The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

Footnotes

[1]. Times and Seasons for December, 1841.

[2]. Those who would know more of this ancient record are referred to the Pearl of Great Price where they will fund the translation of it; and for a pretty full consideration of its claims to being a genuine ancient record, and an inspired book, the reader is referred to "The Divine Authenticity of the Book of Abraham," by Elder George Reynolds.

CHAPTER XXII.

SUSPICIONS OF TREACHERY.

AS early as January, 1842, Joseph, as lieutenant-general of the Legion, issued orders for a general military parade and review of the Legion to take place on the seventh of May following. A subsequent order, issued in April, marking out the programme for the day's exercises, contained the following clause:

At three o'clock p. m. the cohorts will separate and form in line of battle, the brigadiers assume their respective commands, and General Law's command [cavalry] will make a descent upon that of General Rich's [cohort C, infantry] in order of sham battle.

The lieutenant-general had invited the consolidated staff of the Legion to partake of a repast militaire on the occasion, at his house.

On the morning of the day appointed for the drill and review two thousand troops were in the field; and an immense concourse of spectators, both of Saints and strangers. Such was the interests taken in the movement of the people of Nauvoo, that a number of the prominent men of the State within reach of the city attended the review. Judge Stephen A. Douglass adjourned the circuit court, then in session at the county seat, Carthage, in order to attend. As soon as the lieutenant-general heard of the presence of Judge Douglass, he sent him an invitation to attend the military dinner given at his house, which the judge accepted.

It was a glorious day, passing off without noise or disorder; and even the strangers expressed themselves as highly satisfied with what they had witnessed. But even during the brightest days clouds will sometimes drift across the sun's disc: so in the moments of man's supreme happiness, it often occurs that shadows arise to alarm his fears, and remind him how fleeting are the joys of this life—

Some drops of joy with draughts of ill between;
Some gleams of sunshine 'mid renewing storms,

are all that he may hope for. So was it with the principal founder of Nauvoo on the day of the sham battle. When the respective cohorts were drawn up in line of battle, facing each other, Major-General John C. Bennett rode up to General Smith and asked him to lead the charge of the first cohort, but Joseph declined. He next asked him to take a position in the rear of the cavalry without his staff during the engagement, but against this Captain A. P. Rockwood, the commander of Joseph's life guard, objected, and Joseph with his staff chose his own position.

Of this incident—and it is for this reason that I have referred to this parade and sham battle—Joseph remarks:

If General Bennett's true feelings towards me are not made manifest to the world in a very short time then it may be possible that the gentle breathings of that Spirit which whispered to me on parade that there was mischief in that sham battle, were false; a short time will determine the point. Let John C. Bennett answer at the day of judgment, Why did you request me to command one of the cohorts, and also to take my position without my staff, during the sham battle on the seventh of May, 1842, where my life might have been forfeited and no man have known who did the deed?

This is about the first intimation that we have in any of The Church records of John C. Bennett's disaffection towards Joseph or The Church. Two years before he had come to Nauvoo—then Commerce—filled with that fiery zeal "for the holy faith" which is only known to the newly-made convert. He was a man of considerable learning and ability, and devoted himself assiduously to bring to pass the prosperity of Nauvoo. He was of great service to Joseph as a lieutenant, and the Prophet was wont to say of him that he was about the first man he had about him who could do exactly what he wanted done, the way it should be done, and who would do it at once. In training the Legion and assisting in the drafting of the Nauvoo and other charters, he had rendered invaluable service; and had he possessed qualities of heart equal to those of his mind, he was calculated to have been a valuable acquisition to the city of Nauvoo. Nor am I willing to believe that his motives in uniting himself with The Church were altogether evil, notwithstanding his life previous to his joining The Church was immoral. I am quite willing to believe that when he came to the Saints it was his determination to reform and win for himself an honorable standing among his fellow-men; but the evil habits he had contracted were too strong for his will, and he sought the gratification of his lusts which led to his fall.

