Three points are clearly manifest: first, the Prophet and the Patriarch were brutally mobbed, and murdered, without justifiable cause; second, the Prophet foreknew, by the spirit of inspiration, that he was going to a violent death; third, in the face of the violent death which he knew to be coming to him, the Prophet displayed a never-failing fearlessness—a complete reliance upon the righteousness of his cause. While his sworn enemies were seeking to destroy him, he was himself giving proof, by his humility and his uprightness, by his courage and his manliness, and by his unswerving devotion to his trust, that he was far and away removed from guilt, and that he was indeed a prophet of the living God. Before he was committed to prison, several of the officers of the troops at Carthage, curious to see the Prophet, visited him in his room at the inn. The Prophet asked them if they could detect anything in his appearance that would indicate that he was so desperate a character as his defamers represented him to be.
The visitors replied, "No, sir; your appearance would indicate the very contrary. General Smith, but we cannot see what is in your heart, neither can we tell what are your intentions."
"Very true, gentlemen," returned the Prophet, "you cannot see what is in my heart, and you are therefore unable to judge me or my intentions; but I can see what is in your hearts, and will tell you what I see. I can see that you thirst for blood, and nothing but my blood will satisfy you. It is not for crime of any description that I and my brethren are thus continually persecuted and harassed by our enemies, but there are other motives, and some of them I have expressed, so far as relates to myself; and inasmuch as you and the people thirst for blood, I prophesy, in the name of the Lord, that you shall witness scenes of blood and sorrow to your entire satisfaction. Your souls shall be perfectly satiated with blood, and many of you who are now present shall have an opportunity to face the cannon's mouth from sources you think not of; and those people that desire this great evil upon me and my brethren, shall be filled with regret and sorrow because of the scenes of desolation and distress that await them. They shall seek for peace, and shall not be able to find it. Gentlemen, you shall find what I have told you to be true."[E]
[Footnote E: "History of the Church," Vol. VI, p. 566.]
The events of the next two days proved that the Prophet's declaration of what was in the hearts of his, visitors was right. And the visitors had not long to live after the martyrdom of the Prophet to see a terrible fulfillment of all that he had predicted in the name of the Lord. The hearts of many of them were rent at the scenes of distress, of desolation, and of blood, that they witnessed before they were themselves taken away.
At the prison, the Prophet and his friends manifested the same fearless spirit, the same degree of divine inspiration, and the same devotion to the cause of Truth. Joseph Smith, and Hyrum Smith, and their associates, took turns preaching to the guards. These noble men explained to their keepers the true nature of their missions upon earth, and bore irrefragable testimonies to the truth of the Gospel that they preached. Now, the guards were themselves poisoned by bigotry, by prejudice, by bitter hatred. Many of them belonged to the mob-militia that was sworn to murder the Prophet. Yet, some of them were so affected by the preaching of the prisoners that they asked to be relieved before their watch was out. Many of them admitted freely that they had been imposed upon. Frequently, one of them was heard to call to the others, "Let us go home, boys, for I will not fight any longer against these men." So evident was the innocence of the prisoners, that, had they been given a fair, legal trial, the court would have acquitted them without question, and would have given them, moreover, the full protection of the law. It was the knowledge of this fact that led the Prophet's persecutors to say, "If the law will not reach them powder and ball must."
During the last night in Carthage jail, the brethren testified again of the divinity of their missions. There were present in the prison that night Willard Richards, John Taylor, John S. Fullmer, Stephen Markham, Dan Jones, Hyrum Smith, and Joseph Smith. Elder John Taylor prayed. After the prayer, Patriarch Hyrum Smith read from the "Book of Mormon." He selected certain passages relating cases of imprisonment of the servants of God for the Gospel's sake, and telling how they were miraculously delivered. Evidently, Hyrum still entertained hope that he and his brother would be delivered from their enemies. When Hyrum had finished his comments on the passages he had read, the Prophet himself addressed his friends and the guards. This address in Carthage jail was in the nature of a sermon—the last sermon delivered by the Prophet in mortal life. He bore a powerful testimony to the divine authenticity of the "Book of Mormon." He testified to the actuality of the restoration of the Gospel, with all its authorities and blessings. He alarmed solemnly that the restoration of the Gospel had been effected through the ministration of angels. He declared that the kingdom of God was again established upon the earth. He claimed that it was for the Gospel's sake that he was imprisoned, and not because he had violated any law either of God or of man. Thus devotedly, fearlessly, did the great Prophet, with the certain foreknowledge of death in his heart, testify to the divinity of his mission to earth.
On the day that he was foully murdered, it was reported to the Prophet that the mob had solemnly determined to kill him before sundown. He retained, however, his serene composure. Above all, he remained to the last true to the trust God had reposed in him. It did not once occur to him that he could save his own life by denying his claims to divine inspiration. On the contrary, on this last day of their life upon earth, with the certainty of death apparent undoubtedly to both of them, "Joseph and Hyrum bore a faithful testimony to the Latter-day work, and the coming forth of the 'Book of Mormon,' and prophesied of the triumph of the Gospel over all the earth, exhorting the brethren present to faithfulness and persevering diligence in proclaiming the Gospel, building up the Temple, and performing all the duties connected with our holy religion."[F] Almost with his dying breath the Prophet testified to the truth. And when he fell, it was with a cry to his God, who had appointed him to labor and to suffer.
[Footnote F: "History of the Church," Vol. VI, p. 610.]
It was undoubtedly in the wise economy of God that Joseph Smith was called upon to sacrifice his life. The Prophet was tried to the uttermost. Let us suppose again for a moment that Joseph Smith was an imposter—that he was trying to foist upon the world a monstrous fraud. Undoubtedly he would have been willing to endure much for the success of his undertaking. He might have yielded willingly to imprisonment, and might have paid gracefully any penalty, short of death, imposed by courts of law. But it is only fair to assume that life would have been as dear to him as to anyone else. It is not probable that he would have laid down his life for a mere imposture. It is not probable that he would have been willing to make so rich a sacrifice, had it been possible for him to recant—to deny what was an untruth anyway. More probably, if he had been an imposter, Joseph Smith would have saved his life, at the last, by avowing the imposture he had attempted to establish. But Joseph Smith did not deny his divine, prophetic calling. On the contrary, in the very presence of death, he testified to the divinity of the great latter-day work which he had inaugurated. Neither death nor the fear of death could break the assertion he had made many years before, "I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it." This fact forms another link in the chain of cumulative evidence. It does not prove that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; but it does prove that he was sincere, that he was no mere imposter. Added to what has gone before, it strengthens the evidence that there was something more than earthly inspiration in the life-work of Joseph Smith.