joseph volunteers for trial and lyman wight follows—beginning the study of law—the trial before a coward judge, with a perjured witness—militia called out, but the mob practically defies it—boggs continues the work of oppression.
angered at the frustration of their plots of force and legal treachery against the prophet, the mob continued to spread reports in august and september of 1838, that he was defying the law and refusing submission to process of court. this perjured tale received additional credence among the uninformed from the fact that the daviess county sheriff had failed to arrest him; though, as all should have known, this failure was no fault of joseph. but the falsehood was bringing renewed menace upon the saints. upper missouri erupted a lava stream of bad men into daviess, carroll, saline and caldwell counties. something must be done to turn aside the overflow or it would sweep over all the dwelling places of the saints.
to stay the fiery river of hate, the prophet offered himself as a sacrifice. on the fourth day of september, 1838, he volunteered, through his lawyers, generals atchison and doniphan, to be tried before judge king, in daviess county. lyman wight, who had been charged with him, followed his example.
it was characteristic of this industrious prophet, that on the day when he tendered his liberty and his life as a price for the physical and political redemption of his brethren, he began the methodical study of law. the anxiety natural to his position was unfelt. he had looked so often upon danger that its face was no longer terrible. and he knew that such learning as he should ever acquire must be gained in the midst of turmoil. he wanted to know the science upon which statutes were based, and to become learned in the knowledge of his country's constitution and enactments that he might the better minister temporal salvation to his fellowmen, and the hour when prison and even murder menaced him was as propitious as any he might ever see.
the time appointed for the trial in judge king's court was thursday, the 6th day of november, 1838. joseph was there, but the case could not proceed, because the prosecuting witness was absent, and no testimony was forthcoming. the court adjourned for the day, and joseph returned to his home, but the next morning he was again in attendance and the trial proceeded. peniston prosecuted and adam black swore to everything which peniston asked. he had been bribed by money, promises or threats, else he was incited by murderous hate, and he told things which manifestly could not have had any existence except in his false mind. he was the only witness against the defendants. in their behalf four reputable men testified, proving incontestably that black's oaths were perjury and peniston's complaint was a lie. judge king admitted in private conversation that nothing had been proved against the prophet and his companion, and yet he bound them over in bonds of $500. without a murmur the prophet and lyman submitted and gave the necessary bail.
from the trial they were followed to far west by two gentlemen who stated that they had come from chariton county as a commission of inquiry in behalf of their fellow citizens. a demand had been made by the mobbers upon the residents of chariton county for assistance to capture joseph smith and lyman wight, and a committee had been appointed by the fair-minded people of chariton to investigate the situation. when these gentlemen saw that the real purpose of the request was to secure ruffian help to impoverish the defenseless saints and drive them once again into the wilderness, they declared that they had been outrageously imposed upon by the demand of the mob, and they returned to their own county filled with sympathy and friendly feeling for joseph and his brethren. their findings they subsequently embodied in an affidavit.
an attack was planned by the mob upon adam-ondi-ahman; on the 9th a wagon laden with guns and ammunition in charge of a party of the murderous rabble was going to that place from richmond. but it was intercepted by captain william allred, who arrested the men in charge, john b. comer and two others—miller and mchoney—and took possession of the weapons. a letter was addressed to judge king immediately by the saints, asking him what should be done with the prisoners and the captured munitions. this coward responded to turn the prisoners loose and let them receive kind treatment. he was the judicial officer who, to satisfy the mob instead of satisfying justice, had placed the prophet and lyman wight under bonds when, by his own confession, not one illegal act could be proved against them. concerning the guns he was reluctant to give advice, although he promised that they should not be taken from the saints to be converted and used for illegal purposes.
under the same date this unjust judge wrote to general atchison to send two hundred or more men to force the "mormons" to surrender. he well knew that the saints were not in a rebellious or unlawful attitude, nor in a position to fight. they had not even the power to resist mobocratic aggression against themselves, to say nothing of being the assailants in any illegal movement.
on the 12th of september, the men who had been arrested while transporting guns to the mob in daviess county, were held to bail for their appearance at the circuit court.
about the same time a large body of the mob entered de witt in carroll county, and warned the brethren to leave on pain of death.
william dryden, justice of the peace in daviess county, complained falsely to the governor that service of process from his court, issued against alanson ripley, george a. smith and others for threatening adam black, had been withstood.
general atchison called out the militia of clay and ray counties which, under the command of brigadier-general doniphan, marched to the timber on crooked river, while he went with a single aide to far west, the county seat of caldwell, to confer with the leading men among the saints. here he was the guest of the prophet.
