put him under arrest. The

other parties accused were acquitted on examination.

The mob now, however, saw an opportunity to accomplish their full

purpose of destroying the city of Nauvoo. An officer had been resisted

by a citizen, and his fellow citizens approved his course! "Nauvoo was

in rebellion against the laws!" Carlin issued a proclamation calling

upon the citizens to come as a _posse comitatus_, to assist him in

executing the law. And to his clarion call,

There was mounting in hot haste.

The old mob forces were soon assembled at Carthage, and the command

given to Captain Singleton.

The citizens of Nauvoo petitioned the governor for protection, and he

sent to them Major J. R. Parker, with a force of ten men from Fulton

County, and also authorized him to take command of such forces as

might volunteer to defend the city against any attacks that might be

threatened. He was also empowered "to pursue, and in aid of any peace

officer with a proper warrant, arrest the rioters who may threaten

or attempt such an attack, and bring them to trial;" and to assist

with an armed posse any peace officer in making an arrest, and with a

like force to guard the prisoners, during the trial, and as long as

he believed them in danger of mob violence. The commission bears date

August 24, 1846.

Thus equipped, Major Parker went to Nauvoo and issued a proclamation

calling upon the mobs then collecting, "_in the name of the people of

Illinois, and by virtue of the authority vested in him by the governor

of the State to disperse_." The issue, then, was no longer between the

mob forces and the Mormons; it was between the recognized authority of

the State and this lawless banditti. Major Parker also announced that

he was authorized and prepared to assist the proper officers in serving

any writs in their hands.

In answer to this proclamation Carlin issued a counter one to the

effect that if he met with resistance from Parker, he would consider

his detachment as a mob, and proceed accordingly. To which Parker

replied, if the forces under Carlin undertook to enter Nauvoo, he would

treat them as a mob. Parker also wrote to Singleton, and expressed a

desire to bring about a settlement of the difficulty without shedding

blood. To this communication Singleton replied that in Parker's

proposition he saw nothing looking to the expulsion of the remnant

of the Mormon people left in Nauvoo, and "that is," said he "a _sine

qua non_ with us." It will be remembered that Carlin's professed

object in calling for a posse was to arrest William Pickett; but now

something more is demanded--the immediate removal of the Mormons, the

surrender of Nauvoo, etc. Singleton concluded his terms to Parker, the

representative of the governor of the State, in these words:

When I say to you, the Mormons must go, I speak the mind of the

camp and the country. They can leave without force or injury to

themselves or their property, but I say to you, sir, with all

candor, _they shall go_--they may fix the time within sixty days,

or I will fix it for them.

At this juncture a committee of one hundred, which had been appointed

by the citizens of Quincy, arrived on the scene, to act--ostensibly--as

mediators, to bring about a peaceful solution of the trouble, but

one cannot help thinking their true mission was to insidiously carry

out the project of the mob. But I leave the reader to draw his own

inference respecting that; when he hears the terms proposed by that

committee, and which all classes of citizens in Nauvoo, seeing no

alternative, accepted:

The terms offered were that the Mormons move out of the city, or

disperse within sixty days. A force of twenty-five to remain in the

city during that time, half the expense of maintaining them was to be

paid by the people of Nauvoo; for which amount they were to give bond;

that the Mormons surrender their arms, which should be returned to them

after they left the State; that as soon as those arms were surrendered,

the forces under Singleton were to disperse; that all hostilities cease

between the respective parties as soon as the agreement was accepted.

The singularity about this agreement is that not one word is said about

giving up Pickett, to arrest whom the forces under Singleton were

ostensibly called out. Does it not reveal the fact that the Pickett

episode was merely a ruse--a pretext for gathering a mob to sack Nauvoo

and drive away the Mormons?

This proposed settlement, however, was rejected by the mob forces. It

did not sufficiently gratify their implacable hatred. They did, in very

deed, as the Prophet Joseph foretold his people they would, thirst

for the blood of every man in whose heart dwelt a single spark of the

spirit of the fullness of the Gospel. But when the mob rejected these

terms, Singleton and other leaders left them; saying the Mormons had

done all that could be required of them.

On the retirement of Singleton and others, the command of the mob was

given to Thomas S. Brockman, a Campbellite preacher, known familiarly

as "Old Tom," among his followers. He at once went into active

preparations for bombarding the city; and with a force of more than one

thousand men, and six pieces of cannon, took up a position about one

mile east of the city, in a cornfield just at the head of Mulholland

street; and not far from the house of Squire D. H. Wells.

From this position Brockman issued the terms upon which he would grant

peace. The terms he offered were much more outrageous than those

proposed by the Quincy committee, and therefore were rejected by the

people of Nauvoo, both by Mormon and non-Mormon. Brockman addressed

his insolent terms of peace to "the commanding officer of Nauvoo, and

the trustees of the Mormon Church." The "commanding officer" was Major

Clifford, who had succeeded Major Parker in that position. He was

vested with the governor's commission as Parker had been, and it was to

this representative of Illinois' executive that the demand of Brockman

to surrender the city, and stack his arms, was addressed; so that he

and his mob forces were pitted against the laws and lawful authority of

the State, and we shall see, as we proceed, how mobs were more powerful

than the State authorities; or rather, how the lawful authorities of

the State were so lost to all sense of shame, so recreant to the trust

reposed in them, so neglectful of the honor and dignity of the State,

that they permitted their own representatives to be driven in disgrace

from the field by the mob led by Brockman: and furthermore, those same

authorities were so lost to every principle of humanity, that they

permitted the helpless and unoffending people to be driven from their

homes out into the wilderness to perish from exposure.

The citizens of Nauvoo were not willing to allow Brockman's mob

to enter the city without making some effort to prevent him; and

although their forces numbered not more than three or four hundred,

they presented a determined front to the mob. They converted some

steam-boat shafts into cannon--five pieces in all--and threw up some

fortifications on the north of Mulholland street, facing the mob's

camp. These works were under command of Captain Lamareux. On the

south of of Mulholland street, the companies of Gates and Cutler were

stationed.

On September 10th, 11th, and 12th, there was some desultory firing on

both sides, without much advantage being gained. On the thirteenth,

however, the mob-forces advanced in solid column, making a desperate

effort to reach Mulholland street, the principal street leading into

Nauvoo from the east. If the onset was desperate, the resistance was

equally determined. The main shock of the conflict was sustained for a

time by Gates' and Cutler's companies, and they must inevitably have

been overpowered by the superior numbers of the mob, had not Squire

Wells come up with Lamareux's company to reinforce them. The doughty

squire had ridden across an open field exposed to the fire of the

enemy, to where Lamareux's company lay behind their fortifications.

He called upon them to advance at once to check the approach of the

mob. There was one brave spirit who needed no second call to perform

his duty. That was William Anderson, captain of what was known as the

"Spartan Band." He leaped from behind the trenches and calling on his

men to follow, started for the front. The rest of Lamareux's company

did not so readily respond, and manifested a disposition to retreat

rather than advance. Squire Wells, observing this, and seeing Anderson

and his few brave followers rushing headlong into the conflict, raised

in his stirrups, and swinging his hat, shouted: "Hurrah for Anderson!

Who wouldn't follow the brave Anderson!" This rallied their spirits,

and they followed the squire to the front, where they were soon firing

at the enemy as steadily as their comrades.

The mob forces by this time had nearly reached Mulholland street, but

now they recoiled from the rapid firing of the reinforcements and beat

a retreat to the house of a Mr. Carmichael, but a short distance from

Squire Wells' house. Here they waited until wagons came from their

camp, and putting their dead and wounded into them, returned to where

they were encamped in the morning. The number of killed and wounded of

the mob has never been ascertained, as the facts were kept concealed.

The intrepid Anderson and his equally brave son, a lad not more than

fifteen years of age fell in the engagement; and one Morris was killed

while crossing a field by a cannon ball.

Negotiations were now renewed, and the citizens of Nauvoo, seeing that

the State authorities rendered them no assistance, but permitted even

their own authority to be braved by a lawless mob, and knowing that

they would eventually be overpowered, accepted the following terms of

settlement, in order to stop the further effusion of blood:--

1. The city of Nauvoo will surrender. The force of Colonel Brockman

to enter and take possession of the city tomorrow, the seventeenth

of September, at three o'clock p. m.

2. The arms to be delivered to the Quincy committee, to be returned

on the crossing of the river.

3. The Quincy committee pledge themselves to use their influence

for the protection of persons and property from all violence, and

the officers of the camp and the men pledge themselves to protect

all persons and property from violence.

4. The sick and helpless to be protected and treated with humanity.

5. The Mormon population of the city to leave the State or disperse

as soon as they can cross the river.

6. Five men, including the Trustees of The Church, and five clerks,

with their families (Wm. Pickett not one of the number) to be

permitted to remain in the city, for the disposition of property,

free from all molestation and personal violence.

7. Hostilities to cease immediately, and ten men of the Quincy

committee to enter the city, in the execution of their duty as soon

as they think proper.

These terms of capitulation were signed on the part of the citizens of

Nauvoo, by Almon W. Babbitt, Joseph L. Heywood and John S. Fullmer; and

on the part of the mob by Thomas S. Brockman and John Carlin; and by

Andrew Johnson on behalf of the Quincy committee.

The rest of my story is soon told. There was a hasty flight of the

"Mormon" population and a number of the new citizens who had assisted

in the defense of Nauvoo. They left their homes without being able to

carry with them anything for their comfort. The sick, aged and infirm,

together with the youth, without regard to sex or condition, shared

the same fate; they had to lie out on the Mississippi bottoms where

many perished through exposure, and beyond all doubt, all would have

famished from hunger, had not their camp been filled with innumerable

flocks of quail, so tame that women and children caught hundreds of

them in their hands, and thus was the cry of hunger relieved, by what

would generally be regarded as a miraculous occurrence. [6]

Brockman and his forces entered the city, and once in, he insolently

violated every condition of the treaty of surrender. But lest I

should be charged with inaccuracy--for such events as I am recording

seem almost too much to believe--I quote from the report made by Mr.

Brayman to Governor Ford. Mr. Brayman had acted as the Governor's

agent, for some time, in a secret capacity from the commencement of the

difficulties at Nauvoo, and the following abstract is from an elaborate

report he gives of the final struggle for the defense of the city.

Moreover, the fact that I have never seen this matter reproduced in any

of our books encourages me to insert it here:

The force of General Brockman marched into the city at three

o'clock. From fifteen hundred to two thousand men marched in

procession, through the city, and encamped on the south side, near

the river. The march was conducted without the least disorder or

trespass upon persons or property. The streets were deserted--the

obnoxious persons had left the city, leaving but little to provoke

the resentment of the victors. But a few Mormons remained in the

city, and these were hastening their preparations for crossing the

river as soon as possible. On my return from Carthage to the city,

about noon, I learned that the Quincy committee had closed its

labors at sunrise and had left for home, leaving a sub-committee to

complete the reception and delivery of the arms of those Mormons

who had not yet departed.

I also learned that in addition to the duty General Brockman had

assumed, under the treaty, of superintending the removal of the

Mormons from the State, he had issued an order for the expulsion

from the State, of all who had borne arms in defense of the city

against his force, and all who were in any manner identified with

the Mormons.

It could scarcely be believed that such an order in such palpable

and gross violation of the unanimous pledge which had been signed

by the officers, agreed to by the whole force, and endorsed by

the Quincy committee, had been given. But on applying to General

Brockman, I learned that such an order had been given, and would be

executed. This order was rigorously enforced throughout the day,

with many circumstances of the utmost cruelty and injustice. Bands

of armed men traversed the city, entering the houses of citizens,

robbing them of arms, throwing their household goods out of doors,

insulting them, and threatening their lives. Many were seized and

marched to the camp, and after military examination, set across

the river, for the crime of sympathizing with the Mormons, or the

still more heinous offense of _fighting in the defense of the city,

under command of officers commissioned by_ YOU, [Governor Ford],

and instructed to make that defense. It is, indeed, painfully true,

that many citizens of this State, have been driven from it by an

armed force, because impelled by our encouragement, and a sense of

duty, they have bravely defended their homes and homes of their

neighbors from the assaults of a force assembled for unlawful

purposes.

In the face of the pledge given to protect persons and property

from all violence, (excepting of course Mormon persons and

property), it may be estimated that nearly one half of the new

citizens of Nauvoo have been forced from their homes and dare

not return. Thus far, these citizens have appealed in vain for

protection and redress.

It remains yet to be seen whether there is efficacy in the law,

power in the executive arm, or potency in public opinion sufficient

to right their grievous wrongs. It is disgraceful to the character

of the State, and a humiliation not to be borne, to permit a

military leader, acting without a shadow of lawful authority, but

in violation of law and right, not only to thwart the will of the

executive, but to impose upon citizens the penalty of banishment,

for acting under it. [7]

Was this arch traitor, Brockman, hung for his treason against the

State? No; nor even tried or questioned, neither he nor his followers.

Perhaps it was thought that an investigation might reveal the fact to

the world that many high officials, and chief among them the governor

of the State, had been engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to drive

from Illinois an innocent community, whose rights they had not the

moral courage to defend against the fierce attacks of lawless mobs,

whose hands were crimson in the blood of innocence; and who repeatedly

trampled the honor and dignity of the State under their feet.

After a time the most of the new citizens returned to the homes they

had purchased for little or nothing from the now exiled founders of the

beautiful city. But Nauvoo never prospered under its new masters. Out

of sympathy for those who had redeemed it from a wilderness, and some

portions of it from a swamp, its fields and gardens refused to yield in

their strength to the industry of other hands. Its decline was as rapid

and disastrous as its rise had been sudden and glorious.

A French communistic society had purchased considerable property in

the deserted city, and into their hands passed the splendid temple the

Saints at such sacrifice had erected. Externally, the building had

been completed in the spring of 1846, even to the gilding of the angel

and the trumpet at the top of the spire. During the winter of 1845-6

various rooms of the temple were dedicated for ordinance work, and

there hundreds of the faithful Saints received their endowments--the

sacred mysteries of the faith. The main court of worship was also

prepared; and on the evening of April 30th, 1846, the building was

privately dedicated, Joseph Young, the senior president of the First

Council of Seventy, offering the dedicatory prayer. On the first of

May, 1846, under the direction of Apostles Orson Hyde and Wilford

Woodruff, the edifice was publicly dedicated, according to the order of

the Holy Priesthood, revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

The temple was always a source of envy to the enemies of the Saints,

and it was feared that if it continued to stand it would be a bond

between its exiled builders and the city from which they had been

cruelly driven, and an inducement for them to return. On the tenth

of November, 1848, an incendiary, therefore, set it on fire, and the

tower was destroyed, and the whole building so shattered, that on the

twenty-seventh of May, 1850, a tornado blew down the north wall. I

was informed by M. M. Morrill, who at the time of my visit was mayor

of Nauvoo, and, by the way, one who had assisted in its defense when

attacked by the mob, that one Joseph Agnew, confessed to being the

incendiary. Finally all the walls were pulled down and the stone

hauled away for building purposes, until now, not one stone stands

upon another. Even the very foundation has been cleared away, and

the excavation for the basement filled up and the site covered with

inferior buildings.

At the time of my visit, in the summer of 1885, the population

of Nauvoo numbered about seventeen hundred, nine-tenths of whom

were Germans. The principal occupation is grape-growing, vineyards

covering some portions of the city plat, which was once the principal

business center. The whole place has a half-deserted, half-dilapidated

appearance, and seems to be withering under a blight, from which it

refuses to recover.

Such is the fate of Nauvoo, which once promised to be the first city

of Illinois, and beyond all question would have been so had there

existed sufficient virtue and honor in that State to have protected its

founders in their rights.

* * * * * * *

Still stands the forest primeval; but under the

Shade of its branches

Dwells another race, with other customs

And languages.

The quotation connects me with my introduction, and reminds me that I

have completed the task proposed in these pages. But in the fate which

overtook the survivors of the Acadian peasant-exiles from Nova Scotia,

and the Mormons exiles from Illinois, the former fails altogether to

suggest the faintest hint of a parallel.

Only along the shores of the mournful and

mystic Atlantic

Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers

from exile

Wandered back to their native land to die

in its bosom,

Finishes the story of the Acadian exiles. Not so the story of the

exiles from Illinois. They did not perish in exile, nor did merely a

handful of them, broken in spirits as in fortunes return to live silent

and sad on the site of their former homes. The Mormon exiles were not

broken and scattered--they remained a people; beyond their exile they

were destined to have a glorious history. Their faith in their religion

was not shattered. Their church was not disrupted. Their hearts were

not turned against their prophets. Their spirits were not blighted

nor their hearts bowed down beyond the power of recovery; nor their

fortunes so blasted that they could not hope for prosperity--for God

was with them.

The institution--The Church--brought into existence, and its doctrines

developed amid so much of spiritual tempest and pursued so relentlessly

by mob violence, and which may be said to have had a second birth at

Nauvoo, and to have received sanctification from the martyrdom of her

earthly founder--The Church which these exiles bore with them into the

western wilderness was not born to die. Whatever might be the fate

of The Church and the Saints in other dispensations of the Gospel,

God had now introduced the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times,

in which He has decreed that all things in Christ shall be gathered

together in one--even in Him. [8] A dispensation in which the salvation

of man and the redemption of the earth itself shall be consummated.

And the earth and men made ready for the all glorious reign of truth

and righteousness so long promised by God and His prophets. Hence

The Church was not destroyed; and the people who fled with her to

the wilderness did not perish. The blinding storms of sleet and rain

which enveloped their principal companies as in melancholy trains they

penetrated the wilderness of the then territory of Iowa, might easily

have been taken for God's curtain rung down upon the most melancholy

scene in America's history--the scene of a people in free America--the

boasted asylum for the oppressed, where religious freedom is guaranteed

by express constitutional provision--fleeing from the worst forms of

oppression--the oppression of mob violence invoked in Illinois to crush

their religious faith. But the curtain so rung down was not upon the

final act. The hand of God again rolled it up; and when He did, it was

to reveal to the world the exiles as the redeemers of desert wastes;

the planters of cities; the builders of temples, the founders of

States; and for themselves and for their religious faith so entrenched,

so strengthened, so enlarged that the world shall never, while the

earth itself remains, or sun or stars endure be rid of that faith

founded--under God--by JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET-MARTYR OF NAUVOO.

Footnotes

1. Wm. Clayton's journal, under date of May 24, 1845.

2. Ford's History of Illinois, p. 406.

3. The Hancock Mob, p. 4, by J. B. Conyers, M. D.

4. He was acquitted at his trial which took place at Peoria.

5. Hancock Mob, Conyers, pp. 13, 14.

6. The condition of the exiled Saints at this period is graphically

described by General Thomas L. Kane, see appendix--

7. The Hancock Mob, by J.B. Conyers, M. D., pages 73, 74.

8. Eph. 1: 9, 10.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN JOSEPH SMITH AND JOHN C. CALHOUN.

HON. JOHN C. CALHOUN.

DEAR SIR,--As we understand you are a candidate for the Presidency

at the next election; and as the Latter-day Saints (sometimes

called Mormons, who now constitute a numerous class in the school

politic of this vast republic,) have been robbed of an immense

amount of property, and endured nameless sufferings by the State of

Missouri, and from her borders have been driven by force of arms,

contrary to our national covenants; and as in vain we have sought

redress by all constitutional, legal, and honorable means, in her

courts, her executive councils and her legislative halls; and as

we have petitioned Congress to take cognizance of our sufferings

without effect, we have judged it wisdom to address you this

communication, and solicit an immediate, specific and candid reply

to "_What will be your rule of action relative to us as a people_,"

should fortune favor your ascension to the chief magistracy?

Most respectfully, sir, your friend,

and the friend of peace, good order,

and constitutional rights,

JOSEPH SMITH.

In behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

FORT HILL, 2ND DECEMBER, 1843.

SIR,--You ask me what would be my rule of action relative to the

Mormons or Latter-day Saints, should I be elected President; to

which I answer, that if I should be elected, I would strive to

administer the government according to the Constitution and the

laws of the Union; and that as they make no distinction between

citizens of different religious creeds, I should make none. As far

as it depends on the executive department, all should have the full

benefit of both, and none should be exempt from their operation.

But as you refer to the case of Missouri, candor compels me to

repeat what I said to you at Washington, that, according to my

views, the case does not come within the jurisdiction of the

federal government, which is one of limited and specific powers.

With respect, I am, &c., &c.,

J. C. CALHOUN.

Mr. Joseph Smith.

NAUVOO, ILLINOIS, JANUARY 2, 1844.

SIR,--Your reply to my letter of last November, concerning your

rule of action towards the Latter-day Saints, if elected president,

is at hand; and that you and your friends of the same opinion

relative to the matter in question may not be disappointed as to

me or my mind upon so grave a subject, permit me, as a law-abiding

man, as a well-wisher to the perpetuity of constitutional rights

and liberty, and as a friend to the free worship of Almighty God by

all, according to the dictates of every person's own conscience, to

say _I am surprised_ that a man or men in the highest stations of

public life should have made up such a fragile "view" of a case,

than which there is not one on the face of the globe fraught with

so much consequence to the happiness of men in this world or the

world to come.

To be sure, the first paragraph of your letter appears very

complacent and fair on a white sheet of paper. And who, that is

ambitious for greatness and power, would not have said the same

thing? Your oath would bind you to support the Constitution and

laws; and as all creeds and religions are alike tolerated, they

must, of course, all be justified or condemned according to merit

or demerit. But why--tell me why are all the principal men held up

for public stations _so cautiously careful_ not to publish to the

world that they _will judge a righteous judgment_, law or no law?

for laws and opinions, like the vanes of steeples, change with the

wind.

One Congress passes a law, another repeals it; and one statesman

says that the Constitution means this, and another that; and who

does not know that all may be wrong? The opinion and pledge,

therefore, in the first paragraph of your reply to my question,

like the forced steam from the engine of a steam-boat, makes the

show of a bright cloud at first; but when it comes in contact with

a purer atmosphere, dissolves to common air again.

Your second paragraph leaves you naked before yourself, like a

likeness in a mirror, when you say that, "according to your view,

the federal government is one of limited and specific powers," and

has no jurisdiction in the case of the Mormons. So then a State can

at any time expel any portion of her citizens with impunity, and,

in the language of Mr. Van Buren, frosted over with your gracious

"_views of the case_," though the cause is ever so just, Government

can do nothing for them, because it has no power.

Go on, then, Missouri, after another set of inhabitants (as the

Latter-day Saints did,) have entered some two or three hundred

thousand dollars' worth of land; and made extensive improvements

thereon. Go on, then, I say; banish the occupants or owners, or

kill them, as the mobbers did many of the Latter-day Saints, and

take their land and property as spoil; and let the legislature,

as in the case of the Mormons, appropriate a couple of hundred

thousand dollars to pay the mob for doing that job; for the

renowned senator from South Carolina, Mr. J. C. Calhoun, says the

powers of the federal government are so _specific and limited that

it has no jurisdiction of the case!_ O ye people who groan under

the oppression of tyrants!--ye exiled Poles, who have felt the iron

hand of Russian grasp!--ye poor and unfortunate among all nations!

come to the asylum of the oppressed; buy ye lands of the general

government; pay in your money to the treasury to strengthen the

army and the navy; worship God according to the dictates of your

own consciences; pay in your taxes to support the great heads of a

glorious nation: but remember a "_sovereign State_" is so much more

powerful than the United States, the parent government, that it

can exile you at pleasure, mob you with impunity, confiscate your

lands and property, have the legislature sanction it,--yea, even

murder you as an edict of an emperor, _and it does no wrong_; for

the noble senator of South Carolina says the power of the federal

government is _so limited and specific that it has no jurisdiction

of the case!_ What think ye of _imperium in imperio?_

Ye spirits of the blessed of all ages, hark! Ye shades of departed

statesmen listen! Abraham, Moses, Homer, Socrates, Solon, Solomon,

and all that ever thought of right and wrong, look down from your

exaltations, if you have any; for it is said, "In the midst of

counsellors there _is safety;_" and when you have learned that

fifteen thousand innocent citizens, after having purchased their

lands of the United States and paid for them, were expelled from

a "sovereign State," by order of the governor, at the point of

the bayonet, their arms taken from them by the same authority,

and their right of migration into said State denied, under pain

of imprisonment, whipping, robbing, mobbing, and even death, and

no justice or recompense allowed; and, from the legislature with

the governor at the head, down to the justice of the peace, with a

bottle of whisky in one hand and a bowie-knife in the other, hear

them all declare that there is no justice for a Mormon in that

State; and judge ye a righteous judgment, and tell me when the

virtue of the States was stolen, where the honor of the general

government lies hid, and what clothes a senator with wisdom. O

nullifying Carolina! O little tempestuous Rhode Island! Would it

not be well for the great men of the nation to read the fable

of the _partial judge;_ and when part of the free citizens of a

State had been expelled contrary to the Constitution, mobbed,

robbed, plundered, and many murdered, instead of searching into the

course taken with Joanna Southcott, Ann Lee, the French Prophets,

the Quakers of New England, and rebellious niggers in the slave

states, to hear both sides and then judge, rather than have the

mortification to say, "Oh, it is _my_ bull that has killed _your_

ox! That alters the case! I must inquire into it; _and if, and if_--

If the general government has no power to reinstate expelled

citizens to their rights, there is a monstrous hypocrite fed

and fostered from the hard earnings of the people! A real "bull

beggar" upheld by sycophants. And although you may wink to the

priests to stigmatize, wheedle the drunkards to swear, and raise

the hue-and-cry of--"Impostor! false prophet! G-- d-- old Joe

Smith!" yet remember, if the Latter-day Saints are not restored

to all their rights and paid for all their losses, according to

the known rules of justice and judgment, reciprocation and common

honesty among men, that God will come out of His hiding place, and

vex this nation with a sore vexation: yea, the consuming wrath

of an offended God shall smoke through the nation with as much

distress and woe as independence has blazed through with pleasure

and delight. Where is the strength of government? Where is the

patriotism of a Washington, a Warren, and Adams? And where is a

spark from the watch-fire of '76, by which one candle might be lit

that would glimmer upon the confines of Democracy? Well may it be

said that one man is not a state, nor one state the nation.

In the days of General Jackson, when France refused the first

installment for spoliations, there was power, force, and honor

enough to resent injustice and insult, and the money came; and

shall Missouri, filled with negro-drivers and white men stealers,

go "unwhipped of justice" for tenfold greater sins than France?

No! verily, no! While I have power of body and mind--while water

runs and grass grows--while virtue is lovely and vice hateful, and

while a stone points out a sacred spot where a fragment of American

liberty once was, I or my posterity will plead the cause of injured

innocence, until Missouri makes atonement for all her sins, or

sinks disgraced, degraded, and damned to hell, "where the worm

dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

Why, sir, the power not delegated to the United States and the

States belong to the people, and Congress sent to do the people's

business have all power; and shall fifteen thousand citizens groan

in exile? O vain men! will ye not, if ye do not restore them to

their rights and two million dollars' worth of property, relinquish

to them (the Latter-day Saints,) as a body, their portion of power

that belongs to them according to the Constitution? Power has its

convenience as well as inconvenience. "The world was not made for

Caesar alone, but for Titus too."

I will give you a parable. A certain lord had a vineyard in a

goodly land, which men labored in at their pleasure. A few meek

men also went and purchased with money from some of these chief

men that labored at pleasure a portion of land in the vineyard,

at a very remote part of it, and began to improve it, and to eat

and drink the fruit thereof,--when some vile persons, who regarded

not man, neither feared the lord of the vineyard, rose up suddenly

and robbed these meek men, and drove them from their possessions,

killing many.

This barbarous act made no small stir among the men in the

vineyard; and all that portion who were attached to that part of

the vineyard where the men were robbed rose up in grand council,

with their chief man, who had firstly ordered the deed to be done,

and made a covenant not to pay for the cruel deed, but to keep the

spoil, and never let those meek men set their feet on that soil

again, neither recompense them for it.

Now, these meek men, in their distress, wisely sought redress

of those wicked men in every possible manner, and got none.

They then supplicated the chief men, who held the vineyard at

pleasure, and who had the power to sell and defend it, for redress

and redemption; and those men, loving the fame and favor of

the multitude more than the glory of the lord of the vineyard,

answered--"Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you,

because we have no power."

Now, when the lord of the vineyard saw that virtue innocence

was not regarded, and his vineyard occupied by wicked men, he

sent men and took the possession of it to himself, and destroyed

these unfaithful servants, and appointed them their portion among

hypocrites.

And let me say that all men who say that Congress has no power to

restore and defend the rights of her citizens have not the love of

the truth abiding in them. Congress has power to protect the nation

against foreign invasion and internal broil; and whenever that

body passes an act to maintain right with any power, or to restore

right to any portion of her citizens, it is the SUPREME LAW OF THE

LAND; and should a State refuse submission, that State is guilty of

_insurrection or rebellion_, and the President has as much power

to repel it as Washington had to march against the "whisky boys

at Pittsburg," or General Jackson had to send an armed force to

suppress the rebellion of South Carolina.

To close, I would admonish you, before you let your "_candor

compel_" you again to write upon a subject great as the salvation

of man, consequential as the life of the Savior, broad as the

principles of eternal truth, and valuable as the jewels of

eternity, to read in the eighth section and first article of

the Constitution of the United States, the _first, fourteenth_,

and _seventeenth_ "specific" and not very "limited powers" of

the federal government, what can be done to protect the lives,

property, and rights of a virtuous people, when the administrators

of the law and law-makers are unbought by bribes, uncorrupted by

patronage, untempted by gold, unawed by fear, and uncontaminated

tangling alliances--even like Caeser's wife, not only

_unspotted, but unsuspected!_ And God, who cooled the heat of a

Nebuchadnezzar's furnace or shut the mouths of lions for the honor

of a Daniel, will raise your mind above the narrow notion that the

general government has no power, to the sublime idea that Congress,

with the President as executor, is as almighty in its sphere as

Jehovah is in His.

With great respect, I have the honor to be

Your obedient servant,

JOSEPH SMITH.

Hon. ("Mr.") J. C. Calhoun,

Fort Hill, S. C.

APPENDIX II.

CLAY'S LETTER TO JOSEPH SMITH AND THE LATTER'S REPLY.

ASHLAND, November 15, 1843.

DEAR SIR:--I have received your letter in behalf of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stating that you understand that

I am a candidate for the presidency, and inquiring what will be my

rule of action relative to you as a people, should I be elected.

I am profoundly grateful for the numerous and strong expressions of

the people in my behalf as a candidate for President of the United

States; but I do not so consider myself. That must depend upon

future events and upon my sense of duty.

Should I be a candidate, I can enter into no engagements, make no

promises, give no pledges to any particular portion of the people

of the United States. If I ever enter into that high office, I must

go into it free and unfettered, with no guarantees but such as are

to be drawn from my whole life, character and conduct.

It is not inconsistent with this declaration to say that I have

viewed with a lively interest the progress of the Latter-day

Saints; that I have sympathized in their sufferings under

injustice, as it appeared to me, which has been inflicted upon

them; and I think, in common with other religious communities, they

ought to enjoy the security and protection of the Constitution and

the laws.

I am, with great respect, your friend and obedient servant,

H. CLAY.

To Joseph Smith, Esq.

NAUVOO, ILL., May 13, 1844.

SIR:--Your answer to my inquiry, "What would be your rule of

action towards the Latter-day Saints, should you be elected

President of the United States?" has been under consideration since

last November, in the fond expectation that you would give (for

every honest citizen has a right to demand it,) to the country a

manifesto of your views of the best method and means which would

secure to the people, _the whole people_, the most freedom, the

most happiness, the most union, the most wealth, the most fame,

the most glory at home, and the most honor abroad, at the least

expense. But I have waited in vain. So far as you have made public

declarations, they have been made, like your answer to the above,

soft to flatter, rather than solid to feed the people. You seem

to abandon all former policy which may have actuated you in the

discharge of a statesman's duty, when the vigor of intellect

and the force of virtue should have sought out an everlasting

habitation for liberty; when, as a wise man, a true patriot, and

a friend to mankind, you should have resolved to ameliorate the

lawful condition of our _bleeding_ country by a mighty plan of

wisdom, righteousness, justice, goodness and mercy, that would

have brought back the golden days of our nation's youth, vigor

and vivacity, when prosperity crowned the efforts of a youthful

republic, when the gentle aspirations of the sons of liberty were,

"We are one!"

In your answer to my questions last fall, that peculiar tact of

modern politicians declaring, "_If you ever enter into that high

office, you must go into it free and unfettered; with no guarantees

but such as are to be drawn from your whole life, character and

conduct_," so much resembles a lottery-vendor's sign, with the

goddess of good luck sitting on the car of fortune, a-straddle of

the horns of plenty, and driving the merry steeds of beatitude,

without reins or bridle, that I cannot help exclaiming--O frail

man, what have you done that will exalt you? Can anything be drawn

from your _life, character or conduct_ that is worthy of being held

up to the gaze of this nation as a model of _virtue_, charity and

wisdom? Are you not a lottery picture, with more than two blanks

to a prize? Leaving many things prior to your Ghent treaty, let

the world look at that, and see where is the wisdom, honor and

patriotism which ought to have characterized the plenipotentiary

of the only free nation upon the earth? A quarter of a century's

negotiation to obtain our rights on the north-eastern boundary,

and the motley manner in which Oregon tries to shine as American

territory, coupled with your presidential race and some-by-chance

secretaryship in 1825, all go to convince the friends of freedom,

the golden patriots of Jeffersonian democracy, free trade and

sailors' rights, and the protectors of person and property, that an

honorable war is better than a dishonorable peace.

But had you really wanted to have exhibited the wisdom, clemency,

benevolence and dignity of a great man in this boasted republic,

when fifteen thousand free citizens were exiled from their own

homes, lands and property, in the wonderful patriotic State of

Missouri, and you then upon your oath and honor occupying the

exalted station of a Senator of Congress from the noble-hearted

State of Kentucky, why did you not show the world your loyalty to

law and order, by using all honorable means to restore the innocent

to their rights and property? Why, sir, the more we search into

your character and conduct, the more we must exclaim from Holy

Writ, "The tree is known by its fruit."

Again: this is not all. Rather than show yourself an honest man,

by guaranteeing to the people what you will do in case you should

be elected president, "you can enter into no engagement, make no

promises, and give no pledges as to what you will do. Well, it may

be that some hot-headed partisan would take such nothingarianism

upon trust; but sensible men and even _ladies_ would think

themselves insulted by such an evasion of coming events! If a

tempest is expected, why not prepare to meet it, and, in the

language of the poet, exclaim--

Then let the trial come; and witness thou

If terror be upon me,--If I shrink

Or falter in my strength to meet the storm

When hardest it besets me.

True greatness never wavers; but when the Missouri compromise

was entered into by you for the benefit of _slavery_, there was

a mighty shrinkage of _western honor_; and from that day, sir,

the sterling Yankee, the struggling Abolitionist, and the staunch

Democrat, with a large number of the liberal-minded Whigs, have

marked you as a _black-leg_ in politics, begging for a chance to

_shuffle_ yourself into the Presidential chair, where you might

deal out the destinies of our beloved country for a _game of brag_

that would end in--"_Hark from the tombs a doleful sound_." Start

not at this picture: for your "whole life, character and conduct"

have been spotted with deeds that cause a blush upon the face of

a virtuous patriot. So you must be contented in your lot, while

crime, cowardice, cupidity or low cunning have handed you down

from the high tower of a statesman to the black-hole of a gambler.

A man that accepts a challenge or fights a duel is nothing more

nor less than a murderer; for Holy Writ declares that, "_Whose

sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:_" and when in

the renowned city of Washington the notorious _Henry Clay_ dropped

from the summit of a Senator to the sink of a scoundrel to shoot

at that chalk-line of a Randolph, he not only disgraced his own

fame, family and friends, but he polluted the _sanctum sanctorum_

of American glory; and the kingly blackguards throughout the whole

world are pointing the finger of scorn at the boasted "asylum of

the oppressed," and hissing at American statesmen as _gentlemen

vagabonds and murderers_, holding the olive branch of peace in

one hand and a pistol for death in the other! Well might the

Savior rebuke the heads of this nation with "_Wo unto you scribes,

Pharisees, hypocrites!_" for the United States Government and

Congress, with a few honorable exceptions, have gone the way of

Cain, and must perish in their gainsayings, like Korah and his

wicked host. And honest men of every clime, and the innocent, poor

and oppressed, as well as heathens, pagans and Indians, everywhere,

who could but hope that the tree of liberty would yield some

precious fruit for the hungry human race, and shed some balmy

leaves for the healing of nations, have long since given up all

hopes of equal rights, of justice and judgment, and of truth and

virtue, when such polluted, vain, heaven-daring, bogus patriots

are forced or flung into the front rank of Government to guide

the destinies of millions. Crape the heavens with weeds of wo,

gird the earth with sack-cloth, and let hell mutter one melody

in commemoration of fallen splendor! for the glory of America

has departed, and God will set a flaming sword to guard the tree

of liberty, while such mint-tithing Herods as Van Buren, Boggs,

Benton, Calhoun and Clay are thrust out of the realms of virtue as

fit subjects for the kingdom of fallen greatness. _Vox reprobi, vox

Diaboli_!

In your late addresses to the people of South Carolina, where

rebellion budded, but could not blossom, you "renounced ultraism,"

"high tariff," and almost banished your "banking system" for the

more certain standard of "public opinion." This is all very well,

and marks the intention of a politician, the calculations of a

demagogue, and the allowance for leeings of a shrewd manager, just

as truly as the weathercock does the wind when it turns upon the

spire. Hustings for the South, barbecues for the West, confidential

letters for the North and "American System" for the East.

Lull-a-by baby upon the tree top,

And when the wind blows the cradle will rock.

Suppose you should also, taking your "whole life, character and

conduct" into consideration, and, as many hands make light work,

stir up the old "Clay party," the "National Republican party," the

"High Protective Tariff party," and the late coon-skin party, with

all their paraphernalia, _ultraism, ne plus ultraism, sine qua

non_, which have grown with your growth, strengthened with your

strength, and shrunk with your shrinkage, and ask the people of

this enlightened republic what they think of your powers and policy

as a statesman; for verily it would seem, from all past remains of

parties, politics, projects and pictures, that you are the _Clay_;

and the people the _potter_; and as some vessels are marred in the

hands of the potter, the natural conclusion is that _you are a

vessel of dishonor_.

You may complain that a close examination of your "whole life,

character and conduct" places you, as a Kentuckian would pleasantly

term it, "in a bad fix." But, sir, when the nation has sunk deeper

and deeper into the mud at every turn of the great wheels of the

Union, while you have acted as one of the principal drivers, it

becomes the bounden duty of the whole community, as one man, to

whisper you on every point of government, to uncover every act of

your life, and inquire what mighty acts you have done to benefit

the nation, how much you have tithed the mint to gratify your lust,

and why the fragments of your raiment hang upon the thorns by the

path as signals to _beware_.

But your _shrinkage_ is truly wonderful! Not only your banking

system and high tariff project have vanished from your mind "like

the baseless fabric of a vision," but the "annexation of Texas"

has touched your pathetic sensibilities of national pride so

acutely, that the poor Texans, your own _brethren_, may fall back

into the ferocity of Mexico, or be sold at auction to British

stock-jobbers, and all is well. For "I," the old Senator from

Kentucky, and fearful it would militate against my interest in the

north to enlarge the borders of the Union in the south. Truly "a

poor wise child is better than an old foolish king who will be no

longer admonished." Who ever heard of a nation that had too much

territory? Was it ever bad policy to make friends? Has any people

ever become too good to do good? No, never. But the ambition and

vanity of some men have flown away with their wisdom and judgment,

and left a croaking _skeleton_ to occupy the place of a noble

_soul_!

Why, sir, the condition of the whole earth is lamentable.

Texas dreads the teeth and the nails of Mexico. Oregon has the

rheumatism, brought on by a horrid exposure to the heat and cold of

British and American trappers. Canada has caught a bad cold from

extreme fatigue in the patriot war. South America has the headache

cause by bumps against the beams of Catholicity and Spanish

Sovereignty. Spain has the gripes from age and inquisition. France

trembles and wastes under the effects of contagious diseases.

England groans with the gout, and wiggles with wine. Italy and the

German States are pale with the consumption. Prussia, Poland, and

the little contiguous dynasties, duchies and domains, have the

mumps so severely, that "the whole head is sick, and the whole

heart is faint." Russia has the cramp by lineage. Turkey has the

numb palsy. Africa, from the curse of God, has lost the use of her

limbs China is ruined by the queen's evil, and the rest of Asia

fearfully exposed to the small-pox, the natural way, from British

peddlers. The islands of the sea are almost dead with the scurvy.

The Indians are blind and lame; and the United States, which ought

to be the good physician with "balm from Gilead" and an "_asylum

for the oppressed_," has boosted and is boosting up into the

council chamber of the Government a clique of political gamblers,

to play for the old clothes and old shoes of a sick world, and

"_no pledge, no promise to any particular portion of the people_"

that the rightful heirs will ever receive a cent of their Father's

legacy. Away with such self-important, self-aggrandizing and

self-willed demagogues! Their friendship is colder than polar ice,

and their profession meaner than the damnation of hell.

O man! when such a great dilemma of the globe, such a tremendous

convulsion of kingdoms shakes the earth from centre to

circumference; when castles, prison-houses, and cells raise a

cry to God against the cruelty of man; when the mourning of the

fatherless and the widow causes anguish in heaven; when the poor

among all nations cry day and night for bread, and a shelter from

the heat and storm; and when the degraded black slave holds up his

manacled hands to the great statesmen of the United States, and

sings--

"O liberty, where are thy charms,

That sages have told me are sweet?"

And when fifteen thousand free citizens of the high-blooded

republic of North America are robbed and driven from one State

to another without redress or redemption, it is not only time

for a candidate for the presidency to pledge himself to execute

judgment and justice in righteousness, law or no law; but it is

his bounden duty as a man, for the honor of a disgraced country,

and for the salvation of a once virtuous people, to call for a

union of all honest men, and appease the wrath of God by acts of

wisdom, holiness, and virtue! "The fervent prayer of a righteous

man availeth much."

Perhaps you may think I go too far with my strictures and

innuendos, because in your concluding paragraph you say "it is not

inconsistent with your declarations to say that you have viewed

with a lively interest the progress of the Latter-day Saints, that

you have sympathized in their sufferings under injustice; as it

appeared to you, which has been inflicted upon them, and that you

_think_, in common with all other religious communities, they ought

to enjoy the security and protection of the Constitution and the

laws." If words were not wind, and imagination not a vapor, such

"views" "_with a lively interest_" might coax out a few Mormon

votes; such "sympathy" for their suffering under injustice might

heal some of the sick yet lingering amongst them, raise some of

the dead, and recover some of their property from Missouri; and

finally, if thought was not a phantom, we might, in common with

other religious communities, "_you think, enjoy the security_ and

_protection of the Constitution and laws_." But during ten years,

while the Latter-day Saints have bled, been robbed, driven from

their own lands, paid oceans of money into the treasury to pay your

renowned self and others for legislating and _dealing_ out equal

rights and privileges to those _in common with all other religious

communities_, they have waited and expected in vain! If you have

possessed any patriotism, it has been veiled by your _popularity_,

for fear the Saints would fall in love with its charms. Blind

charity and dumb justice never do much towards alleviating the

wants of the needy; but straws show which way the wind blows. It

is currently rumored that your _dernier resort_ for the Latter-day

Saints is to migrate to Oregon or California. Such cruel humanity,

such noble injustice, such honorable cowardice, such foolish

wisdom, and such vicious virtue could only emanate from Clay. After

the Saints have been plundered of three or four millions of land

and property by the people and powers of the _sovereign_ State of

Missouri--after they have sought for redress and redemption, from

the county court to Congress, and been denied through religious

prejudice and sacerdotal dignity--after they have builded a city

and two temples at an immense expense of labor and treasure--after

they have increased from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, and

after they have sent missionaries to the various nations of the

earth to gather Israel, according to the predictions of all the

holy prophets since the world began, that great plenipotentiary,

the renowned secretary of state, the ignoble duelist, the gambling

senator, and Whig candidate for the presidency, _Henry Clay_, the

wise Kentucky lawyer, advises the Latter-day Saints to go to Oregon

to obtain justice and set up a government of their own.

O ye crowned heads among all nations, is not Mr. Clay a wise man,

and very patriotic? Why, great God! to transport 200,000 people

through a vast prairie, over the Rocky Mountains, to Oregon, a

distance of nearly two thousand miles, would cost more than _four

millions!_ or should they go by Cape Horn in ships to California,

the cost would be more than _twenty millions!_ and all this to

save the United States from inheriting the disgrace of Missouri

for murdering and robbing the Saints with impunity! Benton and Van

Buren, who make no secret to say that if they get into power they

will carry out Boggs' exterminating plan to rid the country of the

Latter-day Saints, are

"Little nipperkins of milk,"

compared to "Clay's" great aquafortis jars. Why, he is a real

giant in humanity! "Send the Mormons to Oregon, and free Missouri

from debt and disgrace!" Ah! sir, let this doctrine go to-and-fro

throughout the whole earth--that we, as Van Buren said, know your

cause is just, but the United States government can do nothing for

you, because it has no power. "_You must go to Oregon, and get

justice from the Indians!_"

I mourn for the depravity of the world; I despise the hypocrisy

of Christendom; I hate the imbecility of American statesmen; I

detest the shrinkage of candidates for office from pledges and

responsibility; I long for a day of righteousness, when "He whose

right it is to reign shall judge the poor, and reprove with equity

for the meek of the earth;" and I pray God, who hath given our

fathers a promise of a perfect government in the last days, to

purify the hearts of the people and hasten the welcome day.

With the highest consideration for virtue and unadulterated freedom,

I have the honor to be,

Your obedient servant,

JOSEPH SMITH.

Hon. Henry Clay, Ashland, Ky.

APPENDIX III.

JOSEPH SMITH'S VIEWS OF THE POWERS AND POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE

UNITED STATES.

BORN in a land of liberty, and breathing an air uncorrupted with the

sirocco of barbarous climes, I ever feel a double anxiety for the

happiness of all men, both in time and in eternity.

My cogitations, like Daniel's have for a long time troubled me, when I

viewed the condition of men throughout the world, and more especially

in this boasted realm, where the Declaration of Independence "holds

these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that

they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;

that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;"

but at the same time some two or three millions of people are held as

slaves for life, because the spirit of them is covered with a darker

skin than ours; and hundreds of our own kindred for an infraction, or

supposed infraction, of some over-wise statute, have to be incarcerated

in dungeon glooms, or suffer the more moral penitentiary gravitation

of mercy in a nutshell, while the duelist, the debauchee, and the

defaulter for millions, and other criminals, take the uppermost rooms

at feasts, or, like the bird of passage, find a more congenial clime by

flight.

The wisdom which ought to characterize the freest, wisest, and most

noble nation of the nineteenth century, should, like the sun in his

meridian splendor, warm every object beneath its rays; and the main

efforts of her officers, who are nothing more or less than the servants

of the people, ought to be directed to ameliorate the condition of all,

black or white, bond or free; for the best of books says, "God hath

made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of

the earth."

Our common country presents to all men the same advantages, the same

facilities, the same prospects, the same honors, and the same rewards;

and without hypocrisy, the Constitution, when it says, "We, the people

of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish

justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,

promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to

ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution

for the United States of America," meant just what it said without

reference to color or condition, _ad infinitum_.

The aspirations and expectations of a virtuous people, environed with

so wise, so liberal, so deep, so broad, and so high a charter of

_equal rights_ as appear in said Constitution, ought to be treated

by those to whom the administration of the laws is entrusted with as

much sanctity as the prayers of the Saints are treated in heaven, that

love, confidence, and union, like the sun, moon, and stars, should bear

witness,

(For ever singing as they shine,)

"_The hand that made us is divine_."

Unity is power; and when I reflect on the importance of it to the

stability of all governments, I am astounded at the silly moves of

persons and parties to foment discord in order to ride into power on

the current of popular excitement; nor am I less surprised at the

stretches of power or restrictions of right which too often appear as

acts of legislators to pave the way to some favorite political scheme

as destitute of intrinsic merit as a wolf's heart is of the milk of

human kindness. A Frenchman would say, "_Presque tout aimer richesses

et pouvoir_." (Almost all men like wealth and power.)

I must dwell on this subject longer than others; for nearly one hundred

years ago that golden patriot, Benjamin Franklin, drew up a plan of

union for the then colonies of Great Britain, that _now_ are such an

independent nation, which, among many wise provisions for obedient

children under their father's more rugged hand, had this:--"They have

power to make laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imports,

or taxes as to them shall appear most equal and just, (considering

the ability and other circumstances of the inhabitants in the several

colonies.) and such as may be collected with the least inconvenience

to the people, rather discouraging luxury than loading industry with

unnecessary burdens." Great Britain surely lacked the laudable humanity

and fostering clemency to grant such a just plan of union; but the

sentiment remains, like the land that honored its birth, as a pattern

for wise men _to study the convenience of the people more than the

comfort of the cabinet_.

And one of the most noble fathers of our freedom and country's glory,

great in war, great in peace, great in the estimation of the world, and

great in the hearts of his countrymen, (the illustrious Washington,)

said in his first inaugural address to Congress--"I behold the surest

pledges that as, on one side, no local prejudices or attachments, no

separate views or party animosities will misdirect the comprehensive

and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of

communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundations of

our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles

of private morality, and the pre-eminence of free government be

exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its

citizens and command the respect of the world."

Verily, here shine the virtue and wisdom of a statesman in such lucid

rays, that had every succeeding Congress followed the rich instruction,

in all their deliberations and enactments, for the benefit and

convenience of the whole community and the communities of which it

is composed, no sound of rebellion in South Carolina, no rupture in

Rhode Island, no mob in Missouri expelling her citizens by executive

authority, corruption in the ballot boxes, a border warfare between

Ohio and Michigan, hard times and distress, outbreak upon outbreak

in the principal cities, murder, robbery, and defalcation, scarcity

of money, and a thousand other difficulties, would have torn asunder

the bonds of the Union, destroyed the confidence of man with man, and

left the great body of the people to mourn over misfortunes in poverty

brought on by corrupt legislation in an hour of proud vanity for

self-aggrandizement.

The great Washington, soon after the foregoing faithful admonition for

the common welfare of his nation, further advised Congress that "among

the many interesting objects which will engage your attention, that

of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To

be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving

peace." As the Italian would say--"_Buono aviso_." (Good advice.)

The elder Adams, in his inaugural address, gives national pride such

a grand turn of justification, that every honest citizen must look

back upon the infancy of the United States with an approving smile,

and rejoice that patriotism in their rulers, virtue in the people, and

prosperity in the Union once crowned the expectations of hope, unveiled

the sophistry of the hypocrite, and silenced the folly of foes. Mr.

Adams said, "If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is

when it springs not from _power_ or riches, grandeur or glory, but from

conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence."

There is no doubt that such was actually the case with our young

realm at the close of the last century. Peace, prosperity, and union

filled the country with religious toleration, temporal enjoyment, and

virtuous enterprise; and grandly, too, when the deadly winter of the

"Stamp Act," "Tea Act," and other _close communion_ acts of royalty

had chocked the growth of freedom of speech, liberty of the press, and

liberty of conscience, did light, liberty, and loyalty flourish like

cedars of God.

The respected and venerable Thomas Jefferson, in his inaugural address,

made more than forty years ago, shows what a beautiful prospect an

innocent, virtuous nation presents to the sage's eye where there is

space for enterprise, hands for industry, heads for heroes, and hearts

for moral greatness. He said, "A rising nation spread over a wide

and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions

of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power

and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of

mortal eye,--when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the

honor, the happiness of this beloved country committed to the issue

and auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble

myself before the magnitude of the undertaking."

Such a prospect was truly soul-stirring to a good man. But "since the

fathers have fallen asleep," wicked and designing men have unrobed the

government of its glory; and the people if not in dust and ashes, or

in sackcloth have to lament in poverty her departed greatness while

demagogues build fires in the north and the south, east and west to

keep up their spirits _till it is better times_. But year after year

has left the people to _hope_ till the very name of _Congress_ or

_State Legislature_ is as horrible to the sensitive friend of his

country as the house of "Bluebeard" is to his children, or "Crockford's

Hell of London" to meek men.

When the people are secure and their rights properly respected, then

the four main pillars of prosperity--viz., agriculture, manufactures,

navigation, and commerce, need the fostering care of government; and

in so goodly a country as ours, where the soil, the climate, the

rivers, the lakes, and the sea coast, the productions, the timber,

the minerals, and the inhabitants are so diversified, that a pleasing

variety accommodates all tastes, trades, and calculations, it certainly

is the highest point of supervision to protect the whole northern and

southern, eastern and western, center and circumference of the realm,

by a judicious tariff. It is an old saying and a true one, "If you wish

to be _respected_, respect yourselves."

I will adopt in part the language of Mr. Madison's inaugural

address--"To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations,

having corresponding dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality

towards belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion

and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an

appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,

so degrading to all countries, and so baneful to free ones; to foster

a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too

proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices

ourselves, and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to

hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness;

to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as

well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights

and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally

incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system;

to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or

the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction;

to preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in

behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the

press,"--so far as intention aids in the fulfillment of duty, are

consummations too big with benefits not to captivate the energies of

all honest men to achieve them, when they can be brought to pass by

reciprocation, friendly alliances, wise legislation, and honorable

treaties.

The government has once flourished under the guidance of trusty

servants; and the Hon. Monroe, in his day, while speaking of the

Constitution, says, "Our commerce has been wisely regulated with

foreign nations and between the States. New States have been admitted

into our Union. Our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable

treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States

respectively protected by the national government, under a mild

paternal system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their

separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion

of the sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their

settlements, and attained a strength and maturity which are the best

proofs of wholesome laws well administered. And if we look to the

condition of individuals, what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On

whom has oppression fallen in any quarter of the Union? Who has been

deprived of any right of person or property?--who restrained from

offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the divine Author of

his being? It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed

in their fullest extent; and I add, with peculiar satisfaction, that

there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on

any one for the crime of high treason." What a delightful picture

of power, policy, and prosperity! Truly the wise man's proverb is

just--"_Sedaukauh teromain goy, veh-ka-sade le-u-meem khahmaut_."

(Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.)

But this is not all. The same honorable statesman, after having had

about forty years' experience in the government, under the full tide

of successful experiment, gives the following commendatory assurance

of the efficacy of the _Magna Charta_ to answer its great end and

aim--_to protect the people in their rights_. "Such, then, is the happy

government under which we live; a government adequate to every purpose

for which the social compact is formed; a government elective in all

its branches, under which every citizen may by his merit obtain the

highest trust recognized by the Constitution, which contains within

it no cause of discord, none to put at variance one portion of the

community with another; a government which protects every citizen in

the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to protect the nation

against injustice from foreign powers."

Again, the younger Adams, in the silver age of our country's

advancement to fame, in his inaugural address (1825), thus candidly

declares the majesty of the youthful republic in its increasing

greatness:--"The year of jubilee, since the first formation of our

union, has just elapsed: that of the Declaration of Independence is

at hand. The consummation of both was effected by this Constitution.

Since that period, a population of four millions has multiplied to

twelve. A territory, bounded by the Mississippi, has been extended from

sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union, in numbers

nearly equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of peace,

amity, and commerce have been concluded with the principal dominions

of the earth. The people of other nations, the inhabitants of regions

acquired, not by conquest, but by compact, have been united with us

in the participation of our rights and duties, of our burdens and

blessings. The forest has fallen by the ax of our woodsman. The soil

has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers. Our commerce has

whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature has

been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and law have

marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human association have been

accomplished as effectively as under any other government on the globe,

and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures

of other nations in a single year."

In continuation of such noble sentiments, General Jackson, upon his

ascension to the great chair of the chief magistracy, said, "As long

as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is

regulated by their will, as long as it secures to us the rights of

person and property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will

be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending, a patriotic

militia will cover it with an impenetrable _aegis_."

General Jackson's administration may be denominated the _acme_ of

American glory, liberty, and prosperity; for the national debt, which

in 1815, on account of the late war, was $125,000,000, and being

lessened gradually, was paid up in his golden day, and preparations

were made to distribute the surplus revenue among the several States;

and that august patriot, to use his own words in his farewell address,

retired, leaving "a great people prosperous and happy, in the full

enjoyment of liberty and peace, honored and respected by every nation

of the world."

