joseph preaches in jackson and fulfills his own prophecy—favor in the eyes of their captors—drunken guards—in richmond jail—majesty in chains—clark's dilemma—the mock trial—treason to believe the bible—close of the year 1838.
early in the year 1838, while it was more than his life was worth for any saint to penetrate jackson county, the prophet made a public prophecy that some one of the elders would preach a sermon there before the close of the ensuing december.
lucas crossed the ferry of the missouri river from clay into jackson county with his prisoners on the night of saturday, the 3rd of november, 1838. his march had been made with great expedition, because he feared to be overtaken by a further demand from his superior officer for the captives.
the next morning was the sabbath; and the people along the road came out in their best attire to view the "mormon" prophet, for the news had preceded his advent, and the whole country was aroused. while they were yet in camp on that morning a number of ladies and gentlemen visited them; and one woman inquired of the guards, "which of the captives is the lord worshiped by the mormons?"
the mobocrat pointed to joseph with a significant smile and said, "that is he." after gazing upon the prophet for a moment the lady candidly asked whether he professed to be the lord and savior jesus christ. joseph answered:
i am only a man, a humble minister of salvation sent by the redeemer to preach his gospel.
astounded at this reply, so different from what she had been led to expect, the lady pressed question after question upon the prophet. as he responded many listeners gathered around, including a company of the wondering soldiers; and there on that sabbath morning, with hundreds of spectators and his captors for a congregation, the prophet preached as impressive a discourse as ever before in his life. he set forth the doctrines of faith in jesus christ, repentance, baptism for the remission of sin, with a promise of the gift of the holy ghost—as recorded in the acts of the apostles. and by this sermon was his own prophecy fulfilled.
his listeners were filled with strange emotions, this man spoke as no other had ever talked in their hearing. the woman who had first asked to see the prophet was wrought upon by a spirit of conviction. when joseph finished his remarks, she arose and praised god in solemn tones, and she went away praying that the lord would protect and deliver his servants.
at ten o'clock of that sunday morning, the entire brigade having crossed the river, the march was resumed. as they passed along the road hundreds of people flocked to see them, and general wilson often halted the cavalcade to introduce his prisoners to the populace, pointing out each one of the captives by name. a few hours later the prisoners entered independence surrounded by the exultant troops, who blew every instant triumphant blasts upon their bugles to arouse the inhabitants into a frenzy of joy. rain was falling in torrents, but it could not extinguish the blazing hate and exultation of the mob as they paraded the prophet through the streets of the city whence his brethren had been once driven from homes and growing wealth.
but soon after their arrival a reaction of feeling set in, and the prisoners began to be treated with some show of compassion. it is true they were badly lodged, closely guarded and exhibited every day as a victorious roman general might have exhibited his captive kings; but they were fed, partly shielded from the severity of the season and were permitted to plead their cause and proclaim their belief to any interested listener.
the effect of their situation and their teachings was most amazing. here in this region where they had once met cruelty in its direst shape and whither they had been brought in hourly peril of their lives, they awakened feelings of pity, respect and personal regard.
they were permitted occasionally to walk out in charge of a guard; and then they visited the spot dedicated for a temple, which had been denuded of its noble forests and now lay desolate, and also the place where had once stood the dwellings of the saints, but not a vestige of these habitations remained, for they had been consumed by fire or carried away by plunderers.
after four days' imprisonment at independence, and after repeated demands from clark for their persons, it was decided to send them to richmond, ray county; but the officers, now become somewhat friendly, could not give them any light concerning the charges to be made against them. it was agreed that they were not to be tried by civil process, because none had been served upon them; it was also agreed that they could not be tried by court martial since they were civilians—amenable to civil law; martial law had not been declared, and they had not committed any military offense.
