Dark and solemn was that day when Illinois shed the innocent blood of the two martyrs, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. They were at the time under the protection of Governor Thomas Ford, who pledged his sacred honor for their safety. But the pledge, which was never meant to be kept, was most shamefully broken, and these two heroic spirits were given up to a professed Christian mob of merciless demons, and they were cruelly murdered in cold blood. These great and good men, servants of the Most High God, of “whom the world was not worthy,” were of one heart and one mind throughout all their life, and in death they were not separated. They fled together from the murderous mob to their destined home on high. There, while they bask in the sunshine of eternal peace and love, they testify by their blood to the horrid cruelties that reign in the heart of a wicked and apostate world.
There were but four years, ten months and fourteen days between the ages of these noble martyred brothers, Hyrum being the elder.
Joseph, on this occasion, voluntarily gave himself up to the strong arm of the law, for he had ever been willing to be tried by the tribunals of his country. At this time, our beloved Prophet was impressed with a sad foreboding somewhat similar to that [p.8] experienced in Gethsemane by the Saviour just previous to the crucifixion, when he called upon the Father and said: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” The Prophet Joseph said, while on his way to Carthage, “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, ‘he was murdered in cold blood.’” Elder Bates Nobles, now living, authorizes me to say that he heard the Prophet utter those very words. Well, this prophecy of our murdered Prophet has been often fulfilled in the testimonies of the Saints, both among themselves and before the world, as well as by the utterances of the honorable and upright men of all lands, but to its bitter cost, it has not yet been said by our nation. However, we will watch and wait. “God is just is all we say.”
“Our Patriarch and Prophet, too,
Were massacred. They bled,
To seal their testimony,
They were numbered with the dead.”
Chapter II.
The Hill Cumorah, where the Plates of the Book of Mormon were Concealed by Moroni and afterwards Delivered by him to Joseph Smith.—Some Valuable History Pertaining to this Thrice-named Hill.
A beautiful picture of the Hill Cumorah is presented on the opposite page. The hill is situated in the northwestern part of New York, about thirty miles south of Rochester. It is also near the New York Central Railroad, and only three and a half miles from Palmyra station to the south, and on the Canandaigua turnpike.
This noted hill has been three times named and by three distinct and great nations. For particulars concerning its historical importance we begin our study in the year 1823. At that time there was found in the side of this historic hill, by an obscure boy, a number of gold plates. These plates were very ingeniously concealed in a stone box and, bearing a record and being now translated, supply us with all the earlier information contained on them.
There is a vast amount of valuable history pertaining to this hill, which is far more picturesque than the hills which surround it. There is an extensive valley on the east, as well as one on the west side of the hill, where the turnpike runs south, passing through the town of Manchester in the rear of the hill about two miles. Manchester, as well as the Hill Cumorah, is situated in the township of Manchester. The most prominent view of the hill is its north front. It extends south nearly a mile, where it terminates into a more level plateau, which is occupied as an agricultural district. From the highest point of the hill, which is the northern end, where the writer has stood a number of times, is one of the most lovely sights imaginable. To the east is the New York Central Railroad, about [p.9] four miles north is a most lovely town named Palmyra, and two miles northwest is where the father of Joseph Smith located a farm when the latter was only twelve years of age. Finally, the whole country surrounding the hill from the most elevated spot, as far as the natural vision can grasp, is indeed a most charming scene of farms, orchards, houses, barns and rolling hills, with occasional forests, and in the proper season, fields of golden grain, barns well-filled, orchard trees laden with apples, peaches and pears, with here and there patches of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, currants and garden vegetables in variety. All of these beautiful scenes have engraven upon my mind a picture which defies the artist’s brush to place on canvas.