which was, without doubt, the cause of the vision of Hiram Smith, patriarch in the Mormon Church, and brother of the prophet; in which God had revealed to him, that the Mormons must support Mr. Hoge, the democratic candidate. This vision, after the prophet himself had attested it to be a genuine one, decided the contest in favor of Mr. Hoge, who, having received 3000 votes in Nauvoo, was elected to Congress by 800 majority. Awful was the consternation of the whigs at this unexpected defeat: they again gave vent to their anger and boiling rage through the newspapers, which now, as formerly, teemed with accounts of the enormities and atrocities committed at Nauvoo; charging the democrats, who could consent to receive the votes of such miscreants, with horrible wickedness, well worthy of the fire of eternal damnation.

No further demand having been made by the Missourians for delivering up the prophet, the latter, together with his saints, continued in their usual course of arrogance and insolence. They published ordinances proclaiming, that no person in Nauvoo should be arrested on a foreign writ, without the approval of the Mayor, endorsed on the same; and that any person attempting to serve any foreign writ without any such approval, would be imprisoned for life. They also conceived the absurd idea of petitioning Congress to establish a separate territorial government for them in Nauvoo, thus rendering it morally certain, that they contemplated to erect an "imperium in imperio." Nay, to fill the measure of their arrogance, Joe Smith, in the spring of 1844, was announced by them as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, and 3000 missionaries were despatched in every direction, to electioneer for their prophet, and to reveal the "fullness of the gospel" to the astonished multitude. The ridicule, with which these devoted missionaries were overwhelmed by all sensible men, was but the just reward of this crowning piece of Mormon folly.

About this time, the prophet instituted a new and select order of the priesthood, who were to be his nobility, and the defenders of his throne. He also instituted an order called the Danite Band, who were to be his chosen body-guard. He then caused himself to be anointed priest and king, claiming to descend, in direct line, from Joseph, the son of Jacob, and prescribing the form of the oath of allegiance to himself which every one of his followers was to take.

He also instituted a female order, called "Spiritual Wives;" revealing this doctrine, that no woman could be "sealed up to eternal life," except by selecting a Mormon elder, with whom she was to share at least once her bed; and that any man was allowed to have one wife, and yet, at the same time, in a mystical, spiritual way, might enjoy the possession of many others; the truth of which doctrines he demonstrated, by referring to the examples of Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, the favorites of God; and was one of the first to illustrate their practical working, by seducing a number of women, and endeavoring to make the wife of William Law, one of his most talented disciples, his spiritual mistress. Such corrupt despotism could not be endured. William Law, an eloquent preacher, and five other leaders of the Mormons, resolved to set at naught the authority of the prophet, by establishing a newspaper in Nauvoo, intended to enlighten their brethren on their real condition, for which daring offence they were immediately tried by the Common Council, and having been abundantly convicted of innumerable crimes and misdemeanors, were ejected from the Mormon Church; their press, by order of the prophet, was scattered to the four winds. The expelled Mormons retired to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock county, and took out warrants against the Mayor and members of the Common Council, and others, who had been engaged in the outrage; these were, however, immediately taken before the Municipal Court, on a writ of habeas corpus, and discharged; upon which the seceding Mormons despatched a committee to the Governor, requesting him to call out the militia to assist them in arresting the offenders and bringing them to punishment. That high-handed proceeding, on the part of the prophet and his saints, by which the liberty of the press, one of the most sacred rights of a republican people, had been so rudely assailed, produced an immense excitement among a people already so much embittered against the Mormons, on account of their practice of voting in a body, so that none could aspire to the honors and offices of the county without the consent and approbation of the Mormons, who constituted the balance of power; as also on account of their apparent determination to establish a separate government, independent of the State; and, lastly, on account of their numerous robberies and petty larcenies. The militia of the county having been called out by

the constables, to serve as a "posse comitatus," to assist in the execution of the process, the Governor, who, on receiving the complaints of the rejected Mormons, had resolved to visit in person that section of the country, in order to inquire, on the spot, into the particulars of the whole affair, arriving at Carthage on the 21st of June, 1844, found a large military force assembled, which was hourly increasing. Having placed the whole force then assembled at Carthage under the command of their proper officers, he called them together, explaining to them what he could do and was willing to do, and exhorting them to keep strict order and discipline, and not to violate the authority of the laws to all these charges they cheerfully assented. Having received these assurances, the Governor despatched a force of ten men, with the constable, to Nauvoo, to make the necessary arrests, and escort the prisoners to head-quarters: to the culprits protection was to be extended, in case they should voluntarily submit.