it was extremely difficult to secure guards to accompany the brethren to richmond. none would volunteer, and when drafted from the ranks they refused to obey orders. the soldiers, impressed by the personality of the captives, and wrought upon by the spirit of mercy, wished the brethren to go at liberty. hundreds of the men who had fought against them with bitterness now entertained for them the kindest feelings; and, besides, both officers and troops disliked to see general clark secure the triumph so ardently desired by him. the view entertained by lucas was shared by his officers and men and was stated to the brethren by general wilson in the following words:
it was repeatedly insinuated by the other officers and troops, that we should hang you prisoners on the first tree we came to on the way to independence. but i'll be damned if anybody shall hurt you. we just intend to exhibit you in independence, let the people look at you, and see what a damned set of fine fellows you are. and more particularly to keep you from that g—d damned old bigot of a general clark and his troops, from down country, who are so stuffed with lies and prejudice that they would shoot you down in a moment.
finally, three men consented to escort the prisoners to richmond, and on the morning of thursday, the 8th day of november, 1838, they started on their journey. what a reflection it is upon the doings of that time that the officers in charge of these captives should entrust seven of them to three guards! joseph and his brethren had been designated and treated as the most desperate men in the state of missouri. the mob proved their own assertion to be false when they arranged the journey to richmond. that afternoon, between independence and roy's ferry, the three guards became drunk. as joseph and his brethren had no physical restraint upon them, they could easily have killed their guard and escaped; but instead of doing this, they merely secured the arms and the horses, that the intoxicated soldiers might not injure themselves or their prisoners and that the steeds might not stray away.
after crossing the missouri they were met by colonel sterling price with a guard of seventy-four men, by whom they were conducted to richmond and thrown into a vacant house closely watched. a few hours after their arrival general clark visited them. when they demanded the reason why they had thus been carried from their homes, and demanded a statement of the charge made against them, the great general clark, called an eminent lawyer, answered that he could not then determine what particular offense could be alleged against them, but would think the matter over. immediately after he had withdrawn, colonel price came in with ten armed men and some chains and padlocks. the guards were ordered to stand with muskets ready to fire. then the windows were nailed down, and a man named john fulkerson, chained the seven brethren together and fastened the manacles with padlocks.
general clark spent many hours trying to find some definite charge against the prisoners and trying to find some authority to arraign them before a court martial. the result of his researches is shown in a letter addressed to the governor at that time, in which he says:
i have detained general white and his field officers here a day or two, for the purpose of holding a court martial, if necessary. i this day made out charges against the prisoners, and called on judge king to try them as a committing court; and i am now busily engaged in procuring witnesses and submitting facts. there being no civil officers in caldwell, i have to use the military to get witnesses from there, which i do without reserve. the most of the prisoners here, i consider guilty of treason; and i believe will be convicted; and the only difficulty in law is, can they be tried in any county but caldwell? if not, they cannot be there indicted until a change of population. in the event the latter view is taken by the civil courts, i suggest the propriety of trying joseph smith and those leaders taken by general lucas for mutiny. this i am in favor of only as a dernier resort. i would have taken this course with smith at any rate; but it being doubtful whether a court martial has jurisdiction or not in the present case—that is, whether these people are to be treated as in time of war, and the mutineers as having mutinied in time of war—and i would here ask you to forward to me the attorney-general's opinion on this point. it will not do to allow these leaders to return to their treasonable work again on account of their not being indicted in caldwell. they have committed treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny and perjury.
a more helpless state of mind than that of general clark can scarcely be imagined. the document which has been quoted and which he closes with charges against the brethren of nearly all the offenses under the law—and yet does not know how to substantiate or legally punish a single one of them—proves that he was in a desperate state of mind.
he was determined that they should die and made his preparations for the commission of the murder before he had even decided what charge to bring against the prisoners. while this matter was pending, brother jedediah grant, then a young man, put up at the same tavern with the general at richmond. he saw clark select the men to shoot joseph and his fellow prisoners, and he heard the day of the execution fixed as monday, november 12th, 1838. he saw the men who were selected load their rifles with two bullets each, and after this was done he heard general clark say to them:
gentlemen, you shall have the honor of shooting the mormon leaders next monday morning at eight o'clock.
