CHAPTER V.
The Mormons In Politics--Missouri Requisitions For Smith
Smith's Decree against Van Buren--How the Prophet swung the Mormon Vote back to the Democrats--The Attempted Assassination of Governor Boggs--Smith's Arrest and What Resulted from it--Defeat of a Whig Candidate by a Revelation
THE Mormons were now equipped in
their new home with large landed possessions, a capital city that exhibited a
phenomenal growth, and a form of local government which made Nauvoo a little
independency of itself; their prophet wielding as much authority and receiving
as much submission as ever; a Temple under way which would excel anything that
had been designed in Ohio or Missouri, and a stream of immigration pouring in
which gave assurance of continued numerical increase. What were the causes of
the complete overthrow of this apparent prosperity which so speedily followed?
These causes were of a twofold character, political and social. The two were
interwoven in many ways, but we can best trace them separately.
We have seen that a Democratic organization gave the
first welcome to the Mormon refugees at Quincy. In the presidential campaign of
1836 the vote of Illinois had been: Democratic, 17,275, Whig, 14,292; that of
Hancock County, Democratic, 260, Whig, 340. The closeness of this vote
explained the welcome that was extended to the new-comers.
It does not appear that Smith had any original party
predilections. But he was not pleased with questions which President Van Buren
asked him when he was in Washington (from November, 1839, to February, 1840)
seeking federal aid to secure redress from Missouri, and he wrote to the High
Council from that city, "We do not say the Saints shall not vote for him,
but we do say boldly (though it need not be published in the streets of Nauvoo,
neither among the daughters of the Gentiles), that we do not intend he shall
have our votes."1
1 Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p.452.
On his return to Illinois Smith was toadied to by the workers of both parties. He candidly told them that he had no faith in either; but the Whigs secured his influence, and, by an intimation that there was divine authority for their course, the Mormon vote was cast for Harrison, giving him a majority of 752 in Hancock County. In order to keep the Democrats in good humor, the Mormons scratched the last name on the Whig electoral ticket (Abraham Lincoln)2 and substituted that of a Democrat. This demonstration of their political weight made the Mormons an object of consideration at the state capital, and was the direct cause of the success of the petition which they sent there, signed by some thousands of names, asking for a charter for Nauvoo. The representatives of both parties were eager to show them favor. Bennett, in a letter to the Times and Seasons from Springfield, spoke of the readiness of all the members to vote for what the Mormons wanted, adding that "Linco ln had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final vote and congratulated me on its passage."
2 This is mentioned in "Joab's" (Bennett's) letter, Times and Seasons, Vol, II, p. 267.
In the gubernatorial campaign of 1841-1842 Smith
swung the Mormon vote back to the Democrats, giving them a majority of more
than one thousand in the county. This was done publicly, in a letter addressed
"To my friends in Illinois,"3 dated December 20, 1841, in
which the prophet, after pointing out that no persons at the state capital were
more efficient in securing the passage of the Nauvoo charter than the heads of
the present Democratic ticket, made this declaration: --
"The partisans in this county who expect
to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will find themselves
mistaken. We care not a fig for Whig or Democrat; they are both alike to us;
but we shall go for our friends, OUR TRIED FRIENDS, and
the cause of human liberty which is the cause of God.... Snyder and Moore are
known to be our friends.... We will never be justly charged with the sin
of ingratitude, -- they have served us, and we will serve
them."
3 Times and Seasons, Vol. III, p. 651.
If Smith had been a man possessing any judgment, he
would have realized that the political course which he was pursuing, instead of
making friends in either party, would certainly soon arraign both parties
against him and his followers. The Mormons announced themselves distinctly to
be a church, and they were now exhibiting themselves as a religious body
already numerically strong and increasing in numbers, which stood ready to obey
the political mandate of one man, or at least of one controlling authority. The
natural consequence of this soon manifested itself.