doniphan's troops had ostensibly been called into the field to suppress an insurrection and preserve peace. but instead of the military powers being used as a menace to the mob, it was operated as if the long-suffering saints had been the aggressors. general doniphan, a friendly, fair and kindly-disposed man, was acting under the governor's orders, and the responsibility of his conduct falls chiefly upon the executive of the state. the mob prisoners were demanded and were set free with no regard for any other law than that which seemed to reign supreme in missouri—the law of mobocratic will. the arms which had been seized on the way from richmond into daviess county were collected and delivered up to the general. from crooked river general doniphan brought his troops through millport in daviess county to the spot where a mob had congregated to make an attack upon the saints. when the general read an order of dispersion to the rabble they declared that their object was solely for defense; and yet they would not even permit the general in command of the state militia to approach them without going through such military formalities as might have greeted a flag of truce from an opposing force, while all the time that he was conferring with them guards were marching in and out, showing that the camp was being kept in a state of activity. although they promised to obey the order requiring them to withdraw, they failed to do so.
from this place the general proceeded to the spot where the saints had assembled together for mutual protection under the direction of lyman wight. a conference ensued in which the saints agreed to disband, to surrender up any one of their number accused of crime, on condition that the hostile forces of the mob, only a few miles distant, should be dispersed. the saints had every wish to comply with the law and to avoid every appearance of resistance, but they knew too well that if they scattered, unless the mobbers were also disbanded, they would be murdered and plundered. general atchison, also in command of troops, was joined on the 15th at the county seat of daviess by general doniphan and his regiments. he found that the mobbers were still under arms and still aggressive, while the saints were still huddled together for safety. to him the saints also stated their willingness to yield to any legal requirement, and they would cheerfully submit to any investigation which might be demanded. general atchison thought that peace might be restored and so wrote to the governor; but immediately boggs ordered the booneville guards to be mounted with ten days' provisions and in readiness to march on his arrival; and he also ordered general lucas to proceed immediately with four hundred mounted men to co-operate with general atchison. similar orders were issued to major-generals lewis bolton, john b. clark and thomas b. grant.
while this military movement was taking place the mob continued to seize prisoners and to send threatening messages, hoping to incite the saints to some overt act that the whole power of the mob and militia combined might be brought against them to annihilate them. several times word was brought to the encampment of the saints that prisoners taken by the mob were being tortured. this was done in the hope to provoke a spirit of retaliation. it seems strange that this situation could have continued for more than a day with such a military force at hand. a little prompt and vigorous action would have dispersed the mob and taught them to respect the power of the law. it would not have been necessary to shed blood, only to let constitutional majesty be asserted; and the saints might have remained in peace. but this was not the purpose. the troops really had been called out, not to protect the "mormons," but to answer the lying call of a justice of the peace. this mighty power of war was brought into operation to apprehend two or three men, charged with a petty offense, and who had not resisted any attempt to serve legal papers upon them.
on the 20th of september general atchison wrote to the governor that the insurrection was practically ended; all the leading offenders against the law had been arrested and bound over to appear at court. it is noticeable that the people were called offenders, the plundering rabble going scot free. all of the troops, except two companies of the ray militia under command of brigadier general parks, were discharged. in this same letter general atchison said:
they [the mormons] appear to be acting on the defensive, and i must further add, gave up the offenders with a good deal of promptness. the arms and prisoners taken by the mormons were also given up upon demand with seeming cheerfulness.
this candid opinion was re-enforced a few days later by a letter from general parks to the governor, in which he uses the following expressions:
whatever may have been the disposition of the people called "mormons" before our arrival here, since we have made our appearance they have shown no disposition to resist the laws, or of hostile intentions. there has been so much prejudice and exaggeration concerned in this matter that i found things entirely different from what i was prepared to expect. when we arrived here we found a large body of men from the counties adjoining, armed and in the field, for the purpose, as i learned, of assisting the people of this county against the "mormons," without being called out by the proper authorities.
p.s.—since writing the above, i have received information that if the committee do not agree, the determination of the daviess county men is to drive the "mormons" with powder and lead.
near the same time, general atchison wrote to governor boggs as follows:
things are not so bad in this county [daviess] as represented by rumor, and, in fact, from affidavits i have no doubt your excellency has been deceived by the exaggerated statements of designing or half-crazy men. i have found there is no cause of alarm on account of the "mormons;" they are not to be feared; they are very much alarmed.
about the 26th day of september, 1838, a committee from the mob met some of the leading brethren at adam-ondi-ahman and entered into an agreement whereby the saints were to purchase lands and possessions of all who desired to sell; but this resulted in nothing, for the mob had other purposes in view.
about fifteen or twenty of the saints with lyman wight were pledged to appear before the court at gallatin for trial on the 29th of september.
hundreds of men drawn into the militia service of generals atchison, doniphan, parks, and lucas were in personal affiliation with the mob. when the greater part of the forces were disbanded in daviess county a general movement took place toward de witt, in carroll county. on their way the bandits breathed their murderous intent against the saints; and before the onslaught, the brethren addressed a humble petition to lilburn w. boggs, imploring him to send succor, but he was deaf to the appeal. his ears were always open to the voice of the murderer; never to that of the victim. the mob could not ask him in vain for help; the injured saints supplicated again and again without a reply. with the opening of october, the mob pressed hard upon the saints in de witt, threatening death to men, captivity to children and outrage to women.
