The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 26
- LAST HOURS OF THE PROPHET.
- The Presentiment of his Death
- The Murderers
- The Attack upon the Jail
- The Assassination of the Prophet and the Patriarch
- An Apostle shot
- Thrilling Narrative of a Survivor
- "Two Minutes in Jail."
When he left Nauvoo, on the morning of the 23rd, the Prophet was accompanied to Carthage by a number of the leading men of the Church, in addition to those summoned to the same place for the destruction of the Expositor. After bail had been accepted for the appearance of the accused, they nearly all returned to Nauvoo, leaving, however, behind as many of his friends as he desired to stay with him.
Between this time and his death a number of gentlemen called upon him, who were deeply solicitous for his safety, yet hopeful of his deliverance, and it was probably not until after Governor Ford's departure for Nauvoo, on the morning of the 27th, that any conversation took place respecting the probability of murder. Had that issue been apprehended, the Mormons at Nauvoo would have delivered him, even if the whole State of Illinois had forbidden their marching to his aid. The consequences would never have been considered. His safety was to them everything.
But the hours in Carthage jail were fleeting with that ominous haste that ever marks the ebbing current of life's career. As the shadows on the prison walls announced the receding day, the approach of death was sensibly felt by the Prophet and his friends. Dr. Richards, one of the apostles, proposed to Joseph that if his life might be accepted in the Prophet's stead, he would freely give it. The apostle Taylor asked only permission, and "in five hours he would take him from his prison." These were no idle offers. Life and deliverance were his for half a word; but at this critical moment Joseph seemed to forget all thoughts of life and of the world. It is claimed by the believing Saints that he had premonitions of his approaching end, and that on some occasions previous to the Expositor difficulty, he had spoken of the termination of his mission. So long had his bow been strung to its utmost tension, that this feeling of indifference can readily be appreciated without either miracle or divine manifestation ; but to him and his, impressions had special interpretations. Add to this the galling humiliation of being chided by some brethren as a "coward" when he attempted to escape on the presentation of the sheriff's writ, and then the weariness of earthly things is easy to comprehend. Life at last had lost its charm; the charge of cowardice had stung him, and he was ready to die. It was neither want of friends nor want of ability to secure his escape. He was weary, and with his fertile faith it was easy to listen to the suggestion of those ever-ready words—"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Besides, a "prophet" never dies. The portals of another world hail him as the advancing conqueror, and the field of his labours becomes more extended. Joseph was ready for the change.[1] It is stated that on leaving Nauvoo for Carthage he said: "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer morning. I have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me 'He was murdered in cold blood.'"[2]
Governor Ford was at Nauvoo, haranguing the Mormons, and reading to them homilies on obedience to law; the Prophet and his friends were in Carthage jail, impressed with thoughts of treachery, abandonment, and probably coming death, while at the same instant the murderers were preparing for their tragic rôle. Death was on the wing.
To impress the Mormons with the power of his might, the Governor had conceived the notion of parading the militia under his immediate command through the streets of Nauvoo; but intimations of possible danger had at the last hour counselled the abandonment of that project. The triumph of "crowing over the Mormons," as expressed by a Gentile writer, was a natural ambition for the class of men who had rushed to arms in their hatred of Mormonism and its Prophet; but the Governor's timely abandonment of the scheme was a fortunate decision. The march of two thousand militia through a city containing five thousand men inimical to them, with arms in their hands, in possession of every house, and these, too, men as ready as ever fanatics were, to fight the world for their religion and for their leader, must certainly have been a dangerous experiment. The Governor claims for his prudence other considerations, but the disbanded militia exclaimed bitterly against their disappointment.
Golden's Point, about six miles east of Nauvoo, was fixed upon as the rendezvous of the troops on the morning of the 27th. Those who were in and around Carthage were at once disbanded, with the exception of one company of the Carthage Grays, under the command of Captain Smith, who, as justice of the peace, had committed the Prophet and his brother for treason. This company was to perform the double duty of protecting the prisoners and repelling any attempt at their rescue.
The regiment from the southwest part of the county, under the command of Col. Levi Williams, had not yet reached Carthage. The Governor selected Thomas C. Sharpe, the editor of the Warsaw Signal, who had written more inflammatory articles against the Mormons than all the others put together, to carry the orders for disbanding his regiment to Colonel Williams.
