And their cowardly character is shown by the experience of Nelson Judd. A man called on Brother Judd at Nauvoo and said he wanted to sell him some wood at a little distance down the river. Nelson went with the man and when they came into the woods two men on horseback attempted to kidnap him. He avoided them and they drew their pistols and fired, but without effect. Judd then coolly said: "Now it is my turn."
Putting his hand into his pocket as though to draw a pistol, he looked fiercely at the bandits, and they fled shrieking with terror. Nelson had no weapon with him except his bravery and innocence, and he walked home laughing at the ruffians.
At a meeting of the city council in December, 1843, the subject of the menace to the city and the mayor was under consideration, and Joseph said among other things:
I am exposed to far greater danger from traitors among ourselves than from enemies without, although my life has been sought for many years by the civil and military authorities, priests and people of Missouri; and if I can escape from the ungrateful treachery of assassins, I can live as Caesar might have lived, were it not for a right-hand Brutus. I have had pretended friends betray me. All the enemies upon the face of the earth may roar and exert all their power to bring about my death, but they can accomplish nothing, unless some who are among us, who have enjoyed our society, have been with us in our councils, participated in our confidence, taken us by the hand, called us brother, saluted us with a kiss, join with our enemies, turn our virtues into faults, and, by falsehood and deceit, stir up their wrath and indignation against us, and bring their united vengeance upon our heads. All the hue and cry of the chief priests and elders against the Savior could not bring down the wrath of the Jewish nation upon his head, and thereby cause the crucifixion of the Son of God, until Judas said unto them: "Whomsoever I shall kiss he is the man: hold him fast." Judas was one of the Twelve Apostles, even their treasurer, and dipped with their Master in the dish, and through his treachery the crucifixion was brought about; and we have a Judas in our midst.
James Arlington Bennett, a lawyer, journalist and politician of New York, had been attracted by the Prophet's fame and character. Mr. Bennett had ambition to run for office in the state of Illinois, and he wrote a very complimentary letter to Joseph, in which he spoke of the boldness of the Prophet's plans and measures; and that he, Bennett, would yet run for high office in Illinois, and would give the Prophet his best services; intimated that he would like to become Joseph's right-hand man, since "Mahomet had his right-hand man"; and he declared that his mind was of so mathematical and philosophical a cast that divinity made an impression upon him.
To this bombastic letter the Prophet replied with such incisive vigor that must have taught Mr. Bennett a lesson:
You say, "The boldness of my plans and measures, together with their unparalleled success so far, are calculated to throw a charm over my whole being, and to point me out as the most extraordinary man of the present age."The boldness of my plans and measures can readily be tested by the touchstone of all schemes, systems, projects and adventures—truth, for truth is a matter of fact; and the fact is, that by the power of God I translated the Book of Mormon from hieroglyphics, the knowledge of which was lost to the world; in which wonderful event I stood alone, an unlearned youth, to combat the worldly wisdom and multiplied ignorance of eighteen centuries with a new revelation, which (if they would receive the everlasting Gospel) would open the eyes of more than eight hundred millions of people, and make "plain the old paths," wherein, if a man walk in all the ordinances of God blameless, he shall inherit eternal life; and Jesus Christ, who was, and is, and is to come, has borne me safely over every snare and plan, laid in secret or openly, through priestly hypocrisy, sectarian prejudice, popular philosophy, executive power, or law-defying mobocracy, to destroy me.
If, then, the hand of God, in all these things that I have accomplished towards the salvation of a priest-ridden generation, in the short space of twelve years through the boldness of the plan of preaching the Gospel, and the boldness of the means of declaring repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, and a reception of the Holy Ghost, by laying on of the hands, agreeably to the authority of the Priesthood, and the still more bold measures of receiving direct revelation from God, through the Comforter, as promised, and by which means all holy men, from ancient times till now, have spoken and revealed the will of God to men, with the consequent "success" of the gathering of the Saints, throws any "charm" around my being, and "points me out as the most extraordinary man of the age," it demonstrates the fact, that truth is mighty, and must prevail; and that one man empowered from Jehovah has more influence with the children of the kingdom than eight hundred millions led by the precepts of men. God exalts the humble and debases the haughty.
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The summit of your future fame seems to be hid in the political policy of a "mathematical problem" for the chief magistracy of this state, which, I suppose, might be solved by "double position," where the errors of the supposition are used to produce a true answer.
