The Latter-Day Prophet: History of Joseph Smith Written for Young People

by George Q. Cannon

That very day he and Sidney Rigdon began to study law under Generals Atchison and Doniphan, who, you remember, had been engaged as lawyers by the Saints in the first Missouri troubles. These men, besides being prominent lawyers, were generals in the state militia. You will hear much of them later. The Prophet no doubt thought that law would be a good thing to understand, since he was being arrested so often, and he showed his industry and calmness in beginning it now when so many dangers were about him.

The trial was held on September 7th. Adam Black swore to all manner of lies, and this of course made him guilty of perjury. Honest men bore witness that Joseph and Lyman were innocent, and Judge King admitted it outside of court, and yet to satisfy the mob, he put them under $500 bonds to keep the peace. These they furnished and went home. Two days later, Captain William Allred found three men taking guns, powder and shot from Ray county to the mob in Daviess. He arrested them and you may be sure the mob were much disappointed when their arms and ammunition did not come.

The mob had come together at a place near Millport and were making all kinds of threats against the Saints. Our people had made up their minds to defend themselves, and Lyman Wight was made commander of the forces. The mob tried all kinds of tricks to get the Saints to open the attack in order to get help from Governor Boggs. They took some of the brethren prisoners and gave it out that they were torturing them. This trick did not work, so William Dryden, a justice of the peace, complained that George A. Smith and Alanson Ripley would not allow themselves to be arrested and brought before his court. This was not true but it served as an excuse for Boggs to flood the state soldiers into Daviess county.

General Doniphan came first. He marched to the camp of the mob and ordered them to disperse. They promised to do so, but did not keep their word. He then went to the camp of the Saints and they offered to give up all who might be thought guilty of crime and go home peacefully, if the mob would break up. This is all that they could have been asked to do, and General Doniphan seemed satisfied. General Atchison came into Daviess county at this time, and, after learning the conditions, he wrote to Governor Boggs that peace would soon be secured. But the governor, who had listened eagerly to all the lies that were being told, ordered up four more generals and heavy troops. General Parks, one of the four, though an enemy of the Saints, wrote to Boggs saying that the Saints were trying only to protect themselves. Lyman Wight and fifteen or twenty others were called to appear at court three weeks later, and peace seemed to have been established.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1838.

MOB ATTACKS DE WITT—JOSEPH TRIES IN VAIN TO SAVE THE TOWN—MOB DRIVEN AWAY FROM ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN—APOSTLE PATTEN KILLED IN BATTLE OF CROOKED RIVER—EXTERMINATION BEGINS AT HAUN'S MILL—ALMA SMITH'S WOUND AND HIS MOTHER'S FAITH.

Although the mob had not been able to fall upon the Saints in Daviess county at this time, they loved blood and plunder too well to remain at peace. On the second of October the very same men who had begun and kept up the trouble at Daviess, were found gathered around the little town of De Witt, Carroll county, under the leadership of Dr. Austin, Major Ashley, a member of the legislature, and Rev. Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian clergyman. They were armed with muskets and cannon, and opened fire upon the town. The next day General Parks, with two companies of militia, joined them. Bogart, one of the captains, was a rank enemy of the Saints, and the soldiers themselves were in close sympathy with the mob.

After bearing the fire of the enemy for two days, the Saints, who were under the command of Col. George M. Hinkle, returned it. Though the mob numbered more than our people in De Witt, they dared not continue the fight until more of their kind should join them. When General Lucas heard that several persons had fallen in this battle, he wrote to the governor that if one of the citizens of Carroll had been killed, before five days five thousand volunteers would be raised against the Mormons, "and those base and degraded beings will be exterminated from the face of the earth."

News came to the Prophet that his brethren in Carroll county were in danger, and he hurried away with all possible speed toward De Witt. It seemed as though he was rushing on to death, for his journey lay among his bitterest enemies, and the roads to De Witt were guarded by those who would have loved to take his life. But his own danger was nothing to him, he knew that he could give new hope and courage to the Saints, although he did not bear arms. He asked the judges of the circuit court and other officers for protection to the Saints, but this was useless. Through his efforts also, a number of honorable men made sworn statements to the governor that the Latter-day Saints were innocent and yet were being treated like enemies. Boggs, however, would not let the state's forces interfere.