colonel price, who had immediate charge of the prisoners, permitted all manner of abuse to be heaped upon them. they were kept chained together like wild beasts; left to lie upon the bare floor without any covering. when they might have forgotten their sufferings of body and mind in slumber, the inhuman guards kept them awake by yelling ribald songs and jests and by shrieks of laughter. parley p. pratt, who was one of the prisoners confined with joseph, writes of one of these painful nights as follows:
in one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep, till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards, colonel price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the mormons while at far west and vicinity. they even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and children.
i had listened till i became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice, that i could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards, but i had said nothing to joseph or anyone else, although i lay next to him, and knew he was awake. on a sudden he arose to his feet and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as i can recollect, the following words:
"silence! ye fiends of the infernal pit! in the name of jesus christ i rebuke you, and command you to be still. i will not live another minute and hear such language. cease such talk, or you or i die this instant!"
he ceased to speak. he stood erect in terrible majesty. chained, and without a weapon, calm, unruffled, and dignified as an angel, he looked down upon his quailing guards, whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet until an exchange of guards.
i have seen ministers of justice, clothed in ministerial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended upon a breath in the courts of england; i have witnessed a congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; i have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have i seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon, in an obscure village of missouri.
more than fifty of the brethren from far west were also held in captivity at richmond; failing to find authority or excuse for trying any of these men by court martial, clark informed them that the whole party would be turned over to the civil authorities. a court was convened with austin a. king presiding, and thomas c. burch the state's attorney, for the prosecution. the first act of this strange tribunal was to send out a body of mobocratic soldiers, armed with guns instead of civil process, to bring in witnesses, who, when they arrived, were sworn at the point of the bayonet. nearly forty persons gave evidence for the prosecution. though they all swore in a general way monstrous crimes against the accused, not one definite charge was maintained. when the defense were asked for their witnesses they named as many as fifty, any of whom could have disproved the accusations. captain bogart, the methodist preacher, was sent out with a company of soldiers to procure these witnesses, and when he brought them in under arrest, they were thrust into jail and kept there until after the trial, without being accorded an opportunity to testify or to see the defendants.
one day, while the trial was proceeding, a man named allen, who knew something of the facts and was there as an interested spectator, was called by the defense and sworn. as his testimony was favorable to the prophet and the other prisoners, the mob set upon him in open court and tried to murder him. when he left the building he was pursued by mobocrats with loaded guns. observing the outrages inflicted upon people who wanted to tell the truth, the prophet and his brethren ceased to demand witnesses, preferring themselves to suffer than to involve other people in the toils of mobocratic hate.
the mock investigation continued from day to day until saturday, november 24th, 1838, when all of the brethren were discharged except joseph smith, hyrum smith, lyman wight, caleb baldwin, alexander mcrae, sidney rigdon, parley p. pratt, morris phelps, luman gibbs, darwin chase, and norman shearer, who were held for murder and treason.
the judge was a methodist, and he had been particularly anxious to know whether the defendants believed in the prophecy of daniel, that:
in the days of these kings shall the god of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall break in pieces all other kingdoms, and stand forever.
and,
the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints of the most high.
when it appeared clear that the prisoners believed in the bible and in this particular part of it, their treason was established. the judge so decided in express terms and he then committed them; and as general doniphan, who was present, remarked:
if a cohort of angels were to come down and declare the innocence of the prisoners it would be all the same; for king has determined from the beginning to throw them into prison.
king and burch, the judge and prosecuting attorney, had sat in lucas's secret tribunal in far west which had sentenced the brethren to be shot; and they were anxious to take this new opportunity to wreak their vengeance. in open court the judge stated that there was no law to protect "mormons" in the state of missouri, and he was bound to aid the governor's edict of extermination.
the prisoners had been kept in chains during the examination; and in chains they stood to hear the judgment of the court. it was that joseph smith, hyrum smith, lyman wight, alexander mcrae, caleb baldwin, and sidney rigdon be imprisoned in the jail of clay county until delivered therefrom by due course of law. the others who were held were retained in richmond jail.