The Prophet and his brethren in jail "felt unusually dull and languid, with a remarkable depression of spirits." One by one his personal friends had left during the afternoon to attend to some matters of business which interested the prisoners. These the guard at the jail from this time would not permit to return, and this was additional cause for alarm. One of them was driven at the point of the bayonet out of the town, and threatened with death if he returned. He immediately Image missingThe Apostle Taylor. repaired to Nauvoo to raise men to protect the prisoners; but the opportunity for such service was past. Another of the brethren, on leaving the prison, handed his revolver to the Prophet and this was the only weapon that Joseph, Hyrum, and the two apostles had among them. After dinner they sent another brother for some wine, for they "were dull and heavy;" and he, also, was not permitted to return. The prisoners hoped that the stimulant "would revive them," but no vinous medicament could elevate their spirits;—death was brooding over them. Elder Taylor sang Montgomery's pathetic hymn:
to a plaintive air as appropriate to the occasion as Mozart's "Dead March" in Saul. "It was very much in accordance with our feelings at the time," wrote elder Taylor, "for our spirits were all depressed, dull, gloomy and surcharged with indefinite ominous forebodings." After a little while, Hyrum asked the Elder "again to sing that song." He pled that he "did not feel like singing," but Hyrum felt the cordiality of a responsive soul, and they continued:
The Elder had just got through with the last comfort he could administer to his friend on earth, and the echoes of his sonorous voice had hardly died away when the closing scene of the tragedy opened.
A gentleman, a resident then and now of Nauvoo, unconnected with either the Mormons or the mob, furnishes the Author with the following facts.
"The afternoon of the day was dull and quiet. The disbanded troops had returned to their homes, and the people of the little village of Carthage congratulated themselves on the restoration of quiet and order about their homes. Their joy at their deliverance was, however, of short duration. Near sunset an armed force, numbering perhaps one hundred men, was seen stealthily approaching in single file upon the Nauvoo road. Their destination was evidently the jail, as they bent their steps in that direction. This body of men was well armed with rifles and muskets. Their faces were disfigured with paint, so that recognition was impossible. Their march was silent as the grave. The bewildered by-standers speculated on the meaning of the apparition of these silent yet grim and determined soldiers. Many supposed it was a party of armed Mormons intent on the rescue of their leaders from imprisonment: others, who were shrewder or in possession of better means of information, thought it meant anything but a happy deliverance for the imprisoned Saints. The silent and rapid approach of the intruders soon set at rest all occasion for speculation. On their arrival at the jail several shots were fired, and a scuffle took place with the guard. It apparently took but a moment to overcome all resistance, and the triumphant mob forced their way to the front door of the jail and burst into the lower room, which was immediately filled by a threatening mass of men with disguised and determined faces. They advanced up the narrow stairway which led to the room where the prisoners were confined. Arriving at the head of the stairs, a volley was instantly fired through the door into the prisoners' apartment. One of these random shots passed through the panel with force sufficient to inflict a mortal wound on the person of Hyrum Smith, from which he instantly expired. The door was now forced, and the excited mob burst into the room, firing volley after volley. The contest was too hot and too unequal to last long. The Prophet was armed with a revolver, with which he defended himself with the haste of desperation. He discharged his weapon three times, and it is said, each time with effect. He now turned to an open window, with a view to escape, but the mob was below in the prison yard as well as around him. He hesitated; he clutched the window-sill to which he was suspended, and cast a wild and imploring look below. A volley was fired by the unrelenting mob, and the Prophet fell to the ground, if not lifeless, at least insensible.
"The mob meant sure work. The mangled and bleeding body was set up against a well-curb in the jail yard, and a volley was fired at the insensible corpse, and thus the spirit of the Prophet was released from its earthly prison-house.
"The act of the mob was at once cool, systematic, and ferocious. To plan and consummate such an act of violence coolly, in the centre of a village, in broad daylight, with the whole community looking on, required a great amount of boldness, and many bold men. But no sooner was the deed committed than they appeared to be appalled and terrified at their own bloody acts. The mob broke up in squads, and retreated in different directions. In an incredibly short space of time not a man was left who had had any connection with the bloody tragedy. Their retreat was wild and precipitate.
