In those days Carthage contained the chief enemies of the Prophet, and the town became a gathering place for those bent upon his destruction. Any movement in opposition to him or to the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo found sympathetic support there. Justice for the Prophet in Carthage was therefore absolutely impossible. The lawyers and those encompassing his destruction took advantage of the law on a question of venue to put the object of their venom at the mercy of men whose attitude towards him was always malignant.
During these days the Prophet was the mayor of Nauvoo, and his home-town sheltered men who were seeking to encompass the Prophet and his devoted followers. Such men were indeed a very small minority, but they were able to make a great amount of noise and do endless mischief. A certain individual had undertaken to appropriate the wharfage lands at the foot of Water Street, and thus create an issue between himself and the city. Such conduct awakened antagonism between people outside of Nauvoo desiring to carry on business there in the city. Outsiders did not always discriminate between the conduct of the mischief-makers and the people at large. Everything disagreeable and annoying was laid at the door of the Latter-day Saints.
These facts will explain the Prophet's outburst of indignation when he said: "I want every fool to stay at home and let the steamboats and captains and peace officers alone. How can we prevent mobs and the shedding of innocent blood unless we strike at everything that rises up in disorder."
There were in the city secret combinations planned to thwart the purposes of Joseph and to bring confusion upon him and the great majority of the people. Among those plotting his ruin were men who professed personal friendship. "I despise," he says, "the man who betrays with a kiss. A certain man has been writing to the New York Tribune. I will not mention his name. He says much that was appropriated for the Temple has been spent for other purposes. But any man who has paid anything for the Temple can learn from the books that every farthing has been used for that building. There are many men in our midst who are trying to build themselves up at our expense, and others are watching for some pretended iniquity, and make a man an offender for a word."
After an article entitled, "A Voice of Innocence from Nauvoo," was read, Brigham Young addressed in the afternoon the assemblage. "I wish to speak on the duties of lawyers," he said, "classing myself with the lawyers in the house of Israel. When any man who is a lawyer takes a course to break peace instead of promoting it, he is out of the way of his duty. A doctor of law should be a peacemaker. The great object we have before us is the completion of the Temple this season. We have felt the effects of slander and want a cure, or balm for it. I carry one with me all the time, and I want you to do the same. I will tell you what it is. It is to mind our own business and let others alone, to suffer rather than to do wrong. If anyone will take your property away let him alone and have nothing to do with him. A spirit intended to divide the Saints has been manifested in this city. We have built up this city. Would steamboats have landed here if the Saints had not come, or would speculators make anything out of our lands if we had not come to give them value? Israel is to be the head, and not the tail. All who have gone from us have gone from the head to the foot. Oppose this work and it will roll over you. When since it began did this work ever stop? What the Saints need to know is what the Lord wants of them and then have the courage to do it. If the Saints will keep the law of God, the hypocrites and the scoundrels will not be comfortable in their presence."
Closing the meeting the Prophet said, "I care but little for politics; I would not give much for the presidential chair in comparison with the office I now hold; but as men in the world have used the powers of government to oppose and persecute us, it is proper for us to use those powers for our own protection and rights. Were I President of the United States I would never say to an oppressed people, 'Your cause is just but I can do nothing for you.'"
Continuing, he spoke of the annexation of Texas, and he further believed that the United States should receive all the territory that it could. He was in favor of paying for the slaves and further believed that steps should be taken to give freedom to all colored children after a fixed period. By these means he believed that much bloodshed would be averted and that in the end it would be less expensive to the country at large. "This government," he said, "will receive no suggestions from me. Those who hold the responsible places are controlled by a spirit of self-sufficiency, but they will have to meet with fear and trembling in a day to come the false position they have taken."
"The Prophet Joseph," says Elder Woodruff, in his journal, "favored the admission of Canada into the United States. He regarded all of North and South America as the land of Zion, and believed that the principles upon which the government of the United States was founded should govern as well all the various nations on this continent."
On the 8th of March, a number of leading citizens met to consider the question of vice-president on the presidential ticket.
Through all the teachings of the Prophet in those days there ran a spirit of deep concern for the completion of the Temple, so that the ordinances to be performed therein might be enjoyed by the Saints. "These ordinances," Joseph insisted, "must be performed in this life." He spoke on the land of Zion and of the days to come when there would be stakes established throughout North and South America. His words were like the sounds of a distant echo; their realization was then scarcely within the compass of the most vivid imagination. Now that stakes of Zion are spreading out into Canada, Mexico, and various states of the Union, the fulfillment of these prophetic utterances is within the understanding of all Latter-day Saints. And in view of these prophecies one may exclaim with the psalmist of old: "Go about Zion; count the towers thereof."