A congressional and a county election were approaching,
and a mass meeting, made up of both Whigs and Democrats of Hancock County, was
held to place in the field a non-Mormon county ticket. The fusion was not
accomplished without heart-burnings on the part of some unsuccessful aspirants
for nominations. A few of these went over to Smith, and the election resulted
in the success of the state Democratic and the Mormon local ticket, legislative
and county, Smith's brother William being elected to the House. It is easy to
realize that this victory did not lessen Smith's aggressive egotism.
Some important matters were involved in the next
political contest, the congressional election of August, 1843. The Whigs
nominated Cyrus Walker, a lawyer of reputation living in McDonough County, and
the Democrats J. P. Hoge, also a lawyer, but a weaker candidate at the polls.
Every one conceded that Smith's dictum would decide the contest.
On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while
sitting near a window in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded
so severely that his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime was
naturally charged to his Mormon enemies,4 and was finally narrowed
down to O. P. Rockwell,5 a Mormon living in Nauvoo, as the agent,
and Joseph Smith, Jr., as the instigator. Indictments were found against both
of them in Missouri, and a requisition for Smith's surrender was made by the
governor of that state on the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested under
the governor's warrant. Now came an illustration of the value to him of the
form of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken before his own
municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of habeas corpus.
This assumption of power by a local court aroused the indignation of
non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin characterized it somewhat
later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as "most absurd and ridiculous; to
attempt to exercise it is a gross usurpation of power that cannot be
tolerated."6
4 The hatred felt toward
Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was not concealed. Thus, an editorial in
the Times and Seasons of January 1, 1841, headed "Lilburn W.
Boggs," began, "The THING whose name stands at the head of this
article," etc. Referring to the ending of his term of office, the article
said, "Lilburn has gone down to the dark and dreary abode of his brother
and prototype, Nero, there to associate with kindred spirits and partake of the
dainties of his father's, the devil's, table."
Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith
say, on July 10, 1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be
exterminated," and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do it; also
that in the spring of that year he heard Smith, at a meeting of Danites, offer
to pay any man $500 who would secretly assassinate the governor. Bennett's
statement is only cited for what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired the
shot is within the limit of strict probability.
5 Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was
employed by General Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that
he fired the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill him. --
"Mormon Portraits," p. 255.
6 Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23.
Notwithstanding his release, Smith thought it best to remain in hiding for some time to escape another arrest, for which the governor ordered a reward of $200. About the middle of August his associates in Nauvoo concluded that the outlook for him was so bad, notwithstanding the protection which his city court was ready to afford, that it might be best for him to flee to the pine woods of the North country. Smith incorporates in his autobiography a long letter which he wrote to his wife at this time,7 giving her directions about this flight if it should become necessary. Their goods were to be loaded on a boat manned by twenty of the best men who could be selected, and who would meet them at Prairie du Chien: "And from thence we will wend our way like larks up the Mississippi, until the towering mountains and rocks shall remind us of the places of our nativity, and shall look like safety and home; and there we will bid defiance to Carlin, Boggs, Bennett, and all their whoris h whores and motley clan, that follow in their wake, Missouri not excepted, and until the damnation of Hell rolls upon them by the voice and dread thunders and trump of the eternal God."
7 Ibid., pp. 693-695.
In October Rigdon obtained from Justin Butterfield,
United States attorney for Illinois, an opinion that Smith could not be held on
a Missouri requisition for a crime committed in that state when he was in
Illinois. In December, 1842, Smith was placed under arrest and taken before the
United States District Court at Springfield, Illinois, under a writ of
habeas corpus issued by Judge Roger B. Taney of the State Supreme Court.
Butterfield, as his counsel, secured his discharge by Judge Pope (a Whig) who
held that Smith was not a fugitive from Missouri.
While these proceedings were pending, the Nauvoo City
Council (Smith was then mayor), passed two ordinances in regard to the
habeas corpus powers of the Municipal Court, one giving that court
jurisdiction in any case where a person "shall be or stand committed or
detained for any criminal, or supposed criminal, matter."8 This
was intended to make Smith secure from the clutches of any Missouri officer so
long as he was in his own city.
