THE PROPHET CHARGED WITH BEING AN ACCESSORY TO THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF BOGGS—ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL ACCUSED OF THE CRIME—THE GOVERNOR'S REQUISITION—THE ARREST—THE PROPHET'S DESIRE FOR PEACE—WILSON LAW'S BRAVE WORDS—EMMA SMITH'S NOBLE APPEAL TO THE GOVERNOR—CARLIN'S FALSE REPLY—AMASA M. LYMAN ORDAINED AN APOSTLE—THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FAITHFUL VOLUNTEERS.
Independence was hundreds of miles from Nauvoo. The vast stretch of country lying between the two cities was inhabited by a people who had sworn death to any "Mormon" daring to set foot on Missouri soil. The county of Jackson was the place from which the Saints had first been driven in the state, with the loss of all their possessions; and from which the Prophet and his companions, in 1839, had barely escaped with their lives. On the day when Lilburn W. Boggs was shot at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, Joseph Smith attended the officers' drill at Nauvoo. The day before the attempt on Boggs' life General Adams of Springfield had been with the Prophet; the day following the attempt, Judge Stephen A. Douglas and many lawyers of his court, with twelve thousand other people, saw Joseph Smith reviewing the Legion at Nauvoo.
And yet Lilburn W. Boggs went before a justice of the peace for Jackson County, one Samuel Weston, and swore to a complaint charging Joseph Smith with "being an accessory before the fact, to an assault with intent to kill made by one Orrin P. Rockwell on Lilburn W. Boggs, on the night of the 6th of May, 1842." This affidavit was not made until the latter part of July; and, during the interval, Boggs and his friends had ample time to ascertain that no "Mormon" could possibly have been connected with the assault—even if they had not been able to secure the actual assassin. They had investigated the subject, for their kidnappers were constantly hovering around the Prophet's person. If they could have secured him by force, Boggs would not have committed this perjury. But they must get him at all hazards. It would not do to charge him as principal in the commission of the deed because hundreds of prominent men in the state of Illinois could have testified to an alibi. They must select some person comparatively obscure, upon whom to charge the deed itself. As this victim they chose Orrin Porter Rockwell, although he had spent the spring and summer of 1842 in Illinois; and they charged the Prophet as being accessory, without taking the pains to trace any connection between Rockwell and the deed, or between the Prophet and Rockwell.
Boggs, having been governor of Missouri, found it easy to secure a requisition from Governor Reynolds for the persons of Joseph Smith and Orrin P. Rockwell; and upon this manifestly absurd and unconstitutional demand, Governor Carlin issued his warrant for their apprehension.
On the 8th day of August, 1842, the deputy sheriff of Adams County with two assistants, arrested Joseph Smith and Orrin P. Rockwell, at Nauvoo, by virtue of the warrant from Carlin upon the requisition of the governor of Missouri.
The monstrous character of the charge and the proceedings was clearly apparent, but neither Joseph nor his fellow-prisoner made any attempt to use force in the evasion of the illegal process. They succeeded in getting a writ of habeas corpus; but the officers refused to comply with its demands for the bodies of Smith and Rockwell and returned their original writ to Governor Carlin for further instruction. No doubt they were aware of the character of the duty entrusted to them: they were to arrest as fugitives from the justice of Missouri men who had not been in that state during or since the commission of the crime charged, men who were as palpably innocent of the offense as the officers themselves. Under these circumstances it is no cause for wonder that they should have sought renewed orders.
When the officers were gone from Nauvoo, Joseph and Orrin absented themselves pending preparations for a legal defense against this unlawful seizure. The sheriff returned with his aides to Nauvoo on Wednesday, the 10th of August. Failing to find his prey, he sought to terrify Emma and others into a disclosure of the Prophet's whereabouts—making violent threats to be executed in case of their refusal. William Law contended in argument with the officers, pronouncing the whole proceedings to be illegal and ridiculous. So closely did he press the point that the deputy sheriff acknowledged his own belief that Joseph was entirely innocent, and that Governor Carlin's course was unjustifiable and unconstitutional.
Rockwell, to escape from the Missouri kidnappers, took a journey to the eastern states where he remained some months.