In the meantime, Joe Smith, as Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion, had declared martial law in the city; the Mormons in the neighborhood of Nauvoo had marched to his assistance, the Legion had assembled under arms, and the city seemed one great military camp, all avenues to which were strictly guarded and watched. Upon the arrival of the constable and guard, the Mayor and Common Council at once agreed to surrender, and to proceed to Carthage early on the morning of the next day; but the constable and guard, who belonged to a faction of daring, violent spirits, who had secretly conspired to bring matters with the Mormons to extremities, made no effort to arrest them, nor would he stay one minute beyond the time allotted him, but immediately returned with the report, that the accused had fled, and could not be found.

Gov. Thomas Ford, who was soon informed of this base conduct of the constable and guard, reflecting that the season had just become suitable for the harvest, a delay of two weeks in the gathering of which might produce a general famine, and considering, also, that the terrible freshets at that time liable in all the rivers of the western country (one of which, the Mississippi, had risen several feet higher than was known before, overflowing the whole American bottom from eight to twenty feet deep, washing away houses, fences, and cattle, and nearly ruining the time-honored village of Kaskaskia; the other

rivers, in proportion to the dimensions of their beds, causing as much damage as the Mississippi), would render all efforts to procure provisions, in case an expedition should be undertaken, totally unavailing, resolved to postpone the general calling out of the militia, giving, in the meantime, another opportunity to the accused to surrender. He therefore made a demand upon the officers of the Mormon Legion to surrender the arms, with which the Legion, at the time of their incorporation, had been furnished by the State, and required, that the prophet-mayor of Nauvoo, together with his brother Hiram, and other conspicuous Mormon leaders, be delivered up. The arms, consisting of 3 pieces of cannon and 220 stand of small arms, were immediately given up, and on the 24th day of June, the illustrious prophet and his brother, together with those of his associates, who had been summoned by the warrant, entered Carthage, surrendering themselves as prisoners to the constable, on an indictment of riot. Having given such pledges as the justice of the peace deemed necessary, that they would appear at court to answer the charge, they were all of them released, save the prophet and his brother, who were detained on a charge of treason. There being no witnesses present at the time, the justice of the peace postponed the examination, meanwhile committing the illustrious prisoners for safe keeping to the county jail, a massive stone building. The Governor then despatched a company of militia, under the command of Capt. Singleton, to Nauvoo, to guard the town and take command of the Legion.

The force assembled at Carthage consisted of about 1200 men, some 500 more being stationed at Warsaw. Nearly all of those, who resided in Hancock county were clamorous for marching into Nauvoo, pleading, that this measure was indispensable, to strike terror into the Mormons, and to seize some apparatus supposed to be there for the manufacture of bogus coin, together with the counterfeit money itself. The Governor yielding to their entreaties, the 27th of June was appointed for the march, and Golden's Point, near the Mississippi, about equi-distant from Nauvoo and Warsaw, designated as the place of rendezvous. Whilst preparations were making for the expedition, the Governor learned, that a plan had been set on foot by some of his own party, to fire, under the cover of night, upon the troops, on the day of their arrival in Nauvoo, accusing the Mormons of the deed:

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for which they were to be massacred by the troops. Justly incensed at the barbarity of this plan, which would have cost the lives of thousands of inoffensive women and children, that a city like Nauvoo, then numbering 15,000 inhabitants, must necessarily contain; and irritated at the absurdity of the idea of taking the field against 3000 wellarmed men, with a force of but 1700, scantily provisioned for two days, Gov. Ford, at a council of officers, convened on the morning of the 27th of June, strongly urged them to desist from their sanguinary designs; but seeing, that a majority of the council were even more anxious than before to march into Nauvoo, being fearful, lest a collision might take place, he ordered the troops to be disbanded, both at Carthage and Warsaw, with the exception of three companies, two of which were appointed to guard the jail, while with the third he proposed to march to Nauvoo himself, to intimidate the Mormons, and search for the bogus coin and the apparatus for manufacturing it, about which the officers were so much troubled. Having left Gen. Deming in command of Carthage, and entrusted to two companies, under the command of Capt. R. F. Smith, of the Carthage Grays, the keeping of the jail, they promising to discharge their duty strictly according to law, Gov. Ford proceeded to Nauvoo, accompanied by Col. Buckmaster and Capt. Dunn's company of dragoons. Whilst on his march, having been notified, that an attack upon the jail was meditated, he ordered, that the baggage-wagons return to Carthage, and hurried with the utmost speed to Nauvoo, where he immediately convoked an assembly of the citizens, to whom he stated, in what particular the laws had been violated by their leaders; also the excitement and hatred prevailing everywhere against them, and the causes of it, call- . ing on them to keep the public peace; after which, having received a unanimous vote from the Mormons, that they would abide the laws and strictly observe their provisions, he returned on the evening of the same day, with the utmost despatch, to Carthage. He had scarcely proceeded two miles, when he was met by a Mormon, who told him, that the Smiths had been assassinated in jail early in the morning of that day. Anticipating the worst consequences from such a treach erous act, which was only too well calculated to rouse the fanatical, revengeful spirit of the Mormons, making them determined to wage a war of extermination, the Governor, in order to prepare for any