thus was the charge of treason maintained in that day; and upon the same grounds it has been repeated against the saints down to the present time, for they still continue to believe that the bible is the word of god.
joseph and his companions were carried to liberty, clay county, in irons. as they entered the town considerable excitement prevailed among people desirous to view them. arrived at the jail, they descended from the vehicle and walked up the steps to a landing or platform in front of the entrance of the prison building. joseph wore a suit of black and had a cloak of dark colored material hanging on his arm. hyrum followed him and the others stood close around. the gaze of the spectators was concentrated upon joseph, and his majestic air made a deep impression upon them. one lady in the crowd cried: "their prophet looks like a gentleman!" another looking at the group expressed the opinion: "well, they are fine looking men if they are mormons."
it was on the 30th day of november, 1838, that they were incarcerated in liberty jail; and at once an order was made to cut off all communication between them and their friends, while every effort was put forth to drive away or frighten any witnesses whose testimony might be desirable for the defendants. and at the same time the threat went out through all that region that if judges or juries or courts of any kind should clear the prisoners, they would be slaughtered.
after a little time the rule concerning communications was relaxed, and joseph was able to write to his brethren. in one of his letters, dated from liberty jail, december 16th, 1838, he said:
but we want you to remember haman and mordecai: you know haman could not be satisfied so long as he saw mordecai at the king's gate, and he sought the life of mordecai and the people of the jews. but the lord so ordered it, that haman was hanged upon his own gallows. so shall it come to pass with poor haman in the last days. those who have sought by unbelief and wickedness, and by the principle of mobocracy, to destroy us and the people of god, by killing them and scattering them abroad, and wilfully and maliciously delivering us into the hands of murderers, desiring us to be put to death, thereby having us dragged about in chains and cast into prison, and for what cause? it is because we were honest men, and were determined to save the lives of the saints at the expense of our own. i say unto you, that those who have thus vilely treated us like haman, shall be hanged on their own gallows; or in other words, shall fall into their own gin and snare, and ditch and trap, which they have prepared for us, and shall go backwards and stumble and fall, and their names shall be blotted out, and god shall reward them according to all their abominations.
the people were making their preparations to leave the state; but in the meantime they addressed a memorial and petition to the legislature of missouri, setting forth the wrongs and outrages committed upon them. these appeals were presented, but after an angry discussion they were laid upon the table. at the same time an appropriation of $200,000 was made to the mob to pay them for their crimes against the saints.
this action was so outrageous that something must be done to distract public attention, and the mob element secured the publication of the most enormous falsehoods against the people. in these accounts the wickedness of the mob was disguised or denied. but the prophet exposed them in the following words:
but can they hide the governor's cruel order for banishment or extermination? can they conceal the facts of the disgraceful treaty of the generals with their own officers and men at far west? can they conceal the fact that twelve or fifteen thousand men, women and children have been banished from the state without trial or condemnation? and this at the expense of two hundred thousand dollars—and this sum appropriated by the state legislature in order to pay the troops for this act of lawless outrage? can they conceal the fact that we have been imprisoned for many months, while our families, friends and witnesses have been driven away? can they conceal the blood of the murdered husbands and fathers, or stifle the cries of the widow and the fatherless? nay! the rocks and mountains may cover them in unknown depths, the awful abyss of the fathomless deep may swallow them up—and still their horrid deeds stand forth in the broad light of day, for the wondering gaze of angels and men! they cannot be hid.
the year drew to a close. the saints were impoverished and scattered. the prophet and his companions, loaded with chains, were in a noisome dungeon; several times they were poisoned, and, during a period of five days, human flesh was served to them as meat. the guards called it "mormon beef," and the prophet warned his companions not to touch it.
the earth was wrapped in gloom for the people of god when the sun sank for the last time upon the year 1838; but beyond and above this sphere was the star of eternal faith, whose light no prison walls could shut out from trusting souls.
