few days at Carthage. Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith were again arrested
on a charge based on the destruction of the _Nauvoo Expositor_. They
were violently dragged to prison by the Carthage Greys, without
examination, on an illegal _mittimus_ prepared by Justice Robert F.
Smith. The next day they were dragged forth from the jail, again by
the Carthage Greys, though the _mittimus_ had ordered that they should
remain imprisoned "until released by due course of law." And again,
without examination, they were returned to the jail and thrust into
close confinement. There was no attempt at a fair, legal trial. On the
contrary, every effort was made to pervert the courts, to detain the
witnesses for the defense, to delay proper proceedings, and otherwise
to divert the course of justice. The mob leaders declared openly, "The
law is too short for these men, but they must not be suffered to go
at large"--"if the law will not reach them, powder and ball must."
In short, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were overcome
finally, not by the just decisions of a properly constituted court of
law, but by the bloodthirsty passion of an infuriated mob. As with
the lowly Nazarene, so with the humble American Prophet, the law
would have washed its hands of the case, for it found in the Prophet
an innocent man void of offense; but the lawless, passion-ruled mob
would not have it so. They set aside the decisions of the courts.
They revolted from the mild governance of the chief executive of the
state. The final scene in the drama of the Restoration is a scene of
mob-violence and murder. It occurred not long before sun-down on the
eventful twenty-seventh of June, 1844. True to the threats that had
been uttered; true to the determination that had been formed; true to
the bitter, though unjust, hatred that had been aroused against the
Prophet,--a mob of frenzied, lawless men rushed upon Carthage jail to
fulfil their predictions of violence. When they fled precipitately into
the woods a few minutes later, terrified by the grossness of their own
brutality, they had accomplished their murderous resolve. The Prophet,
Joseph Smith, and the Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, lay dead.
Three points are clearly manifest: first, the Prophet and the Patriarch
were brutally mobbed, and murdered, without justifiable cause; second,
the Prophet foreknew, by the spirit of inspiration, that he was going
to a violent death; third, in the face of the violent death which
he knew to be coming to him, the Prophet displayed a never-failing
fearlessness--a complete reliance upon the righteousness of his cause.
While his sworn enemies were seeking to destroy him, he was himself
giving proof, by his humility and his uprightness, by his courage and
his manliness, and by his unswerving devotion to his trust, that he
was far and away removed from guilt, and that he was indeed a prophet
of the living God. Before he was committed to prison, several of the
officers of the troops at Carthage, curious to see the Prophet, visited
him in his room at the inn. The Prophet asked them if they could detect
anything in his appearance that would indicate that he was so desperate
a character as his defamers represented him to be.
The visitors replied, "No, sir; your appearance would indicate the
very contrary. General Smith, but we cannot see what is in your heart,
neither can we tell what are your intentions."
"Very true, gentlemen," returned the Prophet, "you cannot see what is
in my heart, and you are therefore unable to judge me or my intentions;
but I can see what is in your hearts, and will tell you what I see.
I can see that you thirst for blood, and nothing but my blood will
satisfy you. It is not for crime of any description that I and my
brethren are thus continually persecuted and harassed by our enemies,
but there are other motives, and some of them I have expressed, so far
as relates to myself; and inasmuch as you and the people thirst for
blood, I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you shall witness
scenes of blood and sorrow to your entire satisfaction. Your souls
shall be perfectly satiated with blood, and many of you who are now
present shall have an opportunity to face the cannon's mouth from
sources you think not of; and those people that desire this great evil
upon me and my brethren, shall be filled with regret and sorrow because
of the scenes of desolation and distress that await them. They shall
seek for peace, and shall not be able to find it. Gentlemen, you shall
find what I have told you to be true."[E]
[Footnote E: "History of the Church," Vol. VI, p. 566.]
The events of the next two days proved that the Prophet's declaration
of what was in the hearts of his, visitors was right. And the visitors
had not long to live after the martyrdom of the Prophet to see a
terrible fulfillment of all that he had predicted in the name of the
Lord. The hearts of many of them were rent at the scenes of distress,
of desolation, and of blood, that they witnessed before they were
themselves taken away.
At the prison, the Prophet and his friends manifested the same
fearless spirit, the same degree of divine inspiration, and the same
devotion to the cause of Truth. Joseph Smith, and Hyrum Smith, and
their associates, took turns preaching to the guards. These noble men
explained to their keepers the true nature of their missions upon
earth, and bore irrefragable testimonies to the truth of the Gospel
that they preached. Now, the guards were themselves poisoned by
bigotry, by prejudice, by bitter hatred. Many of them belonged to the
mob-militia that was sworn to murder the Prophet. Yet, some of them
were so affected by the preaching of the prisoners that they asked to
be relieved before their watch was out. Many of them admitted freely
that they had been imposed upon. Frequently, one of them was heard
to call to the others, "Let us go home, boys, for I will not fight
any longer against these men." So evident was the innocence of the
prisoners, that, had they been given a fair, legal trial, the court
would have acquitted them without question, and would have given them,
moreover, the full protection of the law. It was the knowledge of this
fact that led the Prophet's persecutors to say, "If the law will not
reach them powder and ball must."
