The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet

by George Q. Cannon

The time appointed for the trial in Judge King's court was Thursday, the 6th day of November, 1838. Joseph was there, but the case could not proceed, because the prosecuting witness was absent, and no testimony was forthcoming. The court adjourned for the day, and Joseph returned to his home, but the next morning he was again in attendance and the trial proceeded. Peniston prosecuted and Adam Black swore to everything which Peniston asked. He had been bribed by money, promises or threats, else he was incited by murderous hate, and he told things which manifestly could not have had any existence except in his false mind. He was the only witness against the defendants. In their behalf four reputable men testified, proving incontestably that Black's oaths were perjury and Peniston's complaint was a lie. Judge King admitted in private conversation that nothing had been proved against the Prophet and his companion, and yet he bound them over in bonds of $500. Without a murmur the Prophet and Lyman submitted and gave the necessary bail.

From the trial they were followed to Far West by two gentlemen who stated that they had come from Chariton County as a commission of inquiry in behalf of their fellow citizens. A demand had been made by the mobbers upon the residents of Chariton County for assistance to capture Joseph Smith and Lyman Wight, and a committee had been appointed by the fair-minded people of Chariton to investigate the situation. When these gentlemen saw that the real purpose of the request was to secure ruffian help to impoverish the defenseless Saints and drive them once again into the wilderness, they declared that they had been outrageously imposed upon by the demand of the mob, and they returned to their own county filled with sympathy and friendly feeling for Joseph and his brethren. Their findings they subsequently embodied in an affidavit.

An attack was planned by the mob upon Adam-ondi-Ahman; on the 9th a wagon laden with guns and ammunition in charge of a party of the murderous rabble was going to that place from Richmond. But it was intercepted by Captain William Allred, who arrested the men in charge, John B. Comer and two others—Miller and McHoney—and took possession of the weapons. A letter was addressed to Judge King immediately by the Saints, asking him what should be done with the prisoners and the captured munitions. This coward responded to turn the prisoners loose and let them receive kind treatment. He was the judicial officer who, to satisfy the mob instead of satisfying justice, had placed the Prophet and Lyman Wight under bonds when, by his own confession, not one illegal act could be proved against them. Concerning the guns he was reluctant to give advice, although he promised that they should not be taken from the Saints to be converted and used for illegal purposes.

Under the same date this unjust judge wrote to General Atchison to send two hundred or more men to force the "Mormons" to surrender. He well knew that the Saints were not in a rebellious or unlawful attitude, nor in a position to fight. They had not even the power to resist mobocratic aggression against themselves, to say nothing of being the assailants in any illegal movement.

On the 12th of September, the men who had been arrested while transporting guns to the mob in Daviess County, were held to bail for their appearance at the circuit court.

About the same time a large body of the mob entered De Witt in Carroll County, and warned the brethren to leave on pain of death.

William Dryden, justice of the peace in Daviess County, complained falsely to the Governor that service of process from his court, issued against Alanson Ripley, George A. Smith and others for threatening Adam Black, had been withstood.

General Atchison called out the militia of Clay and Ray Counties which, under the command of Brigadier-General Doniphan, marched to the timber on Crooked River, while he went with a single aide to Far West, the county seat of Caldwell, to confer with the leading men among the Saints. Here he was the guest of the Prophet.

Doniphan's troops had ostensibly been called into the field to suppress an insurrection and preserve peace. But instead of the military powers being used as a menace to the mob, it was operated as if the long-suffering Saints had been the aggressors. General Doniphan, a friendly, fair and kindly-disposed man, was acting under the Governor's orders, and the responsibility of his conduct falls chiefly upon the executive of the state. The mob prisoners were demanded and were set free with no regard for any other law than that which seemed to reign supreme in Missouri—the law of mobocratic will. The arms which had been seized on the way from Richmond into Daviess County were collected and delivered up to the General. From Crooked River General Doniphan brought his troops through Millport in Daviess County to the spot where a mob had congregated to make an attack upon the Saints. When the General read an order of dispersion to the rabble they declared that their object was solely for defense; and yet they would not even permit the General in command of the state militia to approach them without going through such military formalities as might have greeted a flag of truce from an opposing force, while all the time that he was conferring with them guards were marching in and out, showing that the camp was being kept in a state of activity. Although they promised to obey the order requiring them to withdraw, they failed to do so.

From this place the General proceeded to the spot where the Saints had assembled together for mutual protection under the direction of Lyman Wight. A conference ensued in which the Saints agreed to disband, to surrender up any one of their number accused of crime, on condition that the hostile forces of the mob, only a few miles distant, should be dispersed. The Saints had every wish to comply with the law and to avoid every appearance of resistance, but they knew too well that if they scattered, unless the mobbers were also disbanded, they would be murdered and plundered. General Atchison, also in command of troops, was joined on the 15th at the county seat of Daviess by General Doniphan and his regiments. He found that the mobbers were still under arms and still aggressive, while the Saints were still huddled together for safety. To him the Saints also stated their willingness to yield to any legal requirement, and they would cheerfully submit to any investigation which might be demanded. General Atchison thought that peace might be restored and so wrote to the Governor; but immediately Boggs ordered the Booneville guards to be mounted with ten days' provisions and in readiness to march on his arrival; and he also ordered General Lucas to proceed immediately with four hundred mounted men to co-operate with General Atchison. Similar orders were issued to Major-Generals Lewis Bolton, John B. Clark and Thomas B. Grant.