Chapter XXXV. Treachery and Intrigue

Prophecy of the Mountain Refuge. Legal Kidnapping. Hiding from the Enemy. Correspondence. Character Glimpses. " Because I Live they shall Live also."

Perceiving the treacherous animus of John C. Bennett, Joseph took prompt and energetic measures for his removal from office in the Legion. But he was no mean antagonist ; and by his subtle intriguing he so wrought upon the minds of the people round about Nauvoo as to cause serious apprehensions in the minds of many that it would result in an open conflict and a repetition of the horrors of Missouri.

Seeking to avoid the calamity and, if possible, to inaugurate decisive measures for the maintenance of order, Joseph petitioned Gov. Carlin for permission to hold the Legion in readiness for any emergency that might arise. The Governor's reply was well calculated to allay apprehension, he stating his belief in the improbability of any serious demonstration against Nauvoo, and affirming that the excitement incident to Bennett's disaffection was not so strong as to bias the opinion of the public at large. To this Joseph made generous and characteristic

reply, saying : " I am perfectly satisfied with regard to the subject under consideration and with your remarks. I shall consider myself and our citizens secure from harm under the broad canopy of the law under your administration. We look to you for protection in the event of any violence being used towards us, knowing that our innocence with regard to all the accusations in circulation will be duly evidenced before an enlightened public. Any service we can do the State at any time will be cheerfully done, for our ambition is to be serviceable to our country."

But the toils of fate had begun to close around him, and though we shall see a brave defence, his way is henceforth to be hedged with perils, growing deeper and darker until the crisis and the sacrifice.

On the 8th of August, 1842, he was arrested by the deputy sheriff of Adams Co., on a warrant issued by Gov. Carlin, founded on a requisition from Gov. Reynolds, of Missouri, upon the affidavit of Ex-Gov. Boggs, complaining of "the said Smith as being an accessory before the fact to an assault with an intent to kill, made by one O. P. Rockwell on Lilburn W. Boggs, on the night of the 6th of May, a. d, 1842." Through an informality of procedure, Joseph for the time being escaped incarceration under this warrant. The City Council of Nauvoo also came to the rescue by passing an ordinance regulating the mode of proceeding in cases of habeas corpus before the municipal court. This was a well-timed and effective blow to illegal and unjust persecution under color of law, and Joseph's enemies have now no recourse but kidnapping.

Just at this time also occurred Joseph's first marked prophecy, on record, concerning the removal of the saints to the Rocky Mountains. Says the record :

"Saturday, 6th [August, 1842]. Passed over the river to Montrose, Iowa, in company with General Adams, Colonel Brewer, and others, and witnessed the installation of the officers of the Rising Sun Lodge of Ancient York Masons, at Montrose, by Gen. James Adams, Deputy Grand Master of Illinois. While the Deputy Grand Master was engaged in giving the requisite instructions to the Master elect I had a conversation with a number of brethren, in the shade of the building, on the subject of our persecutions in Missouri, and the constant annoyance which has followed us since we were driven from that State. I prophesied that the saints would continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains. Many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some would live to go and assist in making settlements and building cities, and see the saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

Joseph, as we have seen, had years previously forecast that " the path " of the president of the Twelve " lieth among the mountains ; " and the exodus of Modern Israel, under a Moses whom the Lord would raise up, was quite an early revelation; but the historical landmark, pointing to the Rocky Mountains, is this prophecy to his Masonic brethren, on the 6th of August, 1842, — just about five years

before the feet of the pioneers emerged from the last mountain gorge into the beautiful valley of the Great Salt Lake.

But the effort to legally kidnap the Prophet continued, resulting in a corresponding effort, on the part of his friends, to shield him. And knowing the quality of Missouri justice, Joseph made pardonable effort to evade the officers, who seemed determined to drag- him back to that State for slaughter. Says he :

"Wednesday, ioth [August]. The deputy sheriff returned to Nauvoo, but I was absent, and he did not see me nor brother Rockwell. He endeavored to alarm my wife and the brethren with his threats if I was not forthcoming, but they understood the law in such cases, and his threats proved harmless."

Then follows a circumstantial account of Joseph's consultation with friends, and final decision to evade the officers for the time being, which he did by departing in a skiff, at night, on the Mississippi River, to the friendly shelter of the farmhouse of Edward Sayers, where, on the 13th, he was joined by Emma, his wife.

Although now safe in his retreat, as the days pass more and more does he feel that the final controversy is near which is either to give him temporary peace or hasten the exodus of his people to the Rocky Mountains. But chafing with the tediousness of his seclusion, and stung with a sense of the injustice manifested towards him, he turns, like a stag at bay, and issues the following order to his Major-General of the Legion, intrusting its delivery to Emma :

Headquarters Nauvoo Legion, August 14th, 1842.

Major-General Law.

Dear General '.•— I take this opportunity to give you some instructions how I wish you to act in case our persecutors should carry their pursuits so far as to tread upon our rights as free-born American citizens. The orders which I am about to give you are the result of a long series of contemplations since I saw you. I have come fully to the conclusion, both since this last difficulty commenced, and before, that I would never suffer myself to go into the hands of the Missourians alive ; and to go into the hands of the officers of this State is nothing more nor less than to go into the hands of the Missourians, for the whole farce has been gotten up unlawfully and unconstitutionally, as well on the part of the Governor as others, by a mob spirit, for the purpose of carrying out mob violence, to carry on mob tolerance in a religious persecution. I am determined therefore to keep out of their hands and thwart their designs if possible, that perhaps they may not urge the necessity of force and blood against their own fellow-citizens and loyal subjects, and become ashamed and withdraw their pursuits. But if they should not do this, and shall urge the necessity of force, and if by any means I should be taken, these are therefore to command you forthwith, without delay, regardless of life or death, to rescue me out of their hands. And further, to treat them, any pretensions to the contrary, as unlawful and unconstitutional, and as a mob gotten up for the purpose of a religious persecution to take away the rights of men.