Soon after he settled at Nauvoo, he paid his addresses to a respectable young lady of the city, and she, believing him to be an honorable man, accepted them, and he promised to marry her. In the meantime, however, Joseph had received information from the vicinity of Bennett's former residence to the effect that the doctor was a wicked man, and that he had a wife and several children in McConnellsville, Morgan County, Ohio—a thing the doctor had kept concealed. Learning this, Joseph persuaded him to discontinue his attentions to the young lady; but he soon renewed them; whereupon Joseph threatened to expose him if he did not desist, which, to all appearances, had the desired effect.

Being foiled in his advances toward this young lady, and finding that Joseph stood like a lion in his path to prevent the accomplishment of his evil designs and protect the unsuspecting, he drew around him a covering of hypocrisy, carefully concealed his movements from the Prophet, and proceeded to teach some women, who only knew him as an honorable man, that promiscuous intercourse of the sexes was a doctrine believed in by the Latter-day Saints, and that there was no harm in it. In his first efforts he was unsuccessful; but in his subsequent advice, in the same line, he told them that Joseph and others of The Church authorities both sanctioned and practiced this wickedness, saying that the Prophet only denounced such things so vehemently in public, because of the prejudice of the people and the trouble it might create in his own house. In this manner he succeeded in overcoming the scruples of some of his dupes, and seduced several females. Nor did the evil end here. Bennett induced other men to adopt his evil practices; among them Francis M. and Chauncy L. Higbee. These men repeated the assertions made by the doctor, and thus the evil spread, and the reputation of the Prophet was being undermined.

But evils of this character cannot long be practiced without coming to light, and Doctor Bennett, finding that his corruption was about to be uncovered, began to prepare for the shock. When confronted with positive evidence that it was known that he had a wife and family, and that his seductions were also known, he attempted suicide by taking poison, and resisted the administration of antidotes, but he was rescued from this fate in spite of himself.

Before his evil course was known, arrangements were made to run the doctor for representative from the district in which Nauvoo was included, to the State legislature. But one day Joseph met the doctor in the presence of Squire Wells, and addressed him in substance as follows: "Doctor, I can sustain you no longer. Hyrum is against you, the Twelve are against you, and if I do not come out against sin and iniquity I shall myself be trodden under foot as a Prophet of God." That sentence sounded the death knell to the standing of Dr. Bennett in Nauvoo. Joseph had clung to him in the hope of reforming him, but that could no longer be expected; and when the Prophet let go his hold upon him, there was nothing could avert his downfall.

On the nineteenth of May Bennett resigned his position as mayor and Joseph was elected to that office. On this occasion, and before the whole city council, Joseph asked Doctor Bennett if he had anything against him, to which the doctor replied:

I know what I am about, and the heads of The Church know what they are about, I expect; I have no difficulty with the heads of The Church. I publicly avow that if any one has said that I have stated that General Joseph Smith has given me authority to hold illicit intercourse with women he is a liar in the face of God. Those who have said it are damned liars; they are infernal liars. He never either in public or private gave me any such authority or license, and any person who states it is a scoundrel and a liar. * * * I intend to continue with you, and hope the time may come when I may be restored to full confidence and fellowship, and my former standing in The Church, and that my conduct may be such as to warrant my restoration, and should the time ever come that I may have the opportunity to test my faith, it will then be known whether I am a traitor or a true man.

Joseph—Will you please state definitely whether you know anything against my character, either in public or private.

Doctor Bennett—I do not. In all my intercourse with General Smith in public and in private he has been strictly virtuous.

In addition to this statement before the city council, Doctor Bennett made affidavit before Squire Wells to the same effect as the above.

On the twenty-sixth of May, the case of Bennett came up in the Masonic lodge, of which the doctor was a member, as were also nearly all the principal men of Nauvoo. In the presence of one hundred of the fraternity, he confessed his licentious practices, and acknowledged that he was worthy of the severest chastisement, yet he pleaded for mercy, and especially that he might not be published in the papers. So deep, apparently, was his sorrow, that Joseph pleaded for mercy in his behalf, and he was forgiven as a Mason; but previous to this, the First Presidency of The Church, the Twelve and the Bishop had sent a formal notice to him that they could not fellowship him as a member of The Church, but they withheld the matter from publication, at his earnest solicitation, because of his mother.

