The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

Of this act of punic faith on the part of the State legislature, the State attorney, Josiah Lamborn, in a letter to Brigham Young, said:

I have always considered that your enemies have been prompted by political and religious prejudices, and by a desire for plunder and blood, more than for the common good. By the repeal of your charter, and by refusing all amendments and modifications, our legislature has given a kind of sanction to the barbarous manner in which you have been treated. Your two representatives exerted themselves to the extent of their ability in your behalf, but the tide of popular passion and frenzy was too strong to be resisted. It is truly a melancholy spectacle to witness the law-makers of a sovereign State condescending to pander to the vices, ignorance and malevolence of a class of people who are at all times ready for riot, murder and rebellion.

Senator Jacob C. Davis was one among those who had been indicated for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum, and of him the attorney-general said:

Your senator, Jacob C. Davis, has done much to poison the minds of members against anything in your favor. He walks at large in defiance of law an indicated murderer. If a Mormon was in his position, the senate would afford no protection, but he would be dragged forth to jail or the gallows, or be shot down by a cowardly and brutal mob.

In the meantime the Twelve Apostles, sustained by the Saints, put forth every exertion to carry out the designs of their martyred Prophet respecting Nauvoo. The Nauvoo House was hurried on, and the walls were growing rapidly under the constant labor of the masons. Work, too, was vigorously prosecuted at the temple. At the time of Joseph's death that edifice was but one story high, yet on the twenty-fourth of May, 1845, about six o'clock in the morning the cap-stone was laid amid the general rejoicing and shouts of "Hosanna" from the assembled thousands of the Saints. As President Brigham Young finished laying the cap-stone he stood upon it and said:

The last stone is laid upon the temple, and I pray the Almighty in the name of Jesus to defend us in this place, and sustain us until the temple is finished and we have all got our endowments.

The whole congregation then following the motion of President Young shouted as loud as possible: Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! to God and the Lamb! Amen! Amen! and Amen!^[[1]]

"So let it be, thou Almighty God," solemnly concluded President Young.

Thus the world began to understand that Mormonism was not born to die with its earthly leaders. And it began to be whispered that the Prophet Joseph dead was even more potent than when living. His testimony had been sealed with his blood, and it gave to his life and his labors an additional sanctity in the eyes of his followers, as well as making it more binding upon the world.

Seeing then the continued prosperity of Nauvoo and her citizens, the people in the vicinity of that city and in the surrounding counties again commenced hostilities, if, indeed, it may be said that they had ever ceased. The enormity of the murder at Carthage jail had checked them temporarily; for an instant the torch and assassin's knife had dropped from their nerveless hands and they stood aghast, at that deed of blood. But seeing the work the murdered Prophet had started surviving his fall, they took up again the weapons of fell destruction and rushed once more upon their victims.

Early in September, 1845, mobbing the scattered families of the Saints began in earnest. A meeting was held by anti-Mormons near what was called the "Morley settlement," to devise means of getting rid of the Mormons. During the meeting guns were fired at the house where it was held, and the assault charged upon the Saints, though most likely it was done by some of their own party—that they might have an excuse for their meditated acts of violence upon the people of Nauvoo. Such was the general belief at the time; and Governor Ford in his "History of Illinois," speaking of this circumstance, says:

In the fall of 1845, the anti-Mormons of Lima and Green Plains, held a meeting to devise means for the expulsion of the Mormons from their neighborhood. They appointed some persons of their own number to fire a few shots at the house where they were assembled; but to do it in such a way as to hurt none who attended the meeting. The meeting was held, the house was fired at, but so as to hurt no one; and the anti-Mormons suddenly breaking up their meeting, rode all over the country spreading the dire alarm, that the Mormons had commenced the work of massacre and death.^[[2]]