" And further, that our chartered rights and privileges shall be considered by us as holding the supremacy in the premises, and shall be maintained; nothing short of the Supreme Court of this State

having authority to disannul them, and the municipal court having jurisdiction in my case. You will see, therefore, that the peace of the city of Nauvoo is kept, let who will endeavor to disturb it. You will also see that, whenever any mob force or violence is used on any citizen thereof, or that belongeth thereunto, that force or violence is immediately dispersed or brought to punishment; or meet it and contest it, at the point of the sword, with firm, undaunted and unyielding valor, and let them know that the spirit of old Seventy-Six and of George Washington yet lives, and is contained in the bosoms and blood of the children of the fathers thereof. If there are any threats in the city, let legal steps be taken, and let no man, woman or child be intimidated, nor suffer it to be done. * * You are therefore hereby authorized and commanded, by virtue of the authority which I hold, and commission granted me by the Executive of this State, to maintain the very letter and spirit of the above to the very best of your ability, to the extent of our lives and our fortunes, and to the lives and fortunes of the Legion, as also all those who may volunteer their lives and fortunes with ours, for the defence of our wives and children, our fathers and our mothers, our homes, our graveyards and our tombs, and our dead and their tombstones, and our dear-bought American liberties, with the blood of our fathers, and all that is dear and sacred to men.

To this in due time was promptly returned Gen. Law's ringing- answer:

" * * * I have also received from the hand of your lady your orders at length, respecting matters and things, and I am happy indeed to receive such orders from you, for your views on these subjects

are precisely my own. I do respond with my whole heart to every sentiment you have so nobly and so feelingly expressed, and while my heart beats, or this hand which now writes, is able to draw and wield a sword, you may depend on it being at your service in the glorious cause of liberty and truth, ready at a moment's warning to defend the rights of man, both civil and religious. Our common rights and peace is all we ask, and we will use every peaceable means in our power to enjoy them, but our rights we must have, peace we must have, if we have to nVht for them."

In the excitement of the days following, many came in trepidation to Joseph ; but his lofty courage and undaunted spirit was as a tower of strength to them. And his pen also was not idle. In a forcible communication to the Times and Seasons, entitled " Persecution," he recapitulated the terrors and outrages of Missourian intolerance, and affirming that the renewed effort to get him under the jurisdiction of that State was but a transparent effort to judicially murder him, he justified his evasion of arrest.

In his retreat he also formulated a plan of escape, which he communicated by letter to his wife Emma, then in Nauvoo. This was that himself, herself, and their children, should quietly depart together for the " Pine Country," so called, a region to the northwestward of Nauvoo, in the then Territory of Iowa, where, in seclusion and peace, they might await the subsidence of public clamor and excitement against him. This purpose he also communicated to Gen. Law. From both of them he received intimation that the necessity for such an extreme measure did not exist ; but Emma, nevertheless, affirmed her

willingness to go if necessary, closing her letter with a declaration of unswerving faith and fidelity.

Nor should the record of those days be considered complete without a glance at the innermost feelings of the exiled Prophet, as laid bare in the following touching lines, excerped from a lengthy diary note, under date of August 16th, 1842:

" Blessed is brother Erastus H. Derby. * * * Let the light of eternal truth shine forth upon his understanding; let his name be had in everlasting remembrance; let the blessings of Jehovah be crowned upon his posterity after him, for he rendered me consolation in the lonely places of my retreat. How good and glorious it has seemed unto me to find pure and holy friends who are faithful, just and true, and whose hearts fail not. * * How glorious were my feelings when I met that faithful and friendly band on the night of the nth. * * * What transports of joy swelled my bosom when I took by the hand, on that night, my beloved Emma, — she that was my wife, even the wife of my youth, and the choice of my heart. * * What a commingling of thought filled my mind for the moment ! Again she is here, even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm and unwavering, unchangeable, affectionate Emma. * * There was brother Hyrum, who next took me by the hand. * * * Thought I to myself, Brother Hyrum, what a faithful heart have you! O, may the Eternal Jehovah crown eternal blessings upon your head, as a reward for the care you have had for my soul ! * * * Said I to myself, Here is brother Newel K. Whitney

also. How many scenes of sorrow have strewn our paths together, and yet we meet once more to share again. * * How warm that heart! How anxious that soul for the welfare of one who has been cast out and hated of almost all men. * * My heart was overjoyed as I took the faithful, hand by hand, that stood upon the shore, — William Law, William Clayton, Dimick Huntington, George Miller were there. * * These I have met in prosperity, and they were my friends ; and I now meet them in adversity, and they are still my warmer friends. These love the God that I serve ; they love the truths that I promulgate , they love those virtues and holy doctrines that I cherish in my bosom with the warmest feelings of my heart, and with that zeal which cannot be denied. I love friendship and truth ; I love virtue and law ; I love the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ; and they are my brethren ; and I shall live ; and because I live they shall live also ! " * * *

What an outpouring of love and divine greatness is this ! And we are coming- now in all the remaining phases of Joseph's life to this supreme manifestation of his character — his divine love for the brotherhood. In this there was never his equal, excepting Jesus, whose spirit dwelt in him. And, in his moments of spiritual exaltation, how Christlike were his words : " I love friendship and truth ; I love virtue and law ; I love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; and they are my brethren ; and I shall live ; and because I live they shall live also ! "

The fact that to his own secret soul he dared

such an utterance, goes far to prove his divine mission. What less was it than to say, " Because my Father giveth unto me eternal life, I will give eternal life unto these my disciples !"