8 For text of these ordinances, see Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 165.
But Smith's enemy, General Bennett (who before this
date had been cast out of the fold), was now very active, and through his
efforts another indictment against Smith on the old charges of treason, murder,
etc., was found in Missouri, in June, 1843, and under it another demand was
made on the governor of Illinois for Smith's extradition. Governor Ford, a
Democrat, who had succeeded Carlin, issued a warrant on June 17, 1843, and it
was served on Smith while he was visiting his wife's sister in Lee County,
Illinois. An attempt to start with him at once for Missouri was prevented by
his Mormon friends, who rallied in considerable numbers to his aid. Smith
secured counsel, who began proceedings against the Missouri agent and obtained
a writ in Smith's behalf returnable, the account in the Times and
Seasons says, before the nearest competent tribunal, which "it was
ascertained was at Nauvoo" -- Smith's own Municipal Court. The prophet had
a sort of triumphal entry into Nauvoo, and t he question of the jurisdiction of
the Municipal Court in his case came up at once. Both of the candidates for
Congress, Walker (who was employed as his counsel) and Hoge, gave opinions in
favor of such jurisdiction, and, after a three hours' plea by Walker, the court
ordered Smith's release. Smith addressed the people of Nauvoo in the grove
after his return. From the report of his remarks in the Journal of
Discourses (Vol. II, p. 163) the following is taken: --
"Before I will bear this unhallowed
persecution any longer, before I will be dragged away again among my enemies
for trial, I will spill the last drop of blood in my veins, and will see all my
enemies in hell.... Deny me the writ of habeas corpus, and I will fight
with gun, sword, cannon, whirlwind, thunder, until they are used up like the
Kilkenny cats.... If these {charter} powers are dangerous, then the
constitutions of the United States and of this state are dangerous. If the
Legislature has granted Nauvoo the right of determining cases of habeas
corpus, it is no more than they ought to have done, or more than our
fathers fought for."
Smith expressed his gratitude to Walker for what the
latter had accomplished in his behalf, and the Whig candidate now had no doubt
that the Mormon vote was his.
But the Missouri agent, indignant that a governor's
writ should be set aside by a city court, hurried to Springfield and demanded
that Governor Ford should call out enough state militia to secure Smith's
arrest and delivery at the Missouri boundary. The governor, who was not a man
of the firmest purpose, had no intention of being mixed up in the pending
congressional fight and struggle for the Mormon vote; so he asked for delay and
finally decided not to call out any troops.
The Hancock County Democrats were quick to see an
opportunity in this situation, and they sent to Springfield a man named
Backenstos (who took an active part in the violent scenes connected with the
subsequent history of the Mormons in the state) to ascertain for the Mormons
just what the governor's intentions were. Backenstos reported that the prophet
need have no fear of the Democratic governor so long as the Mormons voted the
Democratic ticket.9
9 Governor Ford, in his "History of Illinois," says that such a pledge was given by a prominent Democrat, but without his own knowledge.
When this news was brought back to Nauvoo, a few days before the election, a mass meeting of the Mormons was called, and Hyrum Smith (then Patriarch, succeeding the prophet's father, who was dead) announced the receipt of a "revelation" directing the Mormons to vote for Hoge. William Law, an influential businessman in the Mormon circle, immediately denied the existence of any such "revelation." The prophet alone could decide the matter. He was brought in and made a statement to the effect that he himself proposed to vote for Walker; that he considered it a "mean business" to influence any man's vote by dictation, and that he had no great faith in revelations about elections; "but brother Hyrum was a man of truth; he had known brother Hyrum intimately ever since he was a boy, and he had never known him to tell a lie. If brother Hyrum said he had received such a revelation, he had no doubt it was a fact. When the Lord speaks, let all the earth be silent."10
10 Ford's "History of Illinois," p. 318.
The election resulted in the choice of Hoge by a
majority of 455!