Joseph left Nauvoo and spent a little time at his Uncle John Smith's in Zarahemla. On the night of Thursday, the 11th of August, he went in a skiff with Brother Erastus H. Derby to an island in the Mississippi between Nauvoo and Montrose, where they were met by Emma, Hyrum, William Law, Newel K. Whitney, George Miller, William Clayton and Dimick B. Huntington. Joseph's visitors stated to him the current report that the governor of Iowa had issued a warrant for his apprehension and that the sheriff of Lee County was expected any hour to execute it. The situation was critical; and Joseph's immediate removal from his Uncle John's seemed necessary. It was decided that the Prophet should proceed to the house of Edward Sayers in Nauvoo, and abide there for a time. The next day William Walker crossed the river from Nauvoo into Iowa, riding the Prophet's well-known horse Joe Duncan, to lead the gathered officers and kidnappers away from the idea that Joseph was on the Nauvoo side of the river.
On Saturday, the 13th, a letter was received by Hyrum from Elder Hollister at Quincy, stating that Governor Carlin admitted the proceedings to be illegal and declared that he would not pursue them further. Ford, the agent appointed to receive Joseph from the hands of the sheriff and carry him to Missouri, now announced his conclusion to take the first boat for home, as it was useless to wait longer. These announcements of Carlin and Ford were but part of a plan to lead the Prophet from his hiding-place and get him into the hands of his enemies. It was learned that Ford had declared his purpose to have a large force brought from Missouri, and already companies of marauders were making search in Montrose, Nashville, Keokuk and other places for Joseph, to win the reward of $1,300 which was offered for his capture. William Walker's ruse had been successful, and most of the efforts were directed to the Iowa side of the river; but the officers of Illinois, who were also eager to gain the reward, were determined if possible to have him delivered to them at Nauvoo. They said they would stay in the city a month but that they would find him, and if he were not then forthcoming, they would lay Nauvoo in ashes.
Emma had followed Joseph to the house of Edward Sayers to nurse him as he was in ill health.
On the 14th of August Joseph wrote to Wilson Law, who had been elected Major-General of the Nauvoo Legion, concerning the threats of Missouri mobocrats and Illinois kidnappers against the welfare of Nauvoo and the liberty of her citizens. He said:
We will take every measure in our power, and make every sacrifice that God or man can require at our hands, to preserve the peace and safety of the people without collision. And if sacrificing my own liberty for months and years were necessary I would bow to my fate with cheerfulness, and with a due consideration for the lives, safety and welfare of others. But if this policy cannot accomplish the desired object * * * we will defend ourselves to the best advantage we can and to the very last.
The entire sentiment of this letter indicates the wish of the Prophet for peace and the supremacy of the law, and also his courageous intention of submitting supinely no more to mobocratic violence—murder and plunder.
The answer of Wilson Law is important in a personal sense. He says:
I do respond with my whole heart to every sentiment you have so nobly and 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 its being at your service in the glorious cause of liberty and truth, ready at a moment's warning to defend the rights of men, both civil and religious.
Brave words these; but they were not sustained by subsequent deeds. Wilson Law was the Benedict Arnold of Nauvoo. In less than two years after he wrote that letter, filled with sentiments of intense affection, he aided to bring the Prophet to his death.
Joseph had considered, during a brief time after the service of this writ, the advisability of taking his family and traveling into the distant north-west, to remain for a season, in order that persecution might be drawn away from Nauvoo and the people there be spared the horrors which had attended the Saints in Missouri. But when he found that the hatred of his opponents was extended to the city and people of Nauvoo, he abandoned all thought of retreating from the scene. If his absence could have preserved his brethren and sisters he would have cheerfully banished himself into the wilderness; but since the danger which menaced them was a common danger he would remain and share it.
On the night of the l5th of August, Hyrum Smith and several others came to Joseph's hiding place and informed him that the officers had threatened to bring a great force against the city and that the Prophet would be safer at a distance. The brethren who brought this message and advice labored under great excitement and fear for Joseph; but he took occasion to calmly reprove them for their agitation, and he advised them to maintain an even and undaunted mind. Their courage was renewed with this exhibition of his fortitude, and they gladly remained with him in serenity and joy, listeni............