"I have no doubt that I would also have been taken a prisoner, for every means was adopted by Hinkle to have me taken, but he could not remember me. The mob had not become acquainted with Brother Brigham, as he lived three or four miles from the city on Mill Creek; and I had not been there over three weeks when the mobbing commenced, and was only known by the brethren, and many of them I had not seen since my arrival."
Heber's wonderful influence over men, that power of controlling and subduing their passions which won for him from the Prophet Joseph the surname of "peace-maker," here found an opportunity for its exercise.
"One afternoon," says he, "I sent my son William on an errand, a short distance, when one of the guards drew up his rifle and threatened to blow out his brains if he stepped one inch further towards the house. Through the agency of some of my brethren I was notified of it. I went to the man and spoke to him in a friendly manner, and conversed with him about the beautiful country, it being more beautiful than England and the nations I had been traveling in. He became very much interested; in a short time I pointed out my son William; says I, 'that is my son.' He said, 'if that is one of your sons, he may pass, he may go home;' afterwards the man came to my house several times and became very friendly.
"I merely mention this, to show the perils we were in, men, women and children; death and destruction waiting on us; and this spirit aroused by apostates such as Hinkle, who sold Joseph and his brethren, and actually received money for betraying them.
"The murders, house-burnings, robberies, rapes, drivings, whippings, imprisonments, and other sufferings and cruelties inflicted upon the people of God, under the illegal orders of Missouri's Executive, have only in part been laid before the world, and form a page in history unsurpassed and unparalleled in the history of religious persecution—that foulest of all crimes. This historic page alone can credit Lilburn W. Boggs and his minions with feeding the ministers of the proscribed religion on the flesh of their murdered brethren; the odium of which is fully shared by the ministers of different denominations who participated in these vile atrocities. If hell can furnish a parallel where is it?
"I have not the ability to write what I saw and felt and realized, but will leave it to eternity to reveal the scenes of those days. I can say before God, angels, heaven and earth, that I am innocent of violating any law of the state of Missouri, and my brethren are equally innocent and virtuous, true to their God and their country.
"The measure they meted to the Latter-day Saints shall be measured to them again, and upon all those who had a hand in our persecution and expulsion, and those who consented to it, four-fold, full, running over, and pressed down; and AS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY LIVETH, I SHALL LIVE TO SEE IT COME TO PASS![A]
[Footnote A: During the great Civil War (1861-65) this region was literally baptized in fire and blood.]
"After the mob departed, I accompanied Brother Brigham to Richmond jail, to see our brethren. We found Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney and others chained together in one room, and others confined in other places, amongst the most dissolute associations. We scarcely had the privilege of speaking to our brethren more than to say, 'how do you do,' every eye being upon us in suspicion. We put up at a public house for the night, and I bear testimony, from our feelings and the spirit manifested in that house, that there were legions of devils present; I do not remember that either of us slept any that night.
"November 29th, the brethren were removed to Liberty Jail, in Clay
County, and put in close confinement."