BOGGS ISSUES AN ORDER OF EXTERMINATION—GENERAL ATCHISON'S THREAT AGAINST THE TYRANT—AVARD ORGANIZES THE DANITES—THE HAUN'S MILL MASSACRE—FAR WEST BESIEGED—THREE NOBLE ONES REFUSE TO DESERT THEIR FRIENDS—COLONEL HINKLE'S BASE TREACHERY—"THESE ARE THE PRISONERS I AGREED TO DELIVER UP"—A COURT MARTIAL SENTENCES JOSEPH AND HIS COMPANIONS TO DEATH—GENERAL DONIPHAN'S NOBLE ACTION—DEMONIAC DEEDS ENACTED IN FAR WEST.  
On the day of the martyr Patten's funeral at Far West, Lilburn W. Boggs issued to General John B. Clark an order of extermination against the Saints. His words were:
 
The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public good. Their outrages are beyond all description.
 
The excuse of this tyrant was the encounter between the militia, sent out by Colonel Hinkle under judicial endorsement, and Bogart's mobbers. How quickly Boggs could respond when any of his assassins were checked in their career of massacre and plunder! Before making his order of extermination he had already directed two thousand troops to be raised; and in his edict of death, entrusted to General Clark, he authorized any desired increase of forces. He also directed Major-General Wallock and General Doniphan, with one thousand men, to intercept the retreat of the Saints, should they attempt one, by this act proving that the Saints were not to be permitted to leave the state, and that his order of extermination was intended to be construed absolutely and without alternative. He had taken the command from General Atchison and given it to General Clark because the latter was more suitable to his purpose, since he feared that Atchison might have some qualms of conscience. Incensed at this official slight, at a later time, General Atchison declared in a public speech:
 
If the governor does not restore my commission to me, I will kill him, so help me God.
 
To make some show of palliation for this unparalleled act of atrocity, Boggs published the most infamous lies concerning the doings and intentions of the "Mormons," making it appear that they, a little handful of poverty-stricken exiles, were about to flood the state with a ruinous war. His stories were full of tragedy and bombast. They would have been too ridiculous to be believed for an instant, but that the infuriate element for whose incitement they were addressed were eager as he to plunge the knife into the heart of innocence.
 
All the vile characters in that section of the country soon flocked to the mob-organizations. The most diabolical combinations were formed: one of the worst being under the direction of Dr. Sampson Avard, one of the apostate spirits, who formed a band which he called Danites, to aid him in purposes of plunder and murder, which he intended to attribute to the Church, and thus furnish an excuse for the attacks upon his former brethren. But his plot was discovered by the Prophet, and Avard was publicly excommunicated, so that the world might know that the Church had no part in this infamy. His plan was, by this prompt action, defeated almost before it had birth.
 
By the 26th of October twenty-five hundred of the mob militia had congregated at Richmond, and from there they took up their march for Far West, robbing, plundering, shooting, and threatening ravishment by the way. It was such rare sport, this outrage of the innocents, that it drew an overwhelming force to execute the ghastly order of Boggs, the executioner at wholesale.
 
The executive decree of massacre fell like music upon the ears of the wicked mob. On Tuesday, the 30th of October, 1838, a party of two hundred and forty of them fell upon a few families of Saints at Haun's Mill on Shoal Creek, and butchered them. The awful particulars of that deed must be left, with many others of like character, for another publication now in course of preparation, since the scope of this volume will not permit of more than a general view of events, however important, in which the Prophet had no personal part. But one or two circumstances of that atrocious deed can be detailed to show the unquenchable thirst for blood of Boggs' emissaries. Among the Saints at Haun's Mill was one old man named McBride, who had fought for independence under General Washington. This veteran patriot the mob seized and shot with his own gun, then they slashed him to pieces with a corn cutter. Stalwart Missourians slew and mutilated little children, and afterwards boasted of their deeds. They even robbed the dead.
 
On the 30th day of October the mob army beleaguered Far West. Their ranks were constantly augmented, and during the ensuing week six thousand demoniac men had taken part against that city.
 
On the first day of the siege a messenger was sent into the town to demand three persons to whom amnesty was to be accorded, as the mob declared their intention to massacre all the rest of the people and lay Far West in ashes. Adam Lightner, John Cleminson and wife were these three persons. When the messengers offered them the chance of life they responded: "If the people must be destroyed, we will die with them."
 
Elder Charles C. Rich was sent out, bearing a flag of truce, to hold a conference with General Doniphan and others; but when he approached the camp of the besiegers, Bogart, the Methodist preacher, fired upon him.
 
The defenders of the city threw up a temporary fortification of wagons and timber on the south, for they were in hourly expectation of the attack.
 
About eight o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, the 31st day of October, a white flag approached the city from the camp of the mobbers.
 
Colonel George M. Hinkle went out to meet it and accompanied it back to the camp. What he did there ought to have made even a Judas blush. He returned at evening and said to Joseph that hope had arisen for the settlement of the difficulties, and that the presence of the Prophet a............