Besides these, there were a great many apostates, both in the city and country, of less notoriety, who, for their delinquencies, had been expelled from the Church. John C. Bennett and Francis and Chauncey Higbee were cut off from the Church; the former was also cashiered from his generalship for the most flagrant acts of seduction and adultery; and such was the scandalous nature of the developments in their cases, that the high council before whom they were tried had to sit with closed doors.
William Law, although councilor to Joseph, was found to be his most bitter foe and maligner, and to hold intercourse, contrary to all law, in his own house, with a young lady resident with him, and it was afterward proved that he had conspired with some Missourians to take Joseph Smith’s life, and was only saved by Josiah Arnold, who, being on guard at his house, prevented the assassins from seeing him. Yet, although having murder in his heart, his manners were generally courteous and mild, and he was well calculated to deceive.
General Wilson Law was cut off from the Church for seduction, falsehood, and defamation; both the above were also court-martialed by the Nauvoo Legion and expelled. Foster was also cut off, I believe, for dishonesty, fraud, and falsehood. I know he was eminently guilty of the whole, but whether these were the specific charges or not, I don’t know, but I do know that he was a notoriously wicked and corrupt man.
Besides the above characters and “Mormonic” apostates, there were other three parties. The first of these may be called religionists, the second politicians, and the third counterfeiters, blacklegs, horse-thieves, and cut-throats.
The religious party were chagrined and maddened because “Mormonism” came in contact with their religion, and they could not oppose it from the Scriptures; and thus, like the ancient Jews, when enraged at the exhibition of their follies and hypocrisies by Jesus and his apostles, so these were infuriated against the Mormons because of their discomfiture by them; and instead of owning the truth and rejoicing in it, they were ready to gnash upon them with their teeth, and to persecute the believers in principles which they could not disprove.
The political party were those who were of opposite politics to us. There were always two parties, the Whigs and Democrats, and we could not vote for one without offending the other; and it not unfrequently happened that candidates for office would place the issue of their election upon opposition to the “Mormons,” in order to gain political influence from religious prejudice, in which case the “Mormons” were compelled, in self-defense, to vote against them, which resulted almost invariably against our opponents. This made them angry; and, although it was of their own making, and the “Mormons” could not be expected to do otherwise, yet they raged on account of their discomfiture, and sought to wreak their fury on the “Mormons.” As an instance of the above, when Joseph Duncan was candidate for the office of Governor of Illinois, he pledged himself to his party that, if he could be elected, he would exterminate or drive the “Mormons” from the state.[234] The consequence was that Governor Ford was elected. The Whigs, seeing that they had been outgeneraled by the Democrats in securing the “Mormon” vote, became seriously alarmed, and sought to repair their disaster by raising a kind of crusade against that people. The Whig newspapers teemed with accounts of the wonders and enormities of Nauvoo, and of the awful wickedness of a party which could consent to receive the support of such miscreants. Governor Duncan, who was really a brave, honest man, and who had nothing to do with getting the “Mormon” charters passed through the Legislature, took the stump on this subject in good earnest, and expected to be elected governor almost on this question alone. The third party, composed of counterfeiters, blacklegs, horse-thieves, and cut-throats, were a pack of scoundrels that infested the whole of the Western country at that time. In some districts their influence was so great as to control important state and county offices. On this subject Governor Ford says the following:
[234] See his remarks as contained in his History of Illinois, p. 269.
“Then, again, the northern part of the state was not destitute of its organized bands of rogues, engaged in murders, robberies, horse-stealing, and in making and passing counterfeit money. These rogues were scattered all over the north, but the most of them were located in the counties of Ogle, Winnebago, Lee, and De Kalb.
“In the county of Ogle they were so numerous, strong, and well organized that they could not be convicted for their crimes. By getting some of their numbers on the juries, by producing a host of witnesses to sustain their defense by perjured evidence, and by changing the venue of one county to another, by continuances from term to term, and by the inability of witnesses to attend from time to time at distant and foreign counties, they most generally managed to be acquitted.”[235]
[235] Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 246.