We will take every measure in our power, and make every sacrifice that God or man can require at our hands, to preserve the peace and safety of the people without collision. And if sacrificing my own liberty for months and years were necessary I would bow to my fate with cheerfulness, and with a due consideration for the lives, safety and welfare of others. But if this policy cannot accomplish the desired object * * * we will defend ourselves to the best advantage we can and to the very last.
The entire sentiment of this letter indicates the wish of the Prophet for peace and the supremacy of the law, and also his courageous intention of submitting supinely no more to mobocratic violence—murder and plunder.
The answer of Wilson Law is important in a personal sense. He says:
I do respond with my whole heart to every sentiment you have so nobly and feelingly expressed; and while my heart beats or this hand which now writes is able to draw and wield a sword, you may depend on its being at your service in the glorious cause of liberty and truth, ready at a moment's warning to defend the rights of men, both civil and religious.
Brave words these; but they were not sustained by subsequent deeds. Wilson Law was the Benedict Arnold of Nauvoo. In less than two years after he wrote that letter, filled with sentiments of intense affection, he aided to bring the Prophet to his death.
Joseph had considered, during a brief time after the service of this writ, the advisability of taking his family and traveling into the distant north-west, to remain for a season, in order that persecution might be drawn away from Nauvoo and the people there be spared the horrors which had attended the Saints in Missouri. But when he found that the hatred of his opponents was extended to the city and people of Nauvoo, he abandoned all thought of retreating from the scene. If his absence could have preserved his brethren and sisters he would have cheerfully banished himself into the wilderness; but since the danger which menaced them was a common danger he would remain and share it.
On the night of the l5th of August, Hyrum Smith and several others came to Joseph's hiding place and informed him that the officers had threatened to bring a great force against the city and that the Prophet would be safer at a distance. The brethren who brought this message and advice labored under great excitement and fear for Joseph; but he took occasion to calmly reprove them for their agitation, and he advised them to maintain an even and undaunted mind. Their courage was renewed with this exhibition of his fortitude, and they gladly remained with him in serenity and joy, listening to his salutary counsels until two o'clock in the morning.
From his retreat he issued on the 15th an editorial article for the Times and Seasons under the title of "Persecution," in which he analyzes this movement against himself and the Saints, and demonstrated the ridiculous illegality and insufficiency of the process.
Emma had declared her willingness to share her husband's exile and self-imposed banishment if necessary. As that plan was abandoned she offered to visit Governor Carlin and lay Joseph's case before that functionary. In answer to this proposition the Prophet wrote to her:
The governor is a fool; the more we flatter him the more eager he will be for our destruction. You may write to him whatever you see proper; but to go and see him I do not give my consent.