"The village was panic-stricken. The apprehension was universal that the news of the death of the Smiths reaching Nauvoo would instantly cause an uprising of the Mormons; that the Nauvoo Legion, numbering its thousands, would immediately march on Carthage and take complete and sanguinary vengeance upon the town and its inhabitants for the death of the Smiths. The result was that the whole population fled, with the exception, however, of one family who were persuaded at the urgent request of John Taylor and Willard Richards (who were confined in the jail with the Smiths) to remain and take care of the dead bodies. It was only after repeated pledges, and the strong assurance of these Mormon magnates, that the family in question was induced to remain."
The Governor on his return from Nauvoo met the bearers of the dismal tidings to the Saints, and afraid of the interpretation that might be put upon his part of the tragedy, he arrested their further progress. Of his fears and of the excitement in the country he gives the following picture:
"A short time before sun-down we departed on our return to Carthage. When we had proceeded two miles we met two individuals, one of them a Mormon, who informed us that the Smiths had been assassinated in jail, about five or six o'clock of that day. The intelligence seemed to strike every one with a kind of dumbness. As to myself, it was perfectly astounding; and I anticipated the very worst consequences from it. The Mormons had been represented to me as a lawless, infatuated, and fanatical people, not governed by the ordinary motives which influence the rest of mankind. If so, most likely an exterminating war would ensue, and the whole land would be covered with desolation.
"Acting upon this supposition, it was my duty to provide as well as I could for the event. I therefore ordered the two messengers into custody and to be returned with us to Carthage. This was done to get time, and make such arrangements as could be made, and to prevent any sudden explosion of Mormon excitement before they could be written to by their friends at Carthage. I also dispatched messengers to Warsaw to advise the citizens of the event, but the people there knew all about the matter before my messengers arrived. They, like myself, anticipated a general attack all over the country. The women and children were removed across the river, and a committee was dispatched that night to Quincy for assistance. The next morning by day-light the ringing of the bells in the city of Quincy announced a public meeting. The people assembled in great numbers at an early hour. The Warsaw Committee stated to the meeting that a party of Mormons had attempted to rescue the Smiths out of jail; that a party of Missourians and others had killed the prisoners to prevent their escape; that the Governor and his party were at Nauvoo at the time when intelligence of the fact was brought there; that they had been attacked by the Nauvoo Legion, and had retreated to a house where they were then closely besieged. That the Governor had sent out word that he could maintain his position for two days, and would be certain to be massacred if assistance did not arrive by the end of that time. It is unnecessary to say that this entire story is a fabrication. It was of a piece with the other reports put into circulation by the anti-Mormon party to influence the public mind and call the people to their assistance. The effect of it, however, was, that by ten o'clock, on the 28th of June, between two and three hundred men from Quincy, under command of Major Flood, embarked on board a steamboat for Nauvoo, to assist in raising the siege, as they honestly believed.
"As for myself, I was well convinced that those, whoever they were, who assassinated the Smiths, meditated in turn my assassination by the Mormons. The very circumstances of the case fully corroborated the information which I afterwards received, that upon consultation of the assassins, it was agreed amongst them that the murder must be committed whilst the Governor was at Nauvoo; that the Mormons would naturally suppose that he had planned it, and that in the first out-pouring of their indignation, they would assassinate him by way of retaliation. And that thus they would get clear of the Smiths and the Governor all at once. They also supposed that if they could so contrive the matter as to have the Governor of the State assassinated by the Mormons, the public excitement would be greatly increased against that people, and would result in their expulsion from the State at least.
"Upon hearing of the assassination of the Smiths, I was sensible that my command was at an end; that my destruction was meditated as well as that of the Mormons, and that I could not reasonably confide longer in one party or in the other."[3]
Besides the above statement, the act of assassination was graphically, though hastily, described by the Apostle Willard Richards, who was with the Prophet at the time of his murder, under the title of
"TWO MINUTES IN JAIL.
