landed, and safely removed it to a large stone warehouse, where they assembled under arms, threatening to make those, who should attempt its seizure, know the virtue of their cartridges. The excitement now ran high, and on Tuesday evening, September 7th, a mob assembled before the warehouse, demanding, that the press be delivered up to them. The abolitionists within replied, that they were well provided with arms and ammunition, and would sooner die than surrender the press. The mob hurled stones against the house, making preparations for a general assault, when a shot was fired from within, killing one of the crowd almost instantaneously. Ladders were immediately sent for, horns were blown, and the bells of the city rung, armed men arriving from all quarters. A ladder being placed on that side of the house, which was without windows, a man ascended it with a burning torch in his hand. Whilst several shots were exchanged between the crowd and the party within, Mr. Lovejoy twice left the building, firing each time without effect at the crowd, and retreating immediately. The third time, however, he ventured out with one of his party, he was shot, and fell mortally wounded. Whilst the flames were cousuming the roof, the multitude continued to fire at the building. Seeing, that if they further persisted in their pretensions, they were doomed to destruction, the men within surrendered the press, and were permitted to make a hasty retreat. The principal instigators of the mob were afterwards arrested, but never convicted. Thus ended the "Alton Tragedy," disgraceful to all concerned, and causing, at the time of its occurrence, an immense excitement throughout the Union.

About the year 1840, many riots occurred in the northern part of the State. People there had settled upon public lands of the United States, and by establishing farms and building villages, had greatly improved them. The settlers had mutually agreed to protect each other in their claims, but there were many, who, with the view of dispossessing the owners and securing the lands for themselves, disputed their right, which was a prolific source of riots and disturbance. The northern portion of the State also, was again infested with organized bands of murderers and horse-thieves, who, in some of the counties, and especially in the county of Ogle, were so numerous as to overawe justice. They would, as formerly, by seating some from their own number on

the juries, and hiring crowds of perjured witnesses for their defence, manage to prorogue the trial of their cause from one term to another, and insure to themselves an acquittal. The people, in their turn, formed themselves into companies of "Regulators," as before, seized the most notorious rogues, whipped several of them, and expelled the rest from the country. In one instance, a father and his son, both hardened murderers, were tried, convicted, and summarily executed on the spot; this act of stern justice struck the rogues with terror, rendering them averse to further defiance of the laws of the State.

Nothing else deserving notice happened until the year 1840, when the people generally known by the name of "Mormons," first began to figure conspicuously in the history of the State. They called themselves "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," and belonged to a sect started and headed by "Joe Smith," for whom they claimed the gift of prophetic power. "Joe Smith" was born at Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23d of December, 1805. His parents were so poor as to be unable to give their son even a common education. Thus "Joe Smith" grew up in ignorance, being compensated for his want of knowledge by a naturally crafty and cunning disposition. His parents removed to Palmyra, New York, when he was ten years of age. Here he led an idle, dreaming life, rambled through the woods, exerting himself, in company with his father, to excavate buried treasures, or to indicate, for a valuable consideration, the place, where wells might be dug and water found. During the time he resided in Palmyra, he came in contact with one Sidney Rigdon, who was in possession of a religious romance, written by a clergyman in Ohio, since dead. This being communicated to Joe Smith, he proposed that it should be made the basis of a new religion. They concerted a story to this effect, that golden plates had been dug up somewhere near Palmyra, with inscriptions in miraculous characters, which none but those inspired by God could read; giving an account of the destinies of the ten lost tribes of Israel, their wanderings through Asia, and their settlement in America, where Christ. came to preach to them the doctrine of salvation, and was crucified, as he had been in Jerusalem. The plates then continued the history of these early American Christians, until the time, when God, provoked by their great wickedness, determined to exterminate them, by caus

ing the Lamanites, the heathen of America, and the Nephites, the Christians, to make war with each other. A battle was fought between the two parties, in which millions were killed on either side. The Nephites were annihilated, with the exception of Mormon, and Moroni, and a few others, all of them righteous men, who were permitted by the Lord to make good their escape, and afterwards directed by him to inscribe the history of these miraculous events on plates of gold, and bury them in the earth, where they were to remain, until they should be brought to the knowledge of mankind, fourteen centuries afterwards.