John C. Bennett, however, had fallen too far to recover from the effects of his deep transgression. He suddenly left Nauvoo, and soon afterward was found plotting with the enemies of the Saints for the destruction of The Church. By this time the Masonic lodge found that he was an expelled Mason, and had palmed himself off on the Nauvoo lodge as a Mason in regular standing, consequently he was disfellowshiped from the Nauvoo lodge, and was also cashiered by the court-martial of the Nauvoo Legion; and thus plucked of all his glory, he was left to wander as a vagabond and an outcast among men.

After he so suddenly left Nauvoo, he again said that the Prophet Joseph had authorized and encouraged sexual wickedness, and when confronted with his own affidavit, which declared Joseph to be a virtuous man, and a teacher of righteousness, and upright both in his public and private character, he claimed that he was under duress when he made that affidavit. But Squire Wells, before whom he had qualified to make his sworn statement, went before a justice of the peace, and made affidavit that during the time that this development of his wickedness was going on, and he making statements favorable to Joseph and The Church, that—

During all this time, if he (Doctor Bennett) was under duress or fear, he must have had a good faculty of concealing it; for he was at liberty to go and come when and where he pleased, so far as I am capable of judging.

Squire Wells further testifies in the same statement:

I was always personally friendly with him, after I became acquainted with him. I never heard him say anything derogatory to the character of Joseph Smith, until after he had been exposed by said Smith on the public stand in Nauvoo.

So soon as it was learned that the doctor had left Nauvoo, and was operating for the destruction of The Church, the whole case was published in the Nauvoo papers, and his corruption made known to the world. Those whom he had involved in his vile snares, both men and women, were brought before the proper tribunals of The Church; some of them were disfellowshiped, and others who sincerely repented were forgiven.

The only description I have seen of Doctor Bennett is given in the Essex County Washingtonian, published in Salem, Massachusetts, and that is contained in the issue of the fifteenth of September, 1842. According to that description he was a man five feet nine inches high, well formed, black hair sprinkled with grey, dark complexion, a rather thin face, and black, restless eyes.

The fall of Doctor Bennett added another evidence to the fact that neither natural nor acquired attainments, however brilliant they may be, can secure one a safe standing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when not accompanied with righteousness of life. Moreover, experience has proven that to brilliancy of intellect highly cultivated, may be added inspired dreams, visions, the revelations of God, and the visitation of angels—and yet, if the daily life and conversation runs not hand in hand with righteousness, these things furnish at best but an insecure foundation on which to stand.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR BOGGS.

It was rumored in Nauvoo about the middle of the month of May, 1842, that ex-Governor Boggs, of Missouri, had been assassinated by an unknown hand, at his residence in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. The ex-governor, however, did not die from the wounds he received, but recovered in the course of several days. The assault made upon him by his enemy, whoever he might be, occurred on the sixth of May, in the year above named. He was seated in a room by himself, when some person discharged a pistol loaded with buckshot, through the adjoining window. Three of the shot took effect in his head—one of which, it was said, penetrated his brain. His son, hearing the shot, burst into the room and found him in a helpless condition. The pistol from which the shot was fired was found under the window, and there, too, were the footprints of the would-be assassin.

No sooner was the news of the affair heard than speculation was rife as to the parties who had perpetrated the deed; and in consequence of the infamous part taken by Boggs in driving the Saints from the State of Missouri, during the period that he was governor, it was not long before "Joe Smith and the Mormons" were accused of the deed. The Quincy Whig, in its issue of May 21st, said:

There are several rumors in circulation in regard to the horrid affair; one of which throws the crime upon the Mormons, from the fact, we suppose, that Mr. Boggs was governor at the time, and in no small degree instrumental in driving them from the State. Smith, too, the Mormon Prophet, as we understand, prophesied a year or so ago, his death by violent means. Hence, there is plenty of foundation for rumor.

