GROWTH OF NAUVOO—THE MANSION—SIDNEY RIGDON'S RECREANCY—MOBOCRATIC CONVENTIONS AT CARTHAGE—INCITING THE MISSOURIANS TO KIDNAP—THE PROPHET CHECKS A BOMBASTIC POLITICIAN—APPEALS FOR REDRESS—JOY ON A CHRISTMAS DAY—ORRIN PORTER ROCKWELL BACK FROM MISSOURI.  
When the Prophet once more saw one hour of security in Nauvoo, he recorded the fact that he had been subjected in his time to thirty-eight suits against his person and property. Not one of these was just. They were all incited for the purpose of vexing and despoiling him, and by the satanic power that had sought to shed the blood of prophets and holy men through all ages.
 
But he was compensated and filled with joy to see the progress of Nauvoo. From the states in this country and from the lands across the sea, faithful Saints were gathering by tens, and hundreds, and thousands. Homes were being built and factories were projected; the walls of the temple were rising in grandeur, uplifting the souls of the Saints with hope that they would soon minister in the holy ordinances for their living and their dead; and all that was wanted to insure the dominion of peace was the cessation of the wicked assaults upon the Prophet and his friends.
 
On the last of August Joseph and his family moved into the Nauvoo Mansion. It was his intention to support this place as a home for all visitors who should come up to Zion seeking to know the glory of God. Such hospitality was no new thing for the Prophet to bestow. His home, whenever he had one, had always been open to Saints and to strangers. It had been a resting place for thousands; and many times his family had gone without food, after giving their last morsel to the poor wayfarers. The mansion was a place in which such hospitality as the Prophet loved could well be extended. With these facilities to entertain company, Joseph soon found his resources exhausted. But for the persecutions and robberies which he had suffered he might have continued to dispense his bounties with generous hand; but now he was compelled to have the mansion opened as a hotel, at first under his own direction, but a little later it was leased for that purpose to Ebenezer Robinson, the Prophet only retaining two or three rooms for his personal use. Joseph's mother lived with him at this time.
 
Among the saddest afflictions of the Prophet's closing hours was the recreancy of Sidney Rigdon. As early as August, 1843, Joseph had solemnly withdrawn his fellowship from Sidney, and had refused to acknowledge him longer as a counselor—unless the charge could satisfactorily be refuted that he was in league with the Prophet's enemies to betray him and give him up to death in Missouri. This was not the only ground for complaint. Sidney was charged with an alliance with dishonest persons to deal fraudulently against the innocent and unwary. At a special conference begun in Nauvoo on the 6th of October, examination was made of the statements against President Rigdon. The Prophet recalled the many times that he had borne with Sidney's failings, having forgiven him again and again; and that now Sidney had ceased altogether to be useful and devoted, and Joseph lacked entire confidence in his integrity. Filled with mercy, Hyrum desired that one more trial should be given to Elder Rigdon, and upon his motion Sidney was sustained. The Prophet arose and said:
 
I have thrown him off my shoulders, and you have again put him on me. You may carry him, but I will not.
 
Subsequent events clearly showed how truly the Prophet had judged of the man who was once his friend and counselor, but had now lost faith and power in the gospel.
 
Assaults from without were threatened, with violence constantly augmenting. In August some of the brethren who were elected to county offices went to Carthage to give bonds and take the official oath. While these men were before the court, a rabble consisting of Constable Harmon T. Wilson and about fifteen others came in armed with hickory clubs, knives and pistols, and swore that the bonds should not be approved nor the men from Nauvoo inducted into office; if they were, blood would be spilled; and the mob pledged their words, honor and reputation, not only to keep these men out of office, but to put down the "Mormons." After some delay, the rabble withdrew to convene a mob meeting, and the bonds were approved by the court. This mob secured a convention at the courthouse on the 19th of August and appointed a committee to draft resolutions concerning the Saints; and at an adjourned meeting held on the 6th of September, 1843, a most vindictive tirade, filled with lies and threats, was presented and accepted under the name of preamble and resolutions. These mobocrats pledged themselves in the most determined manner to give aid in the capture of Joseph if he were demanded again, and threatened signal and summary vengeance upon the Saints in case of a collision. All the office-seekers were warned that the influence of the mobocrats would be withdrawn from them if they sought support at Nauvoo.
 
This action was designed to comfort the Missourians and to incite them to further efforts; and also to warn the office-holders and office-seekers of the state of Illinois not to extend any help to Joseph and his people in case of an attack upon them. The sole causes of the movements, in addition to the falsehoods of Reynolds and Wilson, who felt chagrined at their failure to drag the Prophet to his death as they had threatened, was that the people were increasing, Nauvoo was becoming a beautiful city, and Joseph Smith, the Prophet of God and head of the community, was the object of sectarian and apostate jealousy and political hate. Joseph wrote to the governor concerning the threatened movements against the Saints, but received no satisfaction.
 
The promise of the Hancock County mob and the quiescence of the governor of Illinois gave license and promise of support to the people of Missouri in the commission of further outrages. In November, Daniel Avery and his son Philander were kidnapped from Hancock County, by a company of Missourians, and imprisoned and threatened with death for the purpose of extorting false statements from them upon which prosecutions could be based against the citizens of Nauvoo. A man named Elliot of Carthage, who had assisted the kidnappers, was arrested and brought before a court at Nauvoo for examination. No attempt was made to inflict punishment upon him; the evidence clearly showed his guilt, and he was bound over to the circuit court at Carthage. This same Elliot had sworn to have the Prophet's life, and complaint was lodged against him for threatening to kill. Elliot was alone and defenseless; and when the Prophet saw the man's fear and helplessness, he obtained a withdrawal of the charge, paid the costs himself, and invited Elliot to his own home to be fed and lodged.
 
