This action was so outrageous that something must be done to distract public attention, and the mob element secured the publication of the most enormous falsehoods against the people. In these accounts the wickedness of the mob was disguised or denied. But the Prophet exposed them in the following words:
But can they hide the Governor's cruel order for banishment or extermination? Can they conceal the facts of the disgraceful treaty of the generals with their own officers and men at Far West? Can they conceal the fact that twelve or fifteen thousand men, women and children have been banished from the state without trial or condemnation? And this at the expense of two hundred thousand dollars—and this sum appropriated by the state legislature in order to pay the troops for this act of lawless outrage? Can they conceal the fact that we have been imprisoned for many months, while our families, friends and witnesses have been driven away? Can they conceal the blood of the murdered husbands and fathers, or stifle the cries of the widow and the fatherless? Nay! The rocks and mountains may cover them in unknown depths, the awful abyss of the fathomless deep may swallow them up—and still their horrid deeds stand forth in the broad light of day, for the wondering gaze of angels and men! They cannot be hid.
The year drew to a close. The Saints were impoverished and scattered. The Prophet and his companions, loaded with chains, were in a noisome dungeon; several times they were poisoned, and, during a period of five days, human flesh was served to them as meat. The guards called it "Mormon beef," and the Prophet warned his companions not to touch it.
The earth was wrapped in gloom for the people of God when the sun sank for the last time upon the year 1838; but beyond and above this sphere was the star of eternal faith, whose light no prison walls could shut out from trusting souls.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE PLEDGE FOR THE POOR SAINTS IN MISSOURI—BRIGHAM YOUNG DRIVEN FORTH—EFFORTS TO SECURE THE PROPHET'S RELEASE—REMOVAL TO GALLATIN— EXAMINATION OF THE CASE BY A DRUNKEN JURY—WHOLESALE INDICTMENT—CHANGE OF VENUE TO BOONE—ESCAPE FROM MISSOURI TO ILLINOIS.
With the dawn of 1839, a pledge was given by many of the brethren in Missouri that they would assist each other and assist the poor to escape from the state; and the promise was sacredly redeemed.
But the persecution did not cease. Brigham Young who had been chosen president of the Twelve in place of Thomas B. Marsh, an apostate, was driven out of Far West by mobs that sought his life. He with other fugitive Saints went to Illinois, and the charitable people of Quincy, Adams County, extended to the persecuted people a hand of kindness.
In January, Heber C. Kimball and Alanson Ripley went to Liberty and began to importune at the feet of judges for relief for their suffering Prophet and brethren in prison. One Judge Hughes believed that they were pleading the cause of the innocent and wanted the captives admitted to bail; but his associates were hardened and would not consent. The two supplicants were soon compelled, by mob fury, to desist from their importunities and were driven away from Liberty.
A writ of habeas corpus was secured about the close of January to bring the prisoners before Judge Turnham. An examination was held, but it was a farce. Nearly all the officers of the law, if not in league with the mob, were in terror of its power. Sidney Rigdon alone was released at the hearing upon the writ; but he had to return to jail because the rabble swore they would kill him if he were turned loose. A little later Sidney was let out of the prison secretly in the night by a friendly jailor, and he escaped to Quincy.