During the last night in Carthage jail, the brethren testified again
of the divinity of their missions. There were present in the prison
that night Willard Richards, John Taylor, John S. Fullmer, Stephen
Markham, Dan Jones, Hyrum Smith, and Joseph Smith. Elder John Taylor
prayed. After the prayer, Patriarch Hyrum Smith read from the "Book of
Mormon." He selected certain passages relating cases of imprisonment of
the servants of God for the Gospel's sake, and telling how they were
miraculously delivered. Evidently, Hyrum still entertained hope that he
and his brother would be delivered from their enemies. When Hyrum had
finished his comments on the passages he had read, the Prophet himself
addressed his friends and the guards. This address in Carthage jail was
in the nature of a sermon--the last sermon delivered by the Prophet in
mortal life. He bore a powerful testimony to the divine authenticity of
the "Book of Mormon." He testified to the actuality of the restoration
of the Gospel, with all its authorities and blessings. He alarmed
solemnly that the restoration of the Gospel had been effected through
the ministration of angels. He declared that the kingdom of God was
again established upon the earth. He claimed that it was for the
Gospel's sake that he was imprisoned, and not because he had violated
any law either of God or of man. Thus devotedly, fearlessly, did the
great Prophet, with the certain foreknowledge of death in his heart,
testify to the divinity of his mission to earth.
On the day that he was foully murdered, it was reported to the Prophet
that the mob had solemnly determined to kill him before sundown. He
retained, however, his serene composure. Above all, he remained to
the last true to the trust God had reposed in him. It did not once
occur to him that he could save his own life by denying his claims to
divine inspiration. On the contrary, on this last day of their life
upon earth, with the certainty of death apparent undoubtedly to both
of them, "Joseph and Hyrum bore a faithful testimony to the Latter-day
work, and the coming forth of the 'Book of Mormon,' and prophesied of
the triumph of the Gospel over all the earth, exhorting the brethren
present to faithfulness and persevering diligence in proclaiming the
Gospel, building up the Temple, and performing all the duties connected
with our holy religion."[F] Almost with his dying breath the Prophet
testified to the truth. And when he fell, it was with a cry to his God,
who had appointed him to labor and to suffer.
[Footnote F: "History of the Church," Vol. VI, p. 610.]
It was undoubtedly in the wise economy of God that Joseph Smith was
called upon to sacrifice his life. The Prophet was tried to the
uttermost. Let us suppose again for a moment that Joseph Smith was an
imposter--that he was trying to foist upon the world a monstrous fraud.
Undoubtedly he would have been willing to endure much for the success
of his undertaking. He might have yielded willingly to imprisonment,
and might have paid gracefully any penalty, short of death, imposed
by courts of law. But it is only fair to assume that life would have
been as dear to him as to anyone else. It is not probable that he would
have laid down his life for a mere imposture. It is not probable that
he would have been willing to make so rich a sacrifice, had it been
possible for him to recant--to deny what was an untruth anyway. More
probably, if he had been an imposter, Joseph Smith would have saved
his life, at the last, by avowing the imposture he had attempted to
establish. But Joseph Smith did not deny his divine, prophetic calling.
On the contrary, in the very presence of death, he testified to the
divinity of the great latter-day work which he had inaugurated. Neither
death nor the fear of death could break the assertion he had made many
years before, "I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew
it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it." This fact forms
another link in the chain of cumulative evidence. It does not prove
that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; but it does prove that he was
sincere, that he was no mere imposter. Added to what has gone before,
it strengthens the evidence that there was something more than earthly
inspiration in the life-work of Joseph Smith.
Moreover, through the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the world is left
without excuse. If the Prophet's mission had run smoothly; if there
had been no opposition; if there had been no persecution; if there had
been no imprisonments; if there had been finally no martyrdom,--then
the world might have justly derided the claims of the Prophet. He
could then never have been tried; his own conviction of his divinely
appointed mission could never have been tested. It could not then have
been known how the fervent testimonies of either the Prophet or his
followers would have withstood trial and tribulation. But the mission
of the Prophet did not run smoothly. Opposition began immediately
when he revealed the fact of the first vision, and followed him to
his death. Malignation and persecution pursued him relentlessly. Mobs
wreaked vengeance upon him for his Godliness, in acts of violence.
Perjured judges committed him to prison, not for any criminal act, but
for testifying of the Lord Jesus. Finally, he sacrificed his life, not
for any offense small or great against the law of the land, but for
being a prophet of the living God. He sealed his testimony with his
blood. Is there left to the world any excuse for not accepting his
testimony?
It appears then, that, throughout the terrible strain of those last
days of his life, Joseph Smith had a strange foreknowledge of the
coming martyrdom. Throughout those days, he faced fearlessly the death
he knew to be awaiting him. In the presence of that violent death, he
bore an unwavering testimony to the divine authority of the Church he
had been appointed by God to establish. He saw the chief executive of
the state of Illinois become faithless to his pledge of protection.
He saw the mob rush upon the prison where he was lodged. He saw his
devoted brother, Hyrum, fall dead before him. He knew what death was.
He knew that he had no power against it--unless it were to declare
himself an imposter and to deny his divine calling. This he could not
do. Through all the years his testimony had not been broken. It was not
broken now even by the fear of death. Could he have been an imposter?
No!
The fame of him has spread the world over. His followers are numbered
by the hundreds of thousands. Everywhere he is spoken of for good or
for ill. Gradually his friends are increasing. The good that is said of
him is growing; the evil is diminishing. Already many declare that he
was murdered in cold blood. The evidence of his great life-work is fast
establishing him in the hearts of men as a true Prophet of God.