4. When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards all men. I SHALL DIE INNOCENT, AND IT SHALL YET BE SAID OF ME—HE WAS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD." The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go—shall it be said to the slaughter? Yes, for so it was,—he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it:—
5. "And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me, if they have not charity, it mattered not unto you, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments are clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I—bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood." The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.
6. Hyrum Smith was 44 years old, February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was 38 in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the "Book of Mormon," and this book of Doctrine and Cov. of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of the ruined world: and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the "dry trees" to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.
7. They were innocent of any crime, as they often proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail, is a broad seal affixed to "Mormonism" that cannot be rejected by any court on earth; and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the Governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel, that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts, till He avenges that blood on the earth. Amen.
It was fondly hoped that, by the death of the great Prophet, the work he had been commissioned to establish would go out of existence. But it was destined to remain forever. Truth is imperishable. The enemies of the Church redoubled their efforts, thinking they could complete a work of demolition they imagined they had begun. But though, by the machinations of the wicked and the operations of fiendish hate, good and great men may be swept from the earth, the principles they advance remain behind. Men are subject to removal from this sphere, it is true, but truth, eternal truth, is not susceptible to obliteration: "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." Joseph Smith was martyred, but another great man had been prepared to take up the link of the chain, which the wicked fondly hoped had been snapped never more to be welded. The Twelve Apostles, upon the death of Joseph Smith, were the highest authority of the Church. Brigham Young was their president, and recognizing this truth, he was, on December 5th, 1847, selected as president of the whole Church, and as such directed its affairs down to the time of his death in August, 1877.
Mob violence did not cease with the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. The dogs of war continued to let loose upon the Latter-day Saints until, finally, they had to enter into a compulsory agreement, or written compact, to leave the State of Illinois, and betake themselves to the Western wilds of America, where is was proudly hoped by their enemies, they would inevitably perish.
The compulsory exodus commenced under the leadership of Brigham Young, in the depth of the winter of 1846, when the friendless wanderers passed through hardships and sufferings, in the midst of ice, snowdrifts and a temperature frequently twenty degrees below zero.
While encamped on the western bank of the Missouri River, the general government sent an agent, calling for 500 of the ablest men among the Mormon exiles to aid the United States in the war against Mexico. These were promptly furnished, showing that accusations of disloyalty made against this despised people were unfounded. To add to the distress of the camp, at this juncture they learned that the sick and infirm who were left behind in Nauvoo, from inability to move with the main body, had been actually driven out of that city at the mouth of the musket and cannon by the brutal, inhuman mob.
On the 24th of July, 1847, the pioneers, led by Brigham Young, entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Successive companies followed, and the cultivation of the soil proceeded. Until the harvest of 1848 many suffered from hunger, living upon small roots and rawhide.
Mammoth volumes might be filled with narratives of the trials, vicissitudes, travels, hardships, afflictions and persecutions to which the Church of Christ has been subjected. We might speak of the difficulties the Latter-day Saints have had to cope with in their present beautiful location in the formerly barren but now smiling and fruitful valleys of the West, beyond the Rocky Mountains; how their crops have in past years been destroyed by hordes of grasshoppers and crickets, yet they have plodded on their way, rejoicing and trusting in the God of Heaven, who, although He has seen fit to try and prove them, has never deserted them in the hour of need.