The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

Such were the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the Nauvoo Legion on the eighteenth of June, 1844. And the action of the old citizens of Hancock and the surrounding counties subsequent to the murder of the Prophet, prove how truly inspired were the words we have quoted. For no sooner did they discover that the work which Joseph had begun refused to die with him, than they renewed hostilities, and sought by every means their wicked hearts could devise to harass and destroy those who devoted their energies to the consummation of the work which had been started.

The mockery of a trial given those who had murdered the Prophets, emboldened the enemies of the Saints, for they saw justice powerless to vindicate outraged law, and that with impunity they could prey upon the citizens of Nauvoo, whom, it would seem, their hatred had selected for a sacrifice. Thieves and blacklegs generally, saw the opportunity of having their crimes charged upon an innocent people, and established themselves in the vicinity of Nauvoo, though principally on the Iowa side of the river, and all the thefts and acts of violence committed by those renegades were charged up to the account of the citizens of Nauvoo, and too gladly believed by the people in the surrounding counties.

Not only were the charges of theft and robbery made against the Sainst, but they were also accused of hiding from justice any and all criminals who came into their midst—that Nauvoo, in short, was a rendezvous for outlaws, counterfeiters and desperate men generally. These charges led the city council on the thirteenth of January, 1845, to investigate the allegations and a series of resolutions were adopted stating that the charges of theft for the most part were fabrications of their enemies bent on ruining the reputation of the city, and defied those who made the charges to sustain with proof a single case where the citizens of Nauvoo had screened criminals from justice.

The council also extended an invitation to all who had reasons to believe that their stolen property was concealed in Nauvoo to come and make diligent search for it, and pledged them the assistance of the council. To hunt out crime and put away everything that could give rise to even a suspicion of concealing criminals, the mayor was authorized to increase the force of police if necessary to five hundred; and the people were called upon to redouble their diligence in preventing criminals from coming among them, and all such persons as soon as discovered were to be given up to the officers of the law.

The next day the action of the city council was submitted to the citizens of Nauvoo, and they approved of it. Fifty delegates were chosen and sent into the surrounding counties to disabuse the public mind relative to the false accusations made against the Saints, and to ask their co-operation in ridding the country of the counterfeiters and thieves which infested it. But all these efforts were fruitless. The falsehoods of their enemies outweighed the truths of the Saints, and prejudice more cruel than hell itself hardened the hearts of the people of Illinois against the appeals of the citizens of Nauvoo, and made them deaf to all entreaties for justice.

Twice during the summer of 1845, Governor Ford himself went to Nauvoo to investigate these charges against her people; and when he came to deal with the "Mormon troubles," in his message to the legislature that fall, after speaking of the charges made, he said:

Justice, however, requires me to say that I have investigated the charge of promiscuous stealing, and find it to be greatly exaggerated. I could not ascertain that there were a greater proportion of thieves in that community than in any other of the same number of inhabitants, and perhaps if the city of Nauvoo were compared with St. Louis, or any other western city, the proportion would not be so great.

The prejudice, not to say bitterness, of Governor Ford against the Saints would rob his statement of any suspected exaggeration favorable to them.

Nor is Governor Ford's voice the only one which vindicates the character of the citizens of Nauvoo. The deputy sheriff of Hancock County exonerated the Mormon people from any participation in the thefts perpetrated in the surrounding country. He testified that stolen property was brought through the country via Nauvoo, passed over the river to the Iowa side and taken into the interior, where it was concealed. He also stated that there were some five or six persons in Nauvoo who were assisting in this nefarious business, but said he, "they are not Mormons nor are they fellowshiped by them."

Notwithstanding all this, misrepresentation so far succeeded in poisoning the minds of the public and the leading men in the State, that in January, 1845, the city charter of Nauvoo and the charter of the Legion were both repealed, and thus the protecting aegis of the city government was snatched away from her citizens, when most they needed it, and left them exposed to the fury of their enemies.