CHAPTER IX. — THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE
At eight o'clock the next morning the commander of the militia sent a flag of truce to the Mormons which Colonel Hinckle, for the Mormons, met. General Lucas submitted the following terms, as necessary to carry out the governor's orders:
1. To give up their leaders to be tried and punished.
2. To make an appropriation of their property, all who have taken up arms, to the payment of their debts and indemnity for damage done by them.
3. That the balance should leave the State, and be protected out by the militia, but be permitted to remain under protection until further orders were received by the commander-in-chief.
4. To give up the arms of every description, to be receipted for.
While these propositions were under consideration, General Lucas asked that Smith, Rigdon, Lyman Wight, P. P. Pratt, and G. W. Robinson be given up as hostages, and this was done. Contemporary Mormon accounts imputed treachery to Colonel Hinckle in this matter, and said that Smith and his associates were lured into the militia camp by a ruse. General Lucas's report to the governor says that the proposition for a conference came from Hinckle. Hyrum Smith, in an account of the trial of the prisoners, printed some years later in the Times and Seasons, said that all the men who surrendered were that night condemned by a court-martial to be shot, but were saved by General Doniphan's interference. Lee's account agrees with this, but says that Smith surrendered voluntarily, to save the lives of his followers.
General Lucas received the surrender of Far West, on the terms named, in advance of the arrival of General Clark, who was making forced marches. After the surrender, General Lucas disbanded the main body of his force, and set out with his prisoners for Independence, the original site of Zion. General Clark, learning of this, ordered him to transfer the prisoners to Richmond, which was done.
Hearing that the guard left by General Lucas at Far West were committing outrages, General Clark rode to that place accompanied by his field officers. He found no disorder,* but instituted a military court of inquiry, which resulted in the arrest of forty-six additional Mormons, who were sent to Richmond for trial. The facts on which these arrests were made were obtained principally from Dr. Avard, the Danite, who was captured by a militia officer. "No one," General Clark says, "disclosed any useful matter until he was captured."
* "Much property was destroyed by the troops in town during their
stay there, such as burning house logs, rails, corn cribs, boards, etc.,
the using of corn and hay, the plundering of houses, the killing
of cattle, sheep, and hogs, and also the taking of horses not their
own."—"Mormon Memorial to Missouri Legislature," December 10, 1838.