Footnotes:
[1]. In the previous publication of this history only part of this report is given, but here the whole document is inserted.
[2]. The above report is taken from a book containing the documents, the correspondence, orders, etc., in relation to the disturbances with the "Mormons;" and the evidence given before the Hon. Austin A. King, judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the state of Missouri, at the courthouse in Richmond, in a criminal court of inquiry, begun November 12, 1838, on the trial of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others, for high treason and other crimes against the state, pp. 1-4. The book is published by order of the general assembly.
[3]. This was the petition of the 10th of December, signed by Edward Partridge, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor et al. in behalf of the citizens of Caldwell county, which petition appears in chapter xv. of this volume. Subsequently, viz., in 1841, when the Missouri legislature published, by order of the general assembly, what is alleged to be the documents in relation to the disturbances with the "Mormons," etc., neither this document nor any account of the debate which followed its introduction, as here referred to appears.
[4]. Of John Taylor a biographical note has already been given. See page 154. The following facts concerning John E. Page are given by himself:
The subscriber was born of Ebenezer and Rachael Page, their first child, February 25th, A. D. 1799. My father was of pure English extraction; my mother of English, Irish, and Welsh extraction. My place of birth was Trenton Township, Oneida county, State of New York. I embraced the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was baptized August the 18th, 1833, by the hands of Elder Emer Harris (own brother to Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon). I was ordained an Elder under the hands of Elders Nelson Higgins, Ebenezer Page, Jun., and others. My baptism took place in Brownhelm, Lorain county, Ohio; my ordination in Florence, Huron county, of the same state, on the 12th of September, 1833.
I moved to Kirtland, Geauga county Ohio, in the fall of 1835.
On the 31st day of May, 1836, I started on a mission to Canada West, Leeds county. I was gone from my family seven months and twenty days.
On the 16th day of February, 1837, I again left Kirtland with my family, a wife and two small children, taking with me all the earthly goods I possessed, which consisted of one bed and our wearing apparel of the plainest kind, to continue my mission in the same region of country as before.
In July following the commandment came forth for me to occupy a place in the quorum of the Twelve.
On the 14th day of May, 1838, I started with a company of Saints, made up of men, women and their children, for the state of Missouri, where we landed with a company occupying thirty wagons, in the first week of October, at a place called De Witt, some six miles above the outlet of Grand river, on the north side of the Missouri river, where we were attacked by an armed mob, and by them barbarously treated for nearly two weeks. We then went to Far West, Caldwell county, where we united with the general body of the Church, and with them participated in all the grievous persecutions practiced on the Church by means of a furious mob, by which means I buried one wife and two children as martyrs to our holy religion, since they died through extreme suffering for the want of the common comforts of life—which I was not allowed to provide even with my money.
On the 19th of December, 1838, at Far West, Elder John Taylor and myself were ordained as Apostles under the hands of Elders Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, in the quorum of the Twelve, to fill some vacancies in the quorum, which had occurred by apostasies. In two year's time I had baptized upwards of six hundred persons, and traveled more than five thousand miles, principally on foot and under the most extreme poverty, relative to earthly means, being sustained alone by the power of God and not of man, or the wisdom of the world.—John E. Page.
[5]. David H. Redfield, it will be remembered, was the messenger from the citizens of Caldwell county to the Missouri state legislature, bearing with him the petition of the 10th of December, and it is, of course, from his report of the manner in which the petition was received and the report of the debate thereon that the Prophet makes up his account of that affair.
[6]. The bill providing for an investigation of the "Mormon" difficulties was finally laid upon the table until the 4th of July in the house by a vote of 48 in favor of such action and 37 against such procedure. Seven members were absent. The matter was not again taken up until the legislature of 1840, of which more later.
[7]. Of this matter of distributing the legislature's appropriation the late President John Taylor in his discussion with Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States, 1870, says: "The legislature of Missouri, to cover their infamy, appropriated the munificent (?) sum of $2,000 to help the suffering 'Mormons.' Their agent took a few miserable traps, the sweepings of an old store; for the balance of the patrimony he sent into Daviess county and killed our hogs, which we were then prevented from doing, and brought them to feed the poor 'Mormons' as part of the legislative appropriation. This I saw."