History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Volume 6

by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; B. H. Roberts; Jr. Joseph Smith

The spark came. It came in the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor, published by the above mentioned coterie of apostates. It was the intention of the Expositor, as its name would indicate, to make an expose of alleged conditions in Nauvoo, in the moral, social, religious and political phase of them. Also to agitate for the "unconditional repeal of the Nauvoo Charter." This was a challenge to mortal combat, the issue being the life of the city of Nauvoo; and after that the question of the existence of the Church in Illinois, or even within the confines of the United States; for undoubtedly the city charter once repealed, carrying with it the disorganization of the Legion, protection for the Saints, as matters stood in 1844, both civil and military, would be gone. It was a life and death struggle then that the advent of the Expositor inaugurated. The Saints stood at such disadvantage in the proposed contest that if the Expositor was allowed to run its course it would inevitably have won its case against the city; and against the Church, so far as the latter continuing in Illinois, and perhaps as far as its continuance in the United States was concerned.

The new marriage system, involving the practice, within certain limitations and under very special conditions, of a plurality of wives, constituted a ground of appeal to popular prejudices and passions that would have been absolutely resistless if the paper had been allowed to proceed. The charter would have been repealed; the city government destroyed, or at the least modified and placed in the hands of an apostate or anti-Mormon minority whose administration would have been intolerable to the large majority of Nauvoo's citizens; and finally the scenes of Missouri would have been re-enacted in an Illinois setting.

In the presence of such difficulties, what was to be done? In addition to declaring the existence of the practice of plural marriage, not yet announced or publicly taught as a doctrine of the Church, and agitating for the unqualified repeal of the Nauvoo charter, gross immoralities were charged against leading citizens which doubtless rendered the paper grossly libelous. In other cities such an avowed enemy as the Expositor was, would have been destroyed by a mob. For the people of Nauvoo to have so proceeded would have been a departure from their principles of upholding law and order, and would have brought upon them the people of the surrounding counties, and from Missouri in overwhelming numbers. Mob violence could not be thought of; and yet the safety of the community imperatively demanded the suppression of the Expositor at any cost.

Under these circumstances the city council met and took under consideration the Expositor and the necessity of destroying it. As their charter conferred upon the city the right to remove nuisances, the city council declared the Expositor press a nuisance and directed the Mayor to have it destroyed, which he did by giving an order to that effect, and it was destroyed without riot or tumult.

The legality of the action of the Mayor and City Council was, of course, questionable, though some sought to defend it on legal grounds; but it must be conceded that neither proof nor argument for legality are convincing. On the grounds of expediency or necessity the action is more defensible. The existence of the city, the preservation of the Latter-day Saints until provision could be made for a retreat from Illinois—which retreat was even then being provided for by the Prophet in the projected movement of the Church to the west—demanded the cessation of the publication of the Expositor. By proceeding at least under the forms of law, the city council, though they might be conscious of the illegality of their action, avoided the necessity of the people resorting to mob action for self-preservation, and made it possible for the legality of their course to be determined in the courts, and the parties injured to recover compensation for the press and damages by civil process. Meantime the libelous press with its mission of destruction of the Saints at Nauvoo was silenced; and had events taken the course which the action of the city council provided, a respite would have been gained from impending violence, during which arrangements for the retreat of the Saints from Illinois could have been completed and a goal of safety won for them. Under a plea, then, of absolute necessity to self-preservation of a community, and to achieve the retreat here alluded to, and with the certainty that those injured in property by the Expositor's destruction would be fully compensated in civil action before the courts—the action of the mayor and city council of Nauvoo is defensible, even if not on the ground of the legality of their procedure.^[[25]]

XVI. The Appeal to the Mob Spirit.

Events did not take the course planned for them. The uproar that followed the destruction of the Expositor press, put all reason at defiance. At Warsaw a mass meeting was held which issued a statement, in connection with the resolutions it passed, that "A mob at Nauvoo, under a city ordinance, has violated the highest privilege in government; and to seek redress in the ordinary way would be utterly ineffectual. * * * Resolved, that we hold ourselves at all times in readiness to co-operate with our fellow citizens in this state, Missouri, and Iowa, to exterminate, utterly exterminate the wicked and abominable Mormon leaders, the authors of our troubles. * * * The time, in our opinion, has arrived when the adherents of Smith as a body should be driven from the surrounding settlements into Nauvoo. That the Prophet and his miscreant adherents should then be demanded at their hands; and, if not surrendered, a war of extermination should be waged to the entire destruction, if necessary for our protection, of his adherents. And we hereby recommend this resolution to the consideration of the several townships, to the mass convention to be held at Carthage."

The Carthage meeting held a few days later embodied the above in their resolutions, as did other mass meetings held at various places. The Warsaw Signal in its impression of June 12th, passionately said:^[[26]]

"We have only to state that this [i. e. The destruction of the Expositor press] is sufficient! War and extermination is inevitable! CITIZENS ARISE, ONE and ALL!!! Can you stand by, and suffer such INFERNAL DEVILS! to ROB men of their property rights, without avenging them? We have no time to comment: every man will make his own. LET IT BE MADE WITH POWDER and BALL!!!"

All the combustible material to which attention is called in this Introduction was instantly aflame at the destruction of the Expositor press. Every passion was appealed to, jealousy, envy, cupidity, hatred. All the lawless elements of the community were practically invited to assemble and run riot in lawless violence, and excess of carnage and destruction of property and life. Nothing but the wholesome fear of the strength and effectiveness of the Nauvoo Legion at that time held this lawless element in check.