But I have said enough about the Temple; when finished, it will show more wealth, more art, more science, more revelation, more splendor, and more God, than all the rest of the world, and that will make it a Mormon temple—'God and liberty'—patterned somewhat after the order of our forefathers, which were after the order of eternity."
But, though the Saints could be brought into a state of comparative quiet in obedience to the advice of their rulers, yet it was quite another thing to control the popular feeling in Illinois. After the death of the prophet, there was a short calm, but it was only a lull in the tempest. It was extensively believed that the Mormons had not only resisted the regular administration of the laws, but that they had made their capital city a vast depository for stolen goods, and that within its walls they were guilty of almost every conceivable outrage upon the institutions and decencies of civilized life.
The Mormons endeavored to purge themselves from these charges by holding meetings, and passing preambles and resolutions, avowing their innocence, and expressing their determination to enforce the laws. These measures, however, only produced a temporary cessation of hostilities, and were succeeded by mobs, riots, and other scenes of violence, more or less public or private, until it became quite manifest that Saint and Gentile could not live much longer in peaceable contiguity. Matters were approaching a crisis. A convention of delegates from the surrounding counties was held, in which it was resolved to expel the Mormons from the state—peaceably, if they could; forcibly, if
