After the question of the presiding quorum was decided, the Saints settled down to their usual duties, and the progress of the Church continued with greater strides than ever before. At the October conference in 1844, a great deal of important business was transacted. At that time and subsequently many brethren were ordained to the ministry, a number of quorums of seventy were organized, and missionaries were called to go to various parts of the United States and abroad with the message of salvation. The building of the temple was continued with renewed diligence, and prosperity was manifest in the settlements of the Saints. On the 6th of December 1844, the last of the thirty capitals on the temple was erected, and the following April, the capstone was laid amidst solemn and enthusiastic services. Each room was dedicated separately as it was finished, and ordinance work for the Saints, as well as baptisms for the dead, were performed.
Mob Activities Renewed
The enemies of the Latter-day Saints thought that the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith would be the end of “Mormonism.” They rejoiced in the accomplishment of their frightful deed of blood, and boasted of the downfall of the Church. To their great surprise the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. The object they hoped to gain was not attained; therefore their anger was rekindled against the Church. Other leaders had arisen and the progress of the work was steady and onward. Those who had caused the death of the Prophet and the Patriarch now turned their attention to the destruction of the entire “Mormon” people. Through their papers, the Warsaw Signal, Alton Telegraph, Quincy Whig and others, they circulated all manner of false reports. They accused the Saints of theft and every other abominable crime in order to stir up the populace against them. Schemes were launched to provoke the “Mormons” to commit some overt act, that it might be seized upon as a pretext to gain the aid of the officials of the state under color of law; yet by the anti-“Mormons” the laws were constantly broken without restraint. Their malicious and murderous threats passed unnoticed so far as any check upon such actions was concerned.
Attitude of Governor Ford
During all the trouble Governor Thomas Ford went out of his way to inform the Saints that they were bitterly hated, and that the great majority of the citizens of the state rejoiced in the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Notwithstanding his bitterness, he made an investigation of the charges circulated against the Saints and reported that—
“On my late visit to Hancock County I was informed by some of their (the ‘Mormons’) violent enemies, that their larcenies had become unusually numerous and insufferable. They indeed admitted that but little had been done in this way in their immediate vicinity. But they insisted that sixteen horses had been stolen by the Mormons in one night, near Lima, in the County of Adams. At the close of the expedition, I called at this same town of Lima, and upon inquiry, was told that no horses had been stolen in that neighborhood, but that sixteen horses had been stolen in one night in Hancock County. This last informant being told of the Hancock County story, again changed the venue to another distant settlement in the northern edge of Adams County.”
In his message to the legislature he said in reference to this subject:
“Justice, however, requires me to say, that I have investigated the charge of promiscuous stealing, and find it to be greatly exaggerated. I could not ascertain that there were a greater proportion of thieves in that community, than in any other of the same number of inhabitants; and perhaps if the city of Nauvoo were compared with St. Louis, or any other western city, the proportion would not be so great.”
The leaven of opposition, however, was at work, and the citizens were aroused. Nothing but the departure of the “Mormon” people from the state would satisfy their unjust and iniquitous demands. They appealed to the governor to aid them in expelling the people who had done nothing to provoke opposition, but who were unpopular because of their faith. While the governor informed them he could take no legal action warranting such expulsion, yet he privately advised the Saints to depart peaceably towards the West, as the Prophet Joseph Smith had contemplated doing, and there, said he, they could set up an independent government of their own. So lacking was he in the disposition to enforce the law and protect the innocent, that the enemies of the Church were encouraged in their unlawful course.