"A shower of musket balls was thrown up the stairway against the door of the prison in the second story, followed by many rapid footsteps. While Generals Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Mr. Taylor, and myself, who were in the front chamber, closed the door of our room against the entry at the head of the stairs, and placed ourselves against it, there being no lock on the door and no latch that was usable—the door is a common panel—and as soon as we heard the feet at the stairs' head, a ball was sent through the door, which passed between us, and showed that our enemies were desperadoes, and we must change our position. General Joseph Smith, Mr. Taylor, and myself sprang back to the front part of the room, and General Hyrum Smith retreated two-thirds across the chamber, directly in front of and facing the door. A ball was sent through the door, which hit Hyrum on the side of the nose, when he fell backwards, extended at length, without moving his feet. From the holes in his vest (the day was warm, and no one had on a coat but myself), pantaloons, drawers, and shirt, it appears evident that a ball must have been thrown from without, which entered his back on the right side, and passing through lodged against his watch which was in his right vest pocket, completely pulverizing the crystal and face, tearing off the hands, and smashing the whole body of the watch, at the same instant the ball from the door entered his nose. As he struck the floor he exclaimed, emphatically, 'I'm a dead man!' Joseph looked towards him, and responded: 'Oh, dear brother Hyrum!' and opening the door two or three inches with his left hand, discharged one barrel of a six-shooter at random in the entry, from whence a ball grazed Hyrum's breast, and entering his throat, passed into his head, while other muskets were aimed at him, and some balls hit him. Joseph continued snapping his revolver round the casing of the door into the space as before, three barrels of which missed fire, while Mr. Taylor, with a walking-stick, stood by his side and knocked down the bayonets and muskets which were being constantly discharged through the doorway, while I stood by him, ready to lend any assistance with another stick, but could not come within striking distance without going directly before the muzzles of the guns. When the revolver failed we had no more fire-arms, and expected an immediate rush of the mob into the room and instant death. Mr. Taylor rushed into the window, which is some fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. When his body was nearly on a balance, a ball from the door within entered his leg and a ball from without struck his watch, a patent lever, in his vest pocket near his left breast, and smashed it into 'pie,' leaving the hands standing at five o'clock sixteen minutes and twenty-six seconds—the force of which ball threw him back on the floor, and he rolled under the bed which stood by his side, where he lay motionless. The mob from the door continued to fire upon him, cutting away a piece of flesh from his left hip as large as a man's hand; and were hindered only by my knocking down their muskets with a stick, while they attempted to reach their guns into the room, probably lefthanded, and aimed their weapons so far around as almost to reach us in the corner of the room, whither we retreated and dodged, and then recommenced the attack with my stick again. Joseph attempted, as the last resort, to leap through the same window from whence Mr. Taylor fell, when two balls pierced him from the door, and one entered his right breast from without, and he fell outward, exclaiming: 'O Lord my God!' As his feet went out of the window my head went in, the balls whistling all around. He fell on his left side, a dead man. At this instant the cry was raised: 'He's leaped the window!' and the mob on the stairs and in the entry ran out. I withdrew from the window, thinking it of no use to leap out on a hundred bayonets then around General Smith's body. Not satisfied with this, I again reached my head out of the window, and watched some seconds to see if there were any signs of life, regardless of my own, determined to see the end of him I loved. Being fully satisfied that he was dead, with a hundred men near the body, and more coming around the corner of the jail, and expecting a return to our room, I rushed towards the prison door at the head of the stairs, and through the entry from whence the firing had proceeded, to learn if the doors into the prison were open. When near the entry Mr. Taylor called out: 'Take me.' I pressed my way until I found all doors unbarred; returned instantly, caught Mr. Taylor under my arm, and rushed by the stairs into the dungeon or inner prison, stretched him on the floor and covered him with a bed in such a manner as not likely to be perceived, expecting an immediate return of the mob. I said to Mr. Taylor: 'This is a hard case to lay you on the floor; but if your wounds are not fatal I want you to live to tell the story.' I expected to be shot the next moment, and stood before the door awaiting the onset."
Who committed this dastardly deed is still a mystery upon which no light has ever yet been thrown. The foregoing facts render it highly probable that the plan of assassination was devised by other men than those who carried it into execution.
