On the way out they met Captain Dunn coming from Carthage with about sixty mounted men. Joseph said: "Do not be alarmed, brethren, for they cannot do more to you than the enemies of truth did to the ancient Saints—they can only kill the body."
Dunn presented to Joseph an order from Governor Ford for all the state arms in the possession of the Nauvoo Legion. Joseph immediately countersigned the order. Then he turned to the company and spoke these memorable words:
I AM GOING LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER, BUT I AM CALM AS A SUMMER'S MORNING. I HAVE A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD ALL MEN.
Again, he said: "If they take my life I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall yet be said of me, 'He was murdered in cold blood.'"
Joseph sent Henry G. Sherwood back to Nauvoo to get the arms ready for Captain Dunn and to have all things done with good order and regularity. But Dunn feared that the governor's demands, coming at such a time, would excite resistance, and he requested Joseph and the brethren to return with him to the city under a pledge of mutual protection. He preferred to depend upon the well-known integrity of Joseph rather than to risk the wounded feelings of a much abused people. When the order for the state arms was made known in Nauvoo many of the brethren regarded this as a preparation for another Far West tragedy: but they heeded the Prophet's word and unresistingly yielded obedience to the requirement.
It was an outrage to ask these arms under the circumstances; they were borne by men who were on the defensive, not the offensive—men who carried them for the protection of home and virtue, and who had not set foot outside the limits of their own city. Ford's action in this matter was atrocious; the compliance of the Prophet and the Saints was noble.
Joseph again bade farewell to his family, and looked again and again upon the fair domain which his mortal eyes were beholding for the last time. His face was white and luminous, yet upon it and in his eyes was a look of anguish. His friends would even now have detained him, be the consequences what they might; but he told them he must either yield himself to his sworn murderers or the city would be given up to massacre and pillage under the sanction of the governor.
Shortly after leaving Nauvoo they met Brother A. C. Hodge coming from Carthage, who told them that a minister—whom Joseph had previously treated with great kindness—warned him that so sure as Joseph and Hyrum came to Carthage they would be killed. He also said that Hamilton, the innkeeper at Carthage, had pointed to the Carthage Greys, saying: "Hodge, there are the boys that will settle you Mormons."
A little farther on the way, the Prophet received letters from attorneys at Carthage to whom the governor had pledged his own honor and the honor of the state of Illinois that the prisoners should be protected from all harm. This pledge Ford reiterated often; and upon the strength of it many of the Prophet's friends felt that he was safe.
It was not until a little before midnight that the party reached Carthage, but they found the mob up and expecting them with great anxiety. As they passed the public square, many troops, especially the Carthage Greys, gave way to a frenzy of joy.