The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

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: