The beginning of civil strife in Missouri dates from Rigdon•s 'salt a Fourt li of July oration t IS:04), in which there was offieially predicted a 11111' of extermination bet \\ cen Saints i;ent Hes. After the State election in \lignst. it was reported to Governor Boggs that the Mormons were "III 111111111'1111, :111(1 Well I he jitilieial power of 1 111111 bh%.•11 4.01110 jo, \\ as Who oily 1111111111' to execute eiN il criminal process against a 'Mormon. .\ regiincill of militia was thereupon called 11111. 11111 D111111(11111, fearing that much blood wotild be spilled, disbanded most of his force. \I the Prophet's suggestion the organization of the Company' let loose foraging over the vountgy. Then followed the killing of lhe lender, 'Fear Not' Patton. the defeat of the Missouri Captain Bogart, and the retali ation upon the Mormons in the infa tricots I last n's 11i11 Ala.,:icre. On October the novertior issued orders that the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State. There ensued a determined campaign against the Mormons. The final of surrender, offered at Far \Vest by General Lucas. included the payment of debts and the expulsion from the State of all the Mormons except the leaders, who were subject to trial. In the trial of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Rigdon, and others at Liberty. testimony was given that the members of the Dteeaife Band con sidered themselves as much bound to obey the heads of the Church as to obey God, and that Smith advised the people to spoil the Gentiles. The Prophet was confined in Liberty until April, 1839.
The fourth place of removal of the Saints was Illinois, and here their experience was but a repetition of their last migration. Friction was sure to arise because of the lawless squat ters and timber thieves in the northern eonnties and because of the politicians at Quincy and their toadying for the Mormon vote. Smith pur chased the city of Commerce on the banks of the Mississippi for about $70.000: the name of the town was changed to Nauvoo. supposedly Derived from a Hebrew word meaning beautiful. The rapid growth of Nanvoo was largely Inc to the religious propaganda. At home, proselyt ing was extended from Maine to Michigan, while mass; meetings were called in the Eastern cities to express sympathy with the Mormons as oppressed by the enemies of the freedom I If religions opinion. Abroad, the press knew even less of Latter-Day ambitions. since the Mormon appeals in England were directed to the illiterate and superstitious. At Liverpool, Orson Pratt published his Disco rery of .1 nrien and the Mormon organ, the M far, advertised "Bones set through faith in Christ." But that which appealed most strongly to English weaver. Seoteh miner. and Welsh peasant was the prospect of owning a farm in the land of where Lord had been raining down manna in rich profusion." The success of the Mormon missionaries in Great Britain is evinced by the growth of the system of chartering for emigrants. from one vessel and Dmpassengers in 1840, to S vessels and 1611 passengers in In the meantime Mormondom in America was flourishing loth financially and Through effieient lobbying the Illinois Legisla ture granted charters for the city of Nauvoo, the Nam°. Legion. and the University of the City of Nanvoo. Three-fourths of the university faeully was (drawn from local talent, being vont posed of Orson Pratt. Orson Spencer. and Sidney Itigdon, with Keeley. a graduate of Trinity College. Dublin, as president. An army officer. in 1`412. praised the Nauvoo Legion, but expressed his fear of the growth of a Mormon corps with religious enthusiasm and led on by :ambitions officers. This fear was justified by the attempted assassination of Governor Boggs. of Missouri. by 0, P. Rockwell. a 'Alorinon living at Nanvoo. The Prophet, having called Boggs a 'knave, butcher, and murderer,' was indicted as instigator of the plot. Ile was then by his own 1111111h-4ml court. Smith', ability to swing votes led to an enlargement of his political He called on President Van Buren with a claim for Mormon losses amounting to $1,381.044.55l4. Failing to ob
tain redress from Congress, he addressed letters of appeal to henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. On receiving non-committal answers from these rival Presidential candidates, he ran for Presi dent himself.
Smith was assassinated in jail at Carthage, Ill., June 27, 1S44. The causes leading up to his death were not merely political, but also financial and social. Ile secured relief from his Kirtland creditors only by taking advantage of the bankruptcy act, and the numerous thefts around Nauvoo were laid to the Mormons. Smith was also in trouble with his associates: in 1843 he deposed Rigdon as his adviser. On July 12, 1843. there came the famous "Revela tion on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, including Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph. the Seer. in Nauvoo, Ilancock County, Ill." This document was not promulgated until 1852; ifs authenticity is, however, proved by its similarity in style with the Book of Mormon. In this document the authority for polygamy is derived from the example of the Old Testament patriarchs, but the Mormon harem is confined to ten virgins. The Prophet's ideas on 'spiritual wifeism; like his early gospel, appear to have been 'plain and simple' and without any philo sophic basis. Whatever Smith taught on the `mysteries of the kingdom' is derivable from the writings of the two Pratts, who excogitated a system of metaphysics justifying plurality of wives. According to Orson, called the Gauge of Philosophy, "celestial marriage opens the way for all women who wish to marry to fill the measure of their creation. . . . It shows how the innumerable creations of God [i.e. this world and other planets] may be peopled with intelligences. . . . Woman without man and man without woman cannot be saved. The larger the progeny a man has, the greater will be the fullness of his eternal glory." These were the esoteric teachings of the Saints, whispered as early as 1840. Smith's plural wives numbered over a score, most of whom were taken by the Apostles Kimball and Young after the Prophet's death. Outward proof of the practice of polyg amy in the forties is to be sought. in such virulent persecutions as caused the expulsion of fifteen thousand Saints from Missouri, and in such publications as the Times awl Seasons' `extract from a letter from the vicinity of Nauvoo,' which says, "The excitement on both sides of the river against the Mormons is in creasing very fast. The conduct of Joseph Smith and the other leaders is such that no community of white men can tolerate." Turmoil now arose in the Mormon camp itself. Three well-informed men, Dr. Foster and the two Laws, started a paper called the Expositor, which, besides advocating 'disobedience to political revelations,' sought to 'explode the vicious principles of Joseph Smith.' The first and only number condemned the Church appro priation of property without accounting, the preaching of the doctrine of plural gods, sealing, and the plurality of wives. The wanton destruction of the Expositor press and property on June 10th under the order of Joseph Smith. as lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion, was succeeded by great commotion among non-Mormons. Outlying counties raised men and money for a 'war: against the Saints, for Nauvoo was now declared under martial law. On June 22d the Prophet and a few others started to flee to the Rocky Mountains, but upon Governor Ford's promise of protection, Smith surrendered himself at Car thage on the 24th. The first arrest was made on a charge of riot, the second on a charge of treason in levying war against the State. In appointing the Carthage Grays, who were the avowed enemies of the Smiths:, as a guard over the jail, the Governor made a fatal blunder. On June 27th. with the evident collusion of the guard, a band of disguised assailants, presumably from the Warsaw regiment, brutally murdered the Prophet and his brother Hyrum.