At the time he formed an acquaintance with Sidney Rigdon, the prophet, according to his own statements, had profoundly meditated on religious matters, and had especially been very anxious about the salvation of his soul. He had seen innumerable sects and doctrines, all professing to teach the knowledge of the true way to heaven; and this truth had taken hold of his mind with irresistible force, that God could only be the author of one doctrine, and that all the sects he had seen, were very far from following the same. He searched and examined the Scriptures, devoutly believing what he read; and he became aware, that one ought to apply to God himself, who would be willing to diffuse light through the darkness, by revealing unto the true believer his own divine will. He therefore retired from the noise and confusion of the world to a solitary place, near his father's house, where he addressed fervent prayers to the "Most High." Whilst he was praying, suddenly a light began to descend towards him, which, by the time it had reached the tops of the trees, illuminated the whole country around. It then descended towards the earth till it enveloped him, when two brilliant personages stood at once before him, and informed him that his sins were forgiven, that none of the Churches existing on earth followed the doctrine of God, but that he himself, at some future time, would be instructed in the full knowledge of it.

On the 23d of September, 1823, the prophet had another vision. Whilst he was devoutly praying to God, a light purer and more brilliant than the light of day itself, burst into his room, apparently consuming the whole house with fire, and shaking his body as by an ague, causing him to be transported with bliss, and to sink into an

unspeakable rapture. On a sudden, a glorious personage appeared before him, in a snow white garment without a seam, diffusing a light around him surpassing in its splendor even that of the first. This supernatural being announced himself as an angel, bringing the glorious tidings unto him, that his prayers had been agreeable to the Lord, that his sins were forgiven, that God's covenant with Israel was about to be fulfilled, and that the millenium of the true Gospel and of universal bliss and happiness had arrived. The angel then told him the history of the Indians, who were the descendants of those ten tribes of Israel settled in America, which had been almost exterminated on account of their awful wickedness; that the holy records of these events had been safely deposited beyond the reach of the wicked, and that he was the chosen servant of God to bring them to light, and to disclose their miraculous contents unto all mankind.

The angel then disappeared, but returned several times afterwards, instructing him, where the holy records were to be found, and telling him to take them away and commence the work of God on earth. The prophet went to the place indicated, and discovered them on a hill, in a stone box, near Palmyra. They consisted of gold plates, inscribed with hieroglyphical characters, the plates being very thin, and fastened together by three rings, composing altogether a volume of six inches in thickness. He also found in the same box two stones of surpassing transparency, the Urim and Thummim, used by ancient seers to discern things past or future.

As the admiring prophet, filled with the Holy Ghost, was about to remove these treasures, the angel appeared again to him, and said, "Look ""' and he saw the devil, surrounded by an immense train of his associates.

After receiving further instructions from the angel, he started home, but was attacked on the road by two scoundrels, and barely escaped with his life. He then moved to Pennsylvania, where, with the aid of inspiration and of the Urim and Thummim, he commenced translating the plates, finishing a part of the book of Mormon, which contained the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as he had preached it in America, and was destined to restore pristine Christianity, and to convert the Gentiles, and even the Jews themselves, to the faith. The disciples, who flocked to the prophet, pretended to have the gift of prophecy,

and that of tongues, and, as during the times of the early Christian Church, so now were miracles wrought, as, for example, the cure of diseases. Many of the followers of the prophet solemnly certified before the public, to the effect, that they had seen the plates, and the engravings thereon, which were of a curious workmanship; and that these plates had been brought before their eyes by an angel from heaven, as also God had revealed to them, that they were translated by his own divine power.

Within a short time, Joe Smith and his apostles had made many converts, who, on the 6th day of April, 1830, formed themselves into a Church, in Manchester, in the State of New York, whence they removed to Jackson county, Missouri; here they built the town of "Independence." They claimed, that not only the country, but the whole world belonged to them, as the saints of the Lord. Such arrogance could not be endured. The Missourians ducked some of these vain pretenders in the river, tarred and feathered several, killed others, and forced the residue to remove to the county of Clay, on the opposite side of the Missouri. The prophet, however, established himself at Kirtland, in Ohio, where, in 1836, a very large assembly of the "Saints" was held, at which it was announced "that the work of God had greatly increased in America, and in England, Scotland, Wales, and the islands of the sea." A bank was started by the prophet, called "The Kirtland Safety Bank," of which he himself was the president. This bank soon failed for a large amount; its failure, the cause of which could be clearly traced to a want of integrity on the part of the prophet, inflamed the people of the town and its vicinity with such a degree of resentment against him, that the prophet, afraid to get himself into trouble, removed, with his apostles, elders, and the saints, to the remotest north-west corner of Missouri, where their arrogance and presumption speedily made them many enemies. Their leaders refused to acknowledge the authority of the government of Missouri. Sidney Rigdon, in a fourth of July speech, delivered before the Mormons, openly proclaimed, that the prophet had resolved no longer to submit to the Missourian Government. Rupture having now become inevitable, both parties determined to settle their differences by the edge of the sword. A battle was fought between the Mormons and a body of Missourians, under Major Bogart, in which the former were