Writs for the other persons engaged in the Avery kidnapping were issued, but an armed mob congregated to prevent the service of process. A party of the mob went to the house of David Holman near Ramus, and in his absence plundered it of provisions and then burned it to the ground, leaving himself and family shelterless in the bleak winter.
 
An attack was threatened upon Nauvoo by gathering mobs from Missouri and Illinois; and in view of this danger the Nauvoo Legion was ordered to be kept in readiness to repel unlawful assaults.
 
The vindictive and lawless character of the mob which menaced the city is shown by the statement of Amos Chase, who heard the following conversation between a spectator and the rabble:
 
"What will you do if the governor refuses to sanction your course?"
 
"Damn the governor! If he opens his head we will punch a hole through him! He dare not speak! We will serve him the same sauce we will the Mormons."
 
And their cowardly character is shown by the experience of Nelson Judd. A man called on Brother Judd at Nauvoo and said he wanted to sell him some wood at a little distance down the river. Nelson went with the man and when they came into the woods two men on horseback attempted to kidnap him. He avoided them and they drew their pistols and fired, but without effect. Judd then coolly said: "Now it is my turn."
 
Putting his hand into his pocket as though to draw a pistol, he looked fiercely at the bandits, and they fled shrieking with terror. Nelson had no weapon with him except his bravery and innocence, and he walked home laughing at the ruffians.
 
At a meeting of the city council in December, 1843, the subject of the menace to the city and the mayor was under consideration, and Joseph said among other things:
 
I am exposed to far greater danger from traitors among ourselves than from enemies without, although my life has been sought for many years by the civil and military authorities, priests and people of Missouri; and if I can escape from the ungrateful treachery of assassins, I can live as Caesar might have lived, were it not for a right-hand Brutus. I have had pretended friends betray me. All the enemies upon the face of the earth may roar and exert all their power to bring about my death, but they can accomplish nothing, unless some who are among us, who have enjoyed our society, have been with us in our councils, participated in our confidence, taken us by the hand, called us brother, saluted us with a kiss, join with our enemies, turn our virtues into faults, and, by falsehood and deceit, stir up their wrath and indignation against us, and bring their united vengeance upon our heads. All the hue and cry of the chief priests and elders against the Savior could not bring down the wrath of the Jewish nation upon his head, and thereby cause the crucifixion of the Son of God, until Judas said unto them: "Whomsoever I shall kiss he is the man: hold him fast." Judas was one of the Twelve Apostles, even their treasurer, and dipped with their Master in the dish, and through his treachery the crucifixion was brought about; and we have a Judas in our midst.
 
James Arlington Bennett, a lawyer, journalist and politician of New York, had been attracted by the Prophet's fame and character. Mr. Bennett had ambition to run for office in the state of Illinois, and he wrote a very complimentary letter to Joseph, in which he spoke of the boldness of the Prophet's plans and measures; and that he, Bennett, would yet run for high office in Illinois, and would give the Prophet his best services; intimated that he would like to become Joseph's right-hand man, since "Mahomet had his right-hand man"; and he declared that his mind was of so mathematical and philosophical a cast that divinity made an impression upon him.
 
To this bombastic letter the Prophet replied with such incisive vigor that must have taught Mr. Bennett a lesson:
 
You say, "The boldness of my plans and measures, together with their unparalleled success so far, are calculated to throw a charm over my whole being, and to point me out as the most extraordinary man of the present age."The boldness of my plans and measures can readily be tested by the touchstone of all schemes, systems, projects and adventures—truth, for truth is a matter of fact; and the fact is, that by the power of God I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics, the knowledge of which was lost to the world; in which wonderful event I stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries with a new revelation, which (if they would receive the everlasting Gospel) would open the eyes of more than eight hundred millions of people, and make "plain the old paths," wherein, if a man walk in all the ordinances of God blameless, he shall inherit eternal life; and Jesus Christ, who was, and is, and is to come, has borne me safely over every snare and plan, laid in secret or openly, through priestly hypocrisy, sectarian prejudice, popular philosophy, executive power, or law-defying mobocracy, to destroy me.
 
If, then, the hand of God, in all these things that I have accomplished towards the salvation of a priest-ridden generation, in the short space of twelve years through the boldness of the plan of preaching the Gospel, and the boldness of the means of declaring repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, and a reception of the Holy Ghost, by laying on of the hands, agreeably to the authority of the Priesthood, and the still more bold measures of receiving direct revelation from God, through the Comforter, as promised, and by which means all holy men, from ancient times till now, have spoken and revealed the will of God to men, with the consequent "success" of the gathering of the Saints, throws any "charm" around my being, and "points me out as the most extraordinary man of the age," it demonstrates the fact, that truth is mighty, and must prevail; and that one man empowered from Jehovah has more influence with the children of the kingdom than eight hundred millions led by the precepts of men. God exalts the humble and debases the haughty.
 
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The summit of your future fame seems to be hid in the political policy of a "mathematical problem" ............