CHAPTER XIII.
Uprising Of The Non-Mormons--Smith's Arrest
Resolutions Adopted at Warsaw--Organizing and Arming of the People--Action of Governor Ford--Smith's Arrest--Departure of the Prisoners for Carthage
THE gauntlet thus thrown down by
Smith was promptly taken up by his non-Mormon neighbors, and public meetings
were held in various places to give expression to the popular indignation. At
such a meeting in Warsaw, Hancock County, eighteen miles down the river, the
following was among the resolutions adopted: --
"Resolved, that the time, in our opinion,
has arrived when the adherents of Smith, as a body, should be driven from the
surrounding settlements into Nauvoo; that the Prophet and his miscreant
adherents should then be demanded at their hands, and, if not surrendered, a
war of extermination should be waged, to the entire destruction, if necessary
for our protection, of his adherents."
Warsaw was considered the most violent anti-Mormon
neighborhood, the Signal newspaper there being especially bitter in its
attacks; but the people in all the surrounding country began to prepare for
"war" in earnest. At Warsaw 150 men were mustered in under General
Knox, and $1000 was voted for supplies. In Carthage, Rushville, Green Plains,
and many other towns in Illinois men began organizing themselves into military
companies, cannon were ordered from St. Louis, and the near-by places in Iowa,
as well as some in Missouri, sent word that their aid could be counted on.
Rumors of all sorts of Mormon outrages were circulated, and calls were made for
militia, here to protect the people against armed Mormon bands, there against
Mormon thieves. Many farmhouses were deserted by their owners through fear, and
the steamboats on the river were crowded with women and children, who were sent
to some safe settlement while the men were doing duty in the militia ranks.
Many of the alarming reports were doubtless started by non-Mormons to inflame
the public feeling against their opponents, others were the natural outgrowth
of the existing excitement.
On June 17 a committee from Carthage made to Governor Ford so urgent a request for the calling out of the militia, that he decided to visit the disturbed district and make an investigation on his own account.1 On arriving at Carthage he found a considerable militia force already assembled as a posse comitatus, at the call of the constables. This force, and similar ones in McDonough and Schuyler counties, he placed under command of their own officers. Next, the governor directed the mayor and council of Nauvoo to send a committee to state to him their story of the recent doings. This they did, convincing him, by their own account, of the outrageous character of the proceedings against the Expositor. He therefore arrived at two conclusions: first, that no authority at his command should be spared in bringing the Mormon leaders to justice; and, second, that this must be done without putting the Mormons in danger of an attack by any kind of a mob. He therefore add ressed the militia force from each county separately, urging on them the necessity of acting only within the law; and securing from them all a vote pledging their aid to the governor in following a strictly legal course, and protecting from violence the Mormon leaders when they should be arrested.
1 The story of the events just preceding Joseph Smith's death are taken from Governor Ford's report to the Illinois legislature, and from his "History of Illinois."
The governor then sent word to Smith that he and
his associates would be protected if they would surrender, but that arrested
they should be, even if it took the whole militia force of the state to
accomplish this. The constable and guards who carried the governor's mandate to
Nauvoo found the city a military camp. Smith had placed it under martial law,
assembled the Legion, called in all the outlying Mormons, and ordered that no
one should enter or leave the place without submitting to the strictest
inquiry. The governor's messengers had no difficulty, however, in gaining
admission to Smith, who promised that he and the members of the Council would
accompany the officers to Carthage the next morning (June 23) at eight o'clock.
But at that time the accused did not appear, and, without any delay or any
effort to arrest the men who were wanted, the officers returned to Carthage and
reported that all the accused had fled.
Whatever had been the intention of Smith when the
constable first appeared, he and his associates did surrender, as the governor
had expressed a belief that they would do. Statements of the circumstances of
the surrender were written at the time by H. P. Reid and James W. Woods of
Iowa, who were employed by the Mormons as counsel, and were printed in the
Times and Seasons, Vol. V, No. 12. Mr. Woods, according to these
accounts, arrived in Nauvoo on Friday, June 21, and, after an interview with
Smith. and his friends, went to Carthage the next evening to assure Governor
Ford that the Nauvoo officers were ready to obey the law. There he learned that
the constable and his assistants had gone to Nauvoo to demand his clients'
surrender; but he does not mention their return without the prisoners. He must
have known, however, that the first intention of Smith and the Council was to
free from the wrath of their neighbors. The "Life of Brigham Young,"
published by Cannon & Sons, Salt Lake City, 1893, contains this statement:
--
"The Prophet hesitated about giving
himself up, and started, on the night of June 22, with his brother Hyrum, W.
Richards, John Taylor, and a few others for the Rocky Mountains. He was,
however, intercepted by his friends, and induced to abandon his project, being
chided with cowardice and with deserting his people. This was more than he
could bear, and so he returned, saying: 'If my life is of no value to my
friends, it is of no value to myself. We are going back to be
slaughtered.'"
It will be remembered that Young, Rigdon, Orson Pratt,
and many others of the leading men of the church were absent at this time, most
of them working up Smith's presidential "boom." Orson Pratt, who was
then in New Hampshire, said afterward, "If the Twelve had been here, we
would not have seen him given up."
Woods received from the governor a pledge of protection
for all who might be arrested, and an assurance that if the Mormons would give
themselves up at Carthage, on Monday, the 24th, this would be accepted as a
compliance with the governor's orders. He therefore returned to Nauvoo with
this message on Sunday evening, and the next morning the accused left that
place with him for Carthage. They soon met Captain Dunn, who, with a company of
sixty men, was going to Nauvoo with an order from the governor for the state
arms in the possession of the Legion.2 Woods made an agreement with
Captain Dunn that the arms should be given up by Smith's order, and that his
clients should place themselves under the captain's protection, and return with
him to Carthage. The return trip to Nauvoo, and thence to Carthage, was not
completed until about midnight. The Mormons were not put under restraint that
night, but the next morning they surrendered themselves to the constable on a
charge of riot in connection with the destruction of the Expositor
plant.
2 It was stated that on two
hours' notice two thousand men appeared, all armed, and that they surrendered
their arms in compliance with the governor's plans.