But, sir, when I leave the dignity and honor I received from heaven to hoist a man into power through the aid of my friends where the evil and designing, after the object has been accomplished, can look up the clemency intended as a reciprocation for such favors, and where the wicked and unprincipled, as a matter of course, would seize the opportunity to flintify the hearts of the nation against me for dabbling at a sly game in politics; verily, I say, when I leave the dignity and honor of heaven to gratify the ambition and vanity of man or men, may my power cease, like the strength of Samson, when he was shorn of his locks, while asleep in the lap of Delilah! Truly said the Savior, "Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
Shall I, who have witnessed the visions of eternity, and beheld the glories of the mansions of bliss, and the regions and misery of the damned, shall I turn to be a Judas? Shall I, who have heard the voice of God, and communed with angels, and spake, as moved by the Holy Ghost, for the renewal of the everlasting covenant and for the gathering of Israel in the last days, shall I worm myself into a political hypocrite? Shall I who hold the keys of the last kingdom, in which is the dispensation of the fulness of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began, under the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood—shall I stoop from the sublime authority of Almighty God to be handled as a monkey's catspaw, and pettify myself into a clown to act the farce of political demagoguery? No, verily no! The whole earth shall bear me witness, that I, like the towering rock in the midst of the ocean, which has withstood the mighty surges of the warring waves for centuries, am impregnable, and am a faithful friend to virtue, and a fearless foe to vice; no odds, whether the former was sold as a pearl in Asia or hid as a gem in America, and the latter dazzles in palaces or glitters among the tombs.
I combat the errors of ages; I meet the violence of mobs; I cope with illegal proceedings from executive authority; I cut the Gordian knot of powers; and I solve mathematical problems of universities with truth—diamond truth; and God is my "right-hand man."
In December memorials were prepared and sent to Congress supplicating for a redress of the wrongs inflicted upon the Saints in Missouri and for protection against further plundering. This seemed necessary, for the governor of Illinois had practically confessed the helplessness of the state to prevent the infliction of additional wrongs upon this longsuffering people. The memorials were signed by the citizens of Hancock County and the city council of Nauvoo; they were truthful and eloquent; and they were of as little avail as other appeals for justice made by the people of God in this and other ages. Several of the elders wrote addresses to their native states, setting forth with the vigor of truth the wrongs and oppressions which had been inflicted upon them by Missouri. Joseph wrote a stirring appeal to the people—the Green Mountain boys—of his native state of Vermont. After sketching the great wrongs which the people had endured, the Prophet says:
Must we, because we believe in the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the administration of angels and the communion of the Holy Ghost, like the prophets and apostles of old,—must we be mobbed with impunity, be exiled from our habitations and property without remedy, murdered without mercy, and government find the weapons and pay the vagabonds for doing the jobs, and give them the plunder into the bargain? Must we, because we believe in enjoying the constitutional privilege and right of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own consciences, and because we believe in repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, the millennium, the day of judgment and the Book of Mormon as the history of the aborigines of this continent,—must we be expelled from the institutions of our country, the rights of citizenship, and the graves of our friends and brethren, and the government lock the gate of humanity and shut the door of redress against us? If so, farewell freedom! adieu to personal safety! and let the red hot wrath of an offended God purify the nation of such sinks of corruption; for that realm is hurrying to ruin where vice has the power to expel virtue.
My father, who stood several times in the battles of the American Revolution, till his companions in arms had been shot dead at his feet, was forced from his home in Far West, Missouri, by those civilized or satanized savages, in the dreary season of winter, to seek a shelter in another state; and the vicissitudes and sufferings consequent to his flight brought his honored gray head to the grave a few months after.
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I appeal to the "Green Mountain Boys" of my native state to rise in the majesty of virtuous freemen, and by all honorable means help to bring Missouri to the bar of justice. If there is one whisper from the spirit of an Ethan Allen, or a gleam from the shade of a General Stark, let it mingle with our sense of honor and fire our bosoms for the cause of suffering innocence, for the reputation of our disgraced country, and for the glory of God; and may all the earth bear me witness, if Missouri—blood-stained Missouri, escapes the due demerit of her crimes—the vengeance she so justly deserves, that Vermont is a hypocrite, a coward, and this nation the hot-bed of political demagogues.
I make this appeal to the sons of liberty of my native state for help to frustrate the wicked designs of sinful men. I make it to hush the violence of mobs. I make it to cope with the unhallowed influence of wicked men in high places. I make it to resent the insult and injury made to an innocent, unoffending people, by a lawless ruffian state. I make it to obtain justice where law is put at defiance. I make it to wipe off the stain of blood from our nation's escutcheon. I make it to show presidents, governors and rulers prudence. I make it to fill honorable men with discretion. I make it to teach senators wisdom. I make it to teach judges justice. I make it to point clergymen to the path of virtue. And I make it to turn the hearts of this nation to the truth and realities of pure and undefiled religion, that they may escape the perdition of ungodly men: and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is my great counselor.
On Christmas morning, 1843, Joseph and Hyrum were roused from their slumbers by the hymn of a choir singing, "Mortals, Awake! with Angels Join." The choir was composed of a widow named Lettice Rushton and her children and neighbors; and their sweet voices and the noble sentiments of the hymn thrilled the souls of the Prophet and Patriarch into gladness and thanksgiving. Joseph blessed the singers and thanked his Heavenly Father for the visit. Hyrum said that he thought at first that a cohort of angels had descended, for the music had such a heavenly effect upon his soul. It was the last Christmas carol that Joseph and Hyrum heard in this life. Before another year had passed these two grand mortals had passed into the slumber of death, to awake with immortality upon them and to join with the choir invisible.