The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet

by George Q. Cannon

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

BOMBARDMENT OF DE WITT—APPEAL OF THE SAINTS TO GOVERNOR BOGGS—HIS HEARTLESS REPLY—JOSEPH'S PRESENCE ENCOURAGES THE BRETHREN—THE SAINTS LEAVE THEIR POSSESSIONS IN DE WITT—THEY GO TO FAR WEST—ADAM ONDI-AHMAN DEVASTATED—THE SAINTS ORGANIZE FOR DEFENSE—JOSEPH CONTROLS A MOB WHO DESIGN TO MURDER HIM—APOSTASY OF THOMAS B. MARSH—DEATH OF DAVID W. PATTEN—"WHATEVER YOU DO ELSE, OH, DO NOT DENY THE FAITH."

Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.

On the 5th day of October, 1838, word came to the Prophet of the bombardment of the town of De Witt, in Carroll County, by a mob army with muskets and artillery. The ravenous wretches, many of whom had been in the militia companies of Atchison, Doniphan and Parks, foiled for the moment in Daviess and Caldwell Counties, had concentrated upon the more remote and defenseless places for the purpose of plundering the Saints and driving them forth. As soon as Joseph heard the news he hastened to the scene of conflict. The rage of the mob naturally fell against him more heavily than against anyone else; but it was his nature always to be where danger threatened his brethren.

It was on the 2nd of October that the mob, under the leadership of Dr. Austin, Major Ashley, a member of the legislature, and Sashiel Woods, a Presbyterian clergyman, fired first upon the town of De Witt. They continued during that day and the next, when they were reinforced by two companies of militia under the command of Captains Bogart and Houston, who were soon followed by Brigadier-General Parks. It is not wrong to speak of these troops as a reinforcement of the mob. They were nothing else. Bogart was a Methodist preacher by profession, and only led the company of militia to De Witt for the purpose of wreaking the sectarian vengeance of a bigot upon the Saints. Parks himself confessed that Bogart's men would not be controlled and were with the mob in feeling; and this was the General's excuse for allowing the outrages of this time to go unchecked. On the 4th of October, after forty-eight hours of siege, the people of the town, in command of Colonel Hinkle, returned the fire. Parks made no effort to check the mob's plan of organized murder. On the 6th he coolly wrote in his report to Atchison, as follows:

The Mormons are at this time too strong and no attack is expected before Wednesday or Thursday next, at which time Dr. Austin [who with Bogart was leader of the mob] hopes his forces will amount to five hundred men, when he will make a second attempt on the town of De Witt, with small arms and cannon. In this posture of affairs I can do nothing but negotiate between the parties until further aid is sent me.

Evidently in this posture of affairs Parks wanted to do nothing. The "Mormons" were too strong. He would wait until Austin's rabble increased to five hundred, and by that time he hoped to have more companies of militia, which in turn would swell the ranks of the plundering besiegers. Parks' conduct indicates his utter lack of conscience; because in the same letter he says: "As yet they, the Mormons, have acted only on the defensive as far as I can learn."

General Lucas had been an observer of the gathering at De Witt and had been informed that a fight had taken place there, in which several persons were killed. Upon this he wrote to the Governor that if his information was true it would create excitement in the whole of Upper Missouri, "and those base and degraded beings will be exterminated from the face of the earth." He added that if one of the citizens of Carroll should be killed, before five days there would be raised against the "Mormons" five thousand volunteers whom nothing but blood would satisfy. Without attempting to suggest a remedy to Boggs, this cruel and sanguinary Lucas significantly informs his Excellency that his troops of the fourth division were only dismissed subject to further order and could be called into the field at an hour's warning. He wanted to share in the work of extermination!

These events had happened before the Prophet reached De Witt. It was a trying journey, in which he had been obliged to travel by unfrequented roads and had put his life in constant jeopardy because mobs guarded every ingress to the town. When Joseph entered the place he found the brethren only a handful in comparison to their assailants. Their provisions were exhausted, and there was no prospect of obtaining more. The Prophet concluded to send a message to the Governor and secured the services of several influential and honest gentlemen who lived in that vicinity and who had been witnesses of the wanton attack upon the Saints. These men were bold as well as honest for they made affidavit of the outrages which had been perpetrated within their sight, and they accompanied the supplication for redress to the executive office. The answer of the men who had been chosen by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens as the chief officer of the state, sworn to uphold its honor, protect its dignity and maintain the supremacy of its laws, was only this:

The quarrel is between the Mormons and the mob, and they may fight it out.