To this statement the Prophet Joseph wrote a reply and sent it to the editor of the Whig, Mr. Bartlett:

DEAR SIR—In your paper of the 21st inst., [May] you have done me manifest injustice, in ascribing to me a prediction of the demise of Lilburn W. Boggs, Esq., ex-governor of Missouri, by violent hands. Boggs was a candidate for the State senate, and, I presume, fell by the hand of a political opponent, with his hands and face yet dripping with the blood of murder; but he died^[[1]] not through my instrumentality. My hands are clean and my heart pure, from the blood of all men.

As soon as Boggs recovered sufficiently, he went before Samuel Weston, a justice of the peace at Independence, and one of the characters that some of my readers of "The Missouri Persecutions" will remember as taking part in driving the Saints from their homes in Jackson County—before him Boggs made affidavit that he had reason to believe, from evidence and information then in his possession, that "Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, was accessory before the fact of the intended murder," and therefore applied to Thomas Reynolds, governor of Missouri, to make a demand on the governor of Illinois, to deliver Joseph Smith up to some person authorized to receive him on behalf of the State of Missouri, to be dealt with according to law.

Governor Reynolds promptly granted the request and made the demand on the governor of Illinois for the surrender of Joseph to one E. R. Ford, who was appointed the agent of Missouri to receive him. In making the demand, Governor Reynolds said:

Whereas it appears * * * that one Joseph Smith is a fugitive from justice, charged with being accessory before the fact, to an assault with intent to kill, made by one O. P. Rockwell, on Lilburn W. Boggs, in this State [Missouri]; and is represented to the executive department of this State as having fled to the State of Illinois; Now, therefore, I, * * * do by these presents demand the surrender and delivering of the said Joseph Smith, etc., etc.

We have given this extract for the requisition verbatim, because, in the first place, the affidavit of Boggs, upon the strength of which Governor Reynolds made his demand for the surrender of Joseph Smith, does not claim that he was a fugitive from justice, or that he had fled from the State of Missouri to Illinois; but on the contrary, the affidavit says that he was a "citizen or resident of Illinois," hence the statement of fact in the affidavit was not sufficient to justify the demand for Joseph Smith to be surrendered to Missouri. A person resident in a State may not be delivered up to the authorities of another State for alleged offenses, unless it is represented that he has fled from the State making the demand for his surrender, to escape from justice. This charge was not made by Boggs in his affidavit, which was Governor Reynolds' only authority for making the demand. But in what Boggs failed, Governor Reynolds made up; and upon his own responsibility, charged in his demand on Illinois that Joseph Smith was "a fugitive from justice," and had "fled to Illinois;" a statement that was at once untrue, and wholly gratuitous on the part of the executive of Missouri, and proves him to be a willing persecutor of the innocent. Secondly, it was this assumption on the part of Reynolds that did much towards making the demand on Illinois void. But more of this anon.

Governor Carlin, of Illinois, respected the demand of Missouri, and issued a warrant for the arrest of O. P. Rockwell as principal and Joseph Smith as accessory before the fact, in an assault with intent to kill, upon ex-Governor Boggs. The papers were placed in the hands of the deputy sheriff of Adams County, who, with two assistants, at once repaired to Nauvoo, and on the eighth of August, 1842, arrested the above named parties. There was no evasion of the officers, but the municipal court of Nauvoo, at once, on the application of the parties arrested, issued a writ of habeas corpus, requiring the officers having the prisoners in charge, to bring them before that tribunal, in order that the legality of the warrant under which they were arrested might be tested. This the sheriff refused to do, as he claimed that the municipal court had no jurisdiction in the case, but he left the prisoners in the care of the city marshal, without, however, leaving the original writ upon which alone they could be held; and the deputy sheriff and his assistants returned to Quincy; the prisoners being turned loose to go about their business.