At the age, then, of sixty years, our blooming republic began to

decline under the withering touch of Martin Van Buren! Disappointed

ambition, thirst for power, pride, corruption, party spirit, faction,

patronage, perquisites, fame, tangling alliances, priestcraft, and

spiritual wickedness in _high places_, struck hands and revelled in

midnight splendor.

Trouble, vexation, perplexity, and contention, mingled with hope,

fear, and murmuring, rumbled through the Union and agitated the whole

nation, as would an earthquake at the center of the earth, the world

heaving the sea beyond its bounds and shaking the everlasting hills;

so, in hopes of better times, while jealousy, hypocritical pretensions,

and pompous ambition were luxuriating on the ill-gotten spoils of

the people, they rose in their majesty like a tornado, and swept

through the land, till General Harrison appeared as a star among the

storm-clouds for better weather.

The calm came, and the language of that venerable patriot, in his

inaugural address, while descanting upon the merits of the Constitution

and its framers, thus expressed himself:--"There were in it features

which appeared not to be in harmony with their ideas of a simple

representative democracy or republic. And knowing the tendency of power

to increase itself, particularly when executed by a single individual,

predictions were made that, at no very remote period, the government

would terminate in virtual monarchy.

"It would not become me to say that the fears of these patriots have

been already realized. But as I sincerely believe that the tendency

of measures and of men's opinions for some years past has been in

that direction, it is, I conceive, strictly proper that I should take

this occasion to repeat the assurances I have heretofore given of my

determination to arrest the progress of that tendency, if it really

exists, and restore the government to its pristine health and vigor."

This good man died before he had the opportunity of applying one

balm to ease the pain of our groaning country, and I am willing the

nation should be the judge, whether General Harrison, in his exalted

station, upon the eve of his entrance into the world of spirits, _told

the truth, or not_, with acting President Tyler's three years of

perplexity, and pseudo-Whig-Democrat reign to heal the breaches or show

the wounds, _secundum artem_ (according to art).

Subsequent events, all things considered, Van Buren's downfall,

Harrison's exit, and Tyler's self-sufficient turn to the whole, go

to show, as a Chaldean might exclaim--"_Beram etai claugh beshmayauh

gauhah rauzeen_." (Certainly there is a God in heaven to reveal

secrets.)

No honest man can doubt for a moment but the glory of American liberty

is on the wane, and that calamity and confusion will sooner or later

destroy the peace of the people. Speculators will urge a national bank

as a savior of credit and comfort. A hireling psuedo-priesthood will

plausibly push abolition doctrines and doings and "human rights" into

Congress, and into every other place where conquest smells of fame,

or opposition swells to popularity. Democracy, Whiggery, and cliquery

will attract their elements and foment divisions among the people, to

accomplish fancied schemes and accumulate power, while poverty, driven

to despair, like hunger forcing its way through a wall, will break

through the statutes of men to save life, and mend the breach in prison

glooms.

A still higher grade of what the "nobility of nations" call "great men"

will dally with all rights, in order to smuggle a fortune at "one fell

swoop," mortgage Texas, possess Oregon, and claim all the unsettled

regions of the world for hunting and trapping; and should an humble,

honest man, red, black, or white, exhibit a better title, these gentry

have only to clothe the judge with richer ermine, and spangle the

lawyer's finger with finer rings, to have the judgment of his peers and

the honor of his lords as a pattern of honesty, virtue, and humanity,

while the motto hangs on his nation's escutcheon--"_Every man has his

price!_"

Now, O people! people! turn unto the Lord and live, and reform this

nation. Frustrate the designs of wicked men. Reduce Congress at least

two-thirds. Two senators from a State and two members to a million of

population will do more business than the army that now occupy the

halls of the national legislature. Pay them two dollars and their board

per diem (except Sundays). That is more than the farmer gets, and he

lives honestly. Curtail the officers of government in pay, number, and

power; for the Philistine lords have shorn our nation of its goodly

locks in the lap of Delilah.

Petition your State legislatures to pardon every convict in their

several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them,

in the name of the Lord, _Go thy way, and sin no more_.

Advise your legislators, when they make laws for larceny, burglary,

or any felony, to make the penalty applicable to work upon roads,

public works, or any place where the culprit can be taught more

wisdom and more virtue, and become more enlightened. Rigor and

seclusion will never do as much to reform the propensities of men as

reason and friendship. Murder only can claim confinement or death.

Let the penitentiaries be turned into seminaries of learning, where

intelligence, like the angels of heaven, would banish such fragments of

barbarism. Imprisonment for debt is a meaner practice than the savage

tolerates, with all his ferocity. "_Amor vincit omnia_." (Love conquers

all.)

Petition, also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave States, your

legislators to abolish slavery by the year 1850, or now, and save the

abolitionist from reproach and ruin, infamy and shame.

Pray Congress to pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of

the surplus revenue arising from the sale of public lands and from the

deduction of pay from the members of Congress.

Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire him to labor

like other human beings; for "an hour of virtuous liberty on earth is

worth a whole eternity of bondage." Abolish the practice in the army

and navy of trying men by court-martial for desertion. If a soldier or

marine runs away, send him his wages, with this instruction, that _his

country will never trust him again; he has forfeited his honor_.

Make HONOR the standard with all men. Be sure that good is rendered

for evil in all cases; and the whole nation, like a kingdom of kings

and priests, will rise up in righteousness, and be respected as wise

and worthy on earth, and as just and holy for heaven, by Jehovah, the

Author of perfection.

More economy in the national and state governments would make less

taxes among the people; more equality through the cities, towns, and

country, would make less distinction among the people; and more honesty

and familiarity in societies would make less hypocrisy and flattery in

all branches of the community; and open, frank, candid decorum to all

men, in this boasted land of liberty, would beget esteem, confidence,

union, and love; and the neighbor from any State or from any country,

of whatever color, clime, or tongue, could rejoice when he put his

foot on the sacred soil of freedom, and exclaim, The very name of

"_American_" is fraught with _friendship!_ Oh, then, create confidence,

restore freedom, break down slavery, banish imprisonment for debt, and

be in love, fellowship, and peace with all the world! Remember that

honesty is not subject to law. The law was made for transgressors.

Wherefore a Dutchman might exclaim--"_Ein cherlicher name ist besser

als Reichthum_." (A good name is better than riches.)

For the accommodation of the people in every State and Territory let

Congress show their wisdom by granting a national bank, with branches

in each State and Territory, where the capital stock shall be held

by the nation for the mother bank, and by the States and Territories

for the branches; and whose officers and directors shall be elected

yearly by the people, with wages at the rate of two dollars per day for

services; which several banks shall never issue any more bills than the

amount of capital stock in her vaults and the interest.

The net gain of the mother bank shall be applied to the national

revenue, and that of the branches to the States' and Territories'

revenues. And the bills shall be par throughout the nation, which will

mercifully cure that fatal disorder known in cities as _brokerage_, and

leave the people's money in their own pockets.

Give every man his constitutional freedom, and the President full

power to send an army to suppress mobs, and the States authority to

repeal and impugn that relic of folly which makes it necessary for the

governor of a State to make the demand of the President for troops, in

case of invasion or rebellion.

The governor himself may be a mobber; and instead of being punished,

as he should be, for murder or treason, he may destroy the very lives,

rights, and property he should protect. Like the good Samaritan,

send every lawyer, as soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of

heaven, to preach the Gospel to the destitute, without purse or scrip,

pouring in the oil and the wine. A learned priesthood is certainly more

honorable than "_an hireling clergy_."

As to the contiguous territories to the United States, wisdom would

direct no tangling alliance. Oregon belongs to this government

honorably; and when we have the red man's consent, let the Union

spread from the east to the west sea; and if Texas petitions Congress

to be adopted among the sons of liberty, give her the right hand of

fellowship, and refuse not the same friendly grip to Canada and Mexico.

And when the right arm of freemen is stretched out in the character

of a navy for the protection of rights, commerce and honor, let the

iron eyes of power watch from Maine to Mexico, and from California

to Columbia. Thus may union be strengthened, and foreign speculation

prevented from opposing broadside to broadside.

Seventy years have done much for this goodly land. They have burst the

chains of oppression and monarchy, and multiplied its inhabitants from

two to twenty millions, with a proportionate share of knowledge keen

enough to circumnavigate the globe, draw the lightning from the clouds,

and cope with all the crowned heads of the world.

Then why--oh, why will a once flourishing people not arise, phoenix-like,

over the cinders of Martin Van Buren's power, and over the sinking

fragments and smoking ruins of other catamount politicians, and over

the windfalls of Benton, Calhoun, Clay, Wright and a caravan of other

equally unfortunate law doctors, and cheerfully help to spread a

plaster and bind up the _burnt, bleeding wounds_ of a sore but blessed

country.

The Southern people are hospitable and noble. They will help to rid so

free a country of every vestige of slavery, whenever they are assured

of an equivalent for their property. The country will be full of money

and confidence when a national bank of twenty millions, and a State

bank in every State, with a million or more, gives a tone to monetary

matters, and make a circulating medium as valuable in the purses of a

whole community, as in the coffers of a speculating banker or broker.

The people may have faults, but they should never be trifled with. I

think Mr. Pitt's quotation in the British parliament of Mr. Prior's

couplet for the husband and wife, to apply to the course which the

king and ministry of England should pursue to the then colonies of the

_now_ United States, might be a genuine rule of action for some of the

_breath-made_ men in high places to use towards the posterity of this

noble, daring people:--

Be to her faults a little blind;

Be to her virtues very kind.

We have had Democratic Presidents, Whig Presidents, a

pseudo-Democratic-Whig President, and now it is time to have _a

President of the United States;_ and let the people of the whole Union,

like the inflexible Romans, whenever they find a _promise_ made by a

candidate that is not _practiced_ as an officer, hurl the miserable

sycophant from his exaltation, as God did Nebuchadnezzar, to crop the

grass of the field with a beast's heart among the cattle.

