982

MORMONS TROUBLESOME IN ILLINOIS.

1843.

" On the 8th of December, 1843," says Judge Brown, "an extra ordinance was passed by the city council of Nauvoo, for the extra case of Joseph Smith; by the first section of which it is enacted, ' That it shall be lawful for any officer of the city, with or without process, to arrest any person who shall come to arrest Joseph Smith with process growing out of the Missouri difficulties; and the person so arrested shall be tried by the municipal court upon testimony, and, if found guilty, sentenced to the municipal prison for life.'

"On the 17th of February, 1842, an ordinance was passed, entitled, 'An ordinance concerning marriages,' by the second section of which a person is authorized to marry, with or without license. There was a statute in the State of Illinois requiring a license in all cases, from the clerk of the commissioner's court.

" On the 21st of November, 1843, an ordinance was passed by the city council, making it highly penal, even to one hundred dollars fine, and six months' imprisonment, for any officer to serve a process in the city of Nauvoo, ' unless it be examined by, and receive the approval and signature of the mayor of said city, on the back of said process.' "

Under these proceedings, difficulties soon arose. Some of Smith's followers becoming opposed to him, had established a new weekly paper, "The Nauvoo Expositor." This the prophet, as president of the council, pronounced " a nuisance," and proceeded to abate it, or destroy it, by force. Those interested procured a writ from the proper court for the arrest of the leader, but the writ was not endorsed by the mayor, and could not be executed.

Then arose the question   How long shall the laws of the State be thus set at defiance ?   and men through all the country round about vowed to see the warrants executed at the point of the bayonet. Two or three thousand men, some from Missouri and Iowa, being gathered against the city of the saints, Governor Ford came forward as a pacificator. Of what followed a description is given in the words of Judge Brown:

" On Monday, the 24th of June, 1844, Lieutenant-General Joseph Smith (' the prophet') and General Hyrum Smith, his brother, having received assurances from Governor Ford of protection, in company with some of their friends, left Nauvoo for Carthage, in order to surrender themselves up as prisoners, upon a process which had previously been issued, and was then in the hands of a public officer to be executed. About four miles from Carthage, they were met by Captain Dunn and a company of cavalry, on their way to Nan-