During the absence of the deputy sheriff, Joseph had secured a writ of habeas corpus from the master in chancery, as it was questionable if the municipal court of Nauvoo had the authority to issue such writs in cases arising under the laws of the State or the United States.^[[2]] The officers returned from Quincy on the tenth, but in the interim it had been decided by Joseph and his friends, that the best thing for himself and Rockwell to do under the excitement of public sentiment then existing was to keep out of the way for a season; so that the officers were unable to find them on their return.

Joseph crossed the river and stayed at his uncle John's house for a few days, in the settlement called Zarahemla; but on the night of the eleventh of August, he met by appointment his brother Hyrum, Rockwell, his wife Emma and several other friends at the south point of the island that stands midway in the river between Nauvoo and Montrose.

It had been rumored that the governor of Iowa had also issued a warrant for the arrest of Joseph and Rockwell, where-upon it was decided that it would be better for them to remain on the Illinois side of the river. Subsequent events, however, proved that this rumor was a false one. Joseph was rowed up the river by a Brother Dunham to a point near the home of a Brother Derby. Rockwell had been set ashore and had proceeded to the same point on foot, where he built a fire on the bank of the river, that Dunham might know where to land. At Derby's, the Prophet remained in hiding for some time, and Rockwell went east, remaining for several months in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

From his place of concealment, Joseph directed the movements of the people at Nauvoo, and managed his own business through faithful agents, who met with him occasionally. Emma spent considerable of her time with him, and beguiled the loneliness of those weary hours of inactivity that he, whose life is the synonym for activity, had to endure.

During those days of exile, one gets a glimpse of the Prophet's private life and character, that in part explains the mystery of his power and influence over his friends and his people:—it was his unbounded love for them. Speaking of the meeting with his friends in the night at the island, in the account he gives of it in the Book of the Law of the Lord, he says:

How glorious were my feelings when I met that faithful and friendly band, on the night of the eleventh [of August], on the island at the mouth of the slough between Zarahemla and Nauvoo. With what unspeakable delight, and what transports of joy swelled my bosom, when I took by the hand, on that night, my beloved Emma—she that was my wife, even the wife of my youth, and choice of my heart. Many were the vibrations of my mind when I contemplated for a moment the many scenes we had been called to pass through, the fatigues and the toils, the sorrows and sufferings, and the joys and the consolations, from time to time, which had strewed our paths and crowned our board. Oh, what a commingling of thoughts filled my mind for the moment!—and again she is here, even in the seventh trouble—undaunted, firm and unwavering—unchangeable, affectionate Emma!

Of his brother Hyrum on the same occasion he says:

There was Brother Hyrum, who next took me by the hand—a natural brother. Thought I to myself, Brother Hyrum, what a faithful heart you have got! Oh, may the Eternal Jehovah crown eternal blessings upon your head, as a reward for the care you have had for my soul! Oh, how many are the sorrows we have shared together! and again we find ourselves shackled by the unrelenting hand of oppression. Hyrum, thy name shall be written in the Book of the Law of the Lord, for those who come after to look upon, that they may pattern after thy works.^[[3]]

So he goes on to call the faithful by their names and record their deeds of love manifested towards himself, and pronounces his blessings upon them; and if, as one of old said, "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren"—surely Joseph Smith possessed that witness—he loved his brethren better than his life!

Some of the brethren proposed that Joseph should go up to the pine woods of Wisconsin, where a number of the brethren were engaged in getting out timber for the Temple and Nauvoo House, until the excitement should subside in Illinois. Of this proposition, Joseph said in a letter to Emma:

My mind will eternally revolt at every suggestion of that kind. * * * My safety is with you if you want to have it so. * * * If I go to the pine country, you shall go along with me, and the children; and if you and the children go not with me, I don't go. I do not wish to exile myself for the sake of my own life. I would rather fight it out. It is for your sakes therefore that I would do such a thing.

This plan, however, was abandoned.