Mr. Van Buren said, in his inaugural address, that he went "into the

Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every

attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish slavery in the district of

Columbia, against the wishes of the slave holding States, and also with

a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference

with it in the States where it exists."

Poor little Matty made this rhapsodical sweep with the fact before

his eyes, that the State of New York, his native State, had abolished

slavery without a struggle or a groan. Great God, how independent!

From henceforth slavery is tolerated where it exists, constitution or

no constitution, people or no people, right or wrong: _Vox Matti--Vox

Diaboli_ ("the voice of Matti"--"the voice of the Devil.") And,

peradventure, his great "sub-treasury" scheme was a piece of the same

mind. But the man and his measures have such a striking resemblance

to the anecdote of the Welshman and his cart-tongue, that when the

Constitution was so long that it allowed slavery at the capitol of a

free people, it could not be cut off; but when it was so short that it

needed a _sub-treasury_ to save the funds of the nation, _it could be

spliced!_ Oh, granny, granny, what a long tail our puss has got! (As a

Greek might say, _Hysteron proteron_, (the cart before the horse)). But

his mighty whisk through the great national fire, for the presidential

chestnuts, _burnt the locks of his glory with the blaze of his folly_!

In the United States the people are the government, and their united

voice is the only sovereign that should rule, the only power that

should be obeyed, and the only gentlemen that should be honored at home

and abroad, on the land and on the sea. Wherefore, were I the President

of the United States, by the voice of a virtuous people, I would honor

the old paths of the venerated fathers of freedom; I would walk in

the tracks of the illustrious patriots who carried the ark of the

government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the

people and when that people petitioned to abolish slavery in the slave

States, I would use all honorable means to have their prayers granted,

and give liberty to the captive by paying the Southern gentlemen a

reasonable equivalent for his property; that the whole nation might be

free indeed!

When the people petitioned for a national bank, I would use my best

endeavors to have their prayers answered, and establish one on national

principles to save taxes, and make them the controllers of its ways

and means. And when the people petitioned to possess the Territory of

Oregon, or any other contiguous territory, I would lend the influence

of a chief magistrate to grant so reasonable a request, that they

might extend the mighty efforts and enterprise of a free people from

the east to the west sea, and make the wilderness blossom as the rose.

And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union of the

sons of liberty, my voice would be _come_--yea, come, Texas; come,

Mexico; come, Canada; and come, all the world: let us be brethren, let

us be one great family, and let there be a universal peace. Abolish

the cruel custom of prisons (except certain cases), penitentiaries,

courts-martial for desertion; and let reason and friendship reign over

the ruins of ignorance and barbarity; yea, I would, as the universal

friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and open

the hearts of all people, to behold and enjoy freedom--unadulterated

freedom; and God, who once cleansed the violence of the earth with

a flood, whose Son laid down His life for the salvation of all His

Father gave Him out of the world, and who has promised that He will

come and purify the world again with fire in the last days, should be

supplicated by me for the good of all people. With the highest esteem,

I am a friend of virtue and of the people.

JOSEPH SMITH.

Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb. 7, 1844.

APPENDIX IV.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARTYRDOM OF JOSEPH SMITH, BY PRESIDENT JOHN TAYLOR.

BEING requested by Elders George A. Smith and Wilford Woodruff, Church

historians, to write an account of events that transpired before, and

took place at, the time of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, in Carthage

jail, in Hancock County, State of Illinois, I write the following,

principally from memory, not having access at this time to any public

documents relative thereto farther than a few desultory items contained

in Ford's "History of Illinois." I must also acknowledge myself

considerably indebted to George A. Smith who was with me when I wrote

it, and who, although not there at the time of the bloody transaction,

yet, from conversing with several persons who were in the capacity of

Church historians, and aided by an excellent memory, has rendered me

considerable service.

These and the few items contained in the note at the end of this

account are all the aid I have had. I would further add that the items

contained in the letter, in relation to dates especially, may be

considered strictly correct.

After having written the whole, I read it over to the Hon. J. M.

Bernhisel, who with one or two slight alterations, pronounced it

strictly correct. Brother Bernhisel was present most of the time. I

am afraid that, from the length of time that has transpired since the

occurrence, and having to rely almost exclusively upon my memory, there

may be some slight inaccuracies, but I believe that in the general

it is strictly correct. As I figured in those transaction from the

commencement to the end, they left no slight impression on my mind.

In the year 1844, a very great excitement prevailed in some parts of

Hancock, Brown and other neighboring counties of Illinois, in relation

to the Mormons, and a spirit of vindictive hatred and persecution was

exhibited among the people, which was manifested in the most bitter and

acrimonious language, as well as by acts of hostility and violence,

frequently threatening the destruction of the citizens of Nauvoo and

vicinity, and utter annihilation of the Mormons and Mormonism, and

in some instances breaking out in the most violent acts of ruffianly

barbarity. Persons were kidnapped, whipped, persecuted and falsely

accused of various crimes; their cattle and houses injured, destroyed,

or stolen; vexatious prosecutions were instituted to harass and annoy.

In some remote neighborhoods they were expelled from their homes

without redress, and in others violence was threatened to their persons

and property, while in others every kind of insult and indignity were

heaped upon them, to induce them to abandon their homes, the County or

the State.

These annoyances, prosecutions and persecutions were instigated through

different agencies and by various classes of men, actuated by different

motives, but all uniting in the one object--prosecution, persecution

and extermination of the Saints.

There were a number of wicked and corrupt men living in Nauvoo and

its vicinity, who had belonged to the Church, but whose conduct was

incompatible with the Gospel; they were accordingly dealt with by the

Church and severed from its communion. Some of these had been prominent

members, and held official stations either in the city or Church. Among

these were John C. Bennett, formerly mayor; William Law, counselor

to Joseph Smith; Wilson Law, his natural brother, and general in the

Nauvoo Legion; Dr. R. D. Foster, a man of some property, but with a

very bad reputation; Francis and Chauncey Higbee, the latter a young

lawyer, and both sons of a respectable and honored man in the Church,

known as Judge Elias Higbee, who died about twelve months before.

Besides these, there were a great many apostates, both in the city

and county, of less notoriety, who for their delinquencies, had been

expelled from the Church. John C. Bennett and Francis and Chauncey

Higbee were cut off from the Church; the former was also cashiered from

his generalship for the most flagrant acts of seduction and adultery;

and the developments in the cases were so scandalous that the High

Council, before which they were tried, had to sit with closed doors.

William Law, although counselor to Joseph, was found to be his most

bitter foe and maligner, and to hold intercourse, contrary to all law,

in his own house, with a young lady resident with him; and it was

afterwards proven that he had conspired with some Missourians to take

Joseph Smith's life, and was only saved by Josiah Arnold and Daniel

Garn, who, being on guard at his house, prevented the assassins from

seeing him. Yet, although having murder in his heart, his manners were

generally courteous and mild, and he was well calculated to deceive.

General Wilson Law was cut off from the Church for seduction,

falsehood, and defamation; both the above were also court-martialed by

the Nauvoo Legion, and expelled. Foster was also cut off I believe,

for dishonesty, fraud and falsehood. I know he was eminently guilty of

the whole, but whether these were the specific charges or not, I don't

know, but I do know that he was a notoriously wicked and corrupt man.

Besides the above characters and Mormonic apostates, there were

other three parties. The first of these may be called religionists,

the second politicians, and the third counterfeiters, black-legs,

horse-thieves and cut-throats.

The religious party were chagrined and maddened because Mormonism came

in contact with their religion, and they could not oppose it from the

scriptures. Thus like the ancient Jews, when enraged at the exhibition

of their follies and hypocrisies by Jesus and His apostles, so these

were infuriated against the Mormons because of their discomfiture

by them; and instead of owning the truth and rejoicing in it, they

were ready to gnash upon them with their teeth, and to persecute the

believers in principles which they could not disprove.

The political party were those who were of opposite politics to us.

There were always two parties, the Whigs and Democrats, and we could

not vote for one without offending the other; and it not unfrequently

happened that candidates for office would place the issue of their

election upon opposition to the Mormons, in order to gain political

influence from the religious prejudice, in which case the Mormons were

compelled, in self-defense, to vote against them, which resulted almost

invariably against our opponents. This made them angry; and although it

was of their own making, and the Mormons could not be expected to do

otherwise, yet they raged on account of their discomfiture, and sought

to wreak their fury on the Mormons. As an instance of the above, when

Joseph Duncan was candidate for the office of governor of Illinois, he

pledged himself to his party that, if he could be elected, he would

exterminate or drive the Mormons from the State. [1] The consequence

was that Governor Ford was elected. The Whigs, seeing that they had

been out-generaled by the Democrats in securing the Mormon vote, became

seriously alarmed, and sought to repair their disaster by raising a

crusade against the people. The Whig newspapers teemed with accounts

of the wonders and enormities of Nauvoo, and of the awful wickedness

of a party which could consent to receive the support of such

miscreants. Governor Duncan, who was really a brave, honest man, and

who had nothing to do with getting the Mormon charters passed through

the Legislature, took the stump on this subject in good earnest, and

expected to be elected governor almost on this question alone.

The third party, composed of counterfeiters, black-legs, horse-thieves

and cut-throats, were a pack of scoundrels that infested the whole of

the western country at that time. In some districts their influence

was so great as to control important State and County offices. On this

subject Governor Ford has the following:

"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 the most of them were

located in the counties of Ogle, Winnebago, Lee and De Kalb.