It is hardly likely that Governor Ford had anything to do with the concoction of the project; but it is impossible to dispel from the mind the idea that he was not entirely ignorant of the possibility of such an event being anticipated, if indeed not contemplated. It is quite probable that his disbandment of the troops was seized upon by greater minds than his own as a propitious circumstance that favoured the accomplishment of the desperate deed. A person of the name of Daniels, who was a private in the regiment commanded by Col. Levi Willianis, made statements preceding and during the trial which afterwards took place, to the effect that when the editor of the Warsaw Signal, Thomas C. Sharpe, brought dispatches from the Governor, ordering the disbandment of the troops, on the morning of the 27th, the intelligence created great excitement. They were clamourous to march upon Nauvoo, and were already a few miles on their way to that place. When the order was received, the troops were formed into line, and Sharpe was invited to address them. This Daniels asserts that, in his speech, Sharpe counselled the command to march eastward to Carthage, take the jail by storm, and kill the Smiths; that the Governor had already gone to Nauvoo; and that the Mormons, upon hearing of the death of the Smiths, would kill the Governor, and that they would then be rid of his interference. Other speakers on the occasion favoured the proposition; but some opposed it, maintaining as fiercely their opposition to "killing men in jail." Finally, a call was made for volunteers, whereupon William N. Grover was the first to advance, and was followed by the company that committed the murder.
The assassination of Joseph Smith was deplored by every right-thinking person. Aside from the horror and detestation naturally entertained against the crime of murder, it was readily seen that the dignity of martyrdom was the Prophet's crown of glory. It carved for him a place in history to which a natural death would never have conducted him.[4]
It has been difficult for public writers to agree when summing up his character. To one class he has appeared as the knave and the impostor; to others, the fanatic and self-deceived; to his own people he was the greatest of prophets; while others still have suggested that he was the victim of the extravagances of spirit-communications with an imagination crude, uncultivated, and superstitious. Knowing little and believing much, every impression was to him a revelation, and every calamity to the world an evidence that "the end" was nigh at hand. An English writer, closing a notice of the Prophet's career, says of him:
"If anything can tend to encourage the supposition that Joseph Smith was a sincere enthusiast, maddened with religious frenzies, as many have been before and will be after him; and that he had a strong invincible faith in his own high pretensions and divine mission, it is the probability that, unless supported by such feelings, he would have renounced the unprofitable and ungrateful task, and sought refuge from persecution and misery in private life and honourable industry. But whether knave or lunatic, whether a liar or a true man, it cannot be denied that he was one of the most extraordinary persons of his time, a man of rude genius, who accomplished a much greater work than he knew, and whose name, whatever he may have been whilst living, will take its place among the notabilities of the world."[5]
The Saints in Nauvoo received the news of the assassination on the following morning. Their grief was indescribable. It was "a day of sorrow and of darkness—a day of lamentation, and mourning, and of woe."
"With the news from Carthage came the recommendation from the apostles Taylor and Richards, and Samuel H. Smith (a brother of the murdered men), to the Saints to "be still—be patient." The Governor added to that brief epistle an injunction that the Mormons should act upon the defensive until protection could be furnished them.
The Legion was called out at ten o'clock in the morning, and addressed by W. W. Phelps, Colonel Buckmaster, the Governor's aide-de-camp, and others. Preparations were made to receive the last remains of the murdered Prophet and his brother, the Patriarch.
When the bodies were brought to the city in the afternoon, they were met by ten thousand people of every age and of both sexes, who followed the earthly relics of the martyrs to the Mansion House, and there Willard Eichards, Judge Phelps, and other prominent men, addressed the multitude. Every heart was stirred. Sorrow and indignation were mingled in every breast, and a desire for vengeance smouldered beneath the sentiments of wonder and grief.
The assembly separated peacefully, resolved to trust to the law for justice upon the assassins, and, if that failed, their implicit confidence in God for deliverance remained unshaken.[6] The Governor from this time did everything in his power for the preservation of peace, but this momentary check was only a temporary lull in the storm. Human efforts were now ineffectual to stem the tide of trouble which rolled in upon the Saints.
At the October term of the Hancock Circuit Court indictments were found by the Grand Jury against Levi Williams, Thos. C. Sharpe, M. Aldrich, Jacob C. Davis, Wm. N. Grover, John Allyer, Wm. Davis, John Willis, and Wm. Gallagher, for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The Governor, aware of the unenviable position that he occupied in respect to the alleged charges of complicity with the mob, resolved that the prosecution should be ably and fairly conducted, and, in addition to the District Attorney, called in the aid of the Attorney-General for the State.
Out of three hundred persons summoned, and after three days' challenging, a jury was at last empanelled. Of the indicted, four only were arrested—Sharpe, Grover, Davis, and Williams. The trial lasted nine days, when the jury retired, and, after an absence of three hours, returned a verdict of "Not Guilty;" a conclusion which surprised no one.
- ↑ Notwithstanding this apparent readiness to meet death, and the deep and clear divine impressions claimed to have been imparted to the Prophet of his forthcoming end, it is understood that he managed to send from prison a communication to the Mormon officer in military command at Nauvoo, to bring with all possible dispatch a portion of the Legion to protect him from treachery, and from that assassination which he had then so much cause to apprehend. This military commander put the Prophet's communication into his pocket and gave no heed to the call for help. No one was acquainted with the contents of the paper, and the officer was, therefore, he presumed, safe in disregarding it. After the Prophet's death, by some accident or other, this communication was lost and was picked up on the street and read. The intelligence that Joseph had called for aid and none had been rendered him was soon bruited among the Saints, and excited their deepest indiguation, as they were not only ready to march at a moment's notice, but were eager for the opportunity. Some time afterwards, when all was quiet, this "coward and traitor" as some of the Mormons called him, or "fool and idiot" as others said, was sent on a mission to the Western frontiers, accompanied by a faithful elder. While travelling alone with his companion, he fell ill and died, it is said of dysentery. His companion buried him.
- ↑ "Doctrine and Covenants," p. 335.
- ↑ Ford's "History of Illinois," pp. 348-9.
- ↑ "He is embalmed in the affectionate memory of thousands; and as time lends a halo of enchantment to encircle his name, hymns of praise and legends of his holy deeds will be sung and cherished by those who believe that the Prophet-Saint of earth is to reign a god over a brilliant world of his own creation, surrounded by happy queens and carolling children, through his own blessed eternity."—Lieut. Gunnisori's Work, p. 165.
- ↑ "The Mormons," p. 165. Mackay.
- ↑ The interment of the mortal remains of the Prophet and Patriarch was attended to with proper solemnity, and a sorrowing multitude accompanied the mourners to the burial-place; but there was a sequel to the public services which the people never knew. The bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were not in that funeral procession: they were reserved for private interment. It was believed that sacred as the tomb is always considered to be, there' were persons capable of rifling the grave in order to obtain the head of the murdered Prophet for the purpose of exhibiting it or placing it in some phrenological museum—the skull of Joseph Smith was worth money. This apprehension in point of fact proved true, for the place where the bodies were supposed to be buried was disturbed the night after the interment. The coffins had been filled with stones, etc., to about the weight which the bodies would have been. The remains of the two brothers were then secretly buried the same night by a chosen few in the vaults beneath the Temple. The ground was then levelled and pieces of rock and other débris were scattered carelessly over the spot. But even this was not considered a sufficient safeguard against any violation of the dead, and on the following night a still more select number exhumed the remains and buried them beneath the pathway behind the Mansion House. The bricks which formed the path were carefully replaced, and the earth removed was carried away in sacks and thrown into the Mississippi. [N. B. If this last statement is true, the bodies must have been removed a third time, as, since writing the above, the Author has it on unquestionable authority that they now repose in quite a different place.] Brigham Young has endeavoured to obtain possession of the remains of the Prophet, that they might be interred beneath the Temple at Salt Lake. It is stated by Brigham that Joseph, like the son of Jacob, made the request that the Saints when they went to the Rocky Mountains should carry his bones with them. The family of Joseph maintain that the Prophet never expressed any such desire, but said very much to the contrary. It is affirmed that, "previous to Joseph's death, he predicted that the Church would be scattered, and saw that the time might come when Brigham Young would lead the Church; and that if he did, he would lead it to perdition. He told his wife, Emma, to remain at Nauvoo, or if she left, to go to Kirtland, and not to follow any faction." To have given the bones of Joseph into Brigham's charge would have been to confirm the Saints in the Rocky Mountain Zion, to which the Smith family are decidedly opposed. The remains of the martyrs are destined for Zion in Missouri.