came also the mobbers; viz., Simmonds Rider, a Campbellite preacher, and leader of the mob; one McClentic, son of a Campbellite minister; and Pelatiah Allen, Esq., who gave the mob a barrel of whiskey to raise their spirits; and many others. With my flesh all scarified and defaced, I preached to the congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals.

"The next morning I went to see Elder Rigdon, and found him crazy, and his head highly inflamed, for they had dragged him by his heels, and those, too, so high from the earth he could not raise his head from the rough frozen surface, which lacerated it exceedingly; and when he saw me he called to his wife to bring him his razor. She asked him what he wanted of it? and he replied to kill me. Sister Rigdon left the room, and he asked me to bring his razor; I asked him what he wanted of it? and he replied he wanted to kill his wife; and he continued delirious some days. The feathers which were used with the tar on this occasion, the mob took out of Elder Rigdon's house. After they had seized him, and dragged him out, one of the banditti returned to get some pillows; when the women shut him in, and kept him some time."

Joseph, after this cruel treatment, thought it high time to absent himself for a little, and on the 2nd of April he started, in company with some of his adherents, for Missouri, "to fulfil the revelation." Although he left secretly, his inhuman persecutors received notice of his design, and tracked him for several hundred miles, until he arrived at Louisville, where he was sheltered and protected from his assailants by the captain

of a steam-boat. He arrived at " Zion," or Independence, on the 26th, where he was enthusiastically received by a large congregation of thriving "Saints," and solemnly acknowledged as prophet and seer, and president of the high priesthood of the church. He found that in his absence, but in obedience to a revelation which he had given, a printing-press had been procured, and a monthly newspaper or magazine established by W. W. Phelps, the " printer to the church,” under the title of the Evening and Morning Star. A weekly paper was also planned and established, called the Upper Missouri Advertiser. Both of these journals were exclusively devoted to the interests of Mormonism, which by this time numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 disciples, principally in Missouri. The number of the Saints in Kirtland, including women and children, was but one hundred and fifty. Joseph, however, had his mill, his store, and his farm to look after at Kirtland; and although, while in that town, he lived among enemies, it was necessary that he should return to it. He therefore left Zion, with the full confidence that all was going on prosperously. In January, 1833, while attending to his worldly business, a schism broke out in "Zion" itself, which threatened, and, in combination with other circumstances, ultimately produced, the greatest calamities, and led to the violent expulsion of the Mormons from the whole State of Missouri. The manner in which the Mormons behaved in their "Zion" was not calculated to make friends. The superiority they assumed gave offence, and the rumours that were spread by their opponents, as well as by some false friends, who had been turned out of the church for misconduct, excited against them an intense feeling of alarm and hatred. They were accused of Communism, and not simply of a community of goods and chattels, but of wives. Both these charges were utterly unfounded; but they were renewed from day to day, and found constant believers, in spite of denials and refutations on the part of the Mormons. Joined to the odium unjustly cast upon them for these reasons, they talked so imprudently of their determination to possess the whole State of Missouri, and to suffer no one to live in it who would not conform to their faith, that a party was secretly formed against them, of which the object was nothing less than their total and immediate expulsion from their promised "Zion." In a letter to Mr. Phelps, the editor of the Mormon paperthe Morning and Evening Star, dated from Kirtland Mill, Joseph threatened the vengeance of God upon all the schismatics of "Zion.” "I say to you (and what I say to you I say to all), hear the warning voice of God, lest Zion fall, and the Lord swear in his wrath the inhabitants of Zion shall not enter into my rest. The brethren in Kirtland pray for you unceasingly; for, knowing the terrors of the Lord,

they greatly fear for you.' Some of the Missouri Saints, it appeared, had accused Joseph Smith of aiming at "monarchical power and authority;" and two of the high priests, in a letter written at the time in support of the rebuke of the prophet to these "rebels," speak of "low, dark, and blind insinuations against Joseph's character and intentions."

Whatever Joseph's views in this respect may have been, he found it necessary to take the sting out of this accusation, by associating with him in the supreme government of the church his old colleague, Sidney Rigdon, and another Saint named Williams. As usual, when any great movement was to be made, he had a " revelation." Under the date of the 8th of March, 1833, the Lord is represented as declaring that the sins of Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams were forgiven, and “that they were henceforth to be accounted as equal with Joseph Smith, jun., in holding the keys of His last kingdom." As it appears that Sidney Rigdon was too ambitious of power to be safely trusted among the Saints of Missouri, he was commanded by this revelation to remain in Kirtland. The bishop was also ordered by the same authority to "search diligently for an agent," who was to be a “man who had got riches in store- —a man of God, and of strong faith, that thereby he might be enabled to discharge every debt, that the storehouse of the Lord might not be brought into disrepute before the people." Joseph also condescended to forgive the rebellious of Zion. “Behold, I say unto you," said the revelation, "your brethren in Zion begin to repent, and the angels rejoice over them. Nevertheless, I am not well pleased with many things, and I am not well pleased with my servant William E. Maclellan, neither with my servant Sidney Gilbert, and the bishop also; and others have many things to repent of. But verily I say unto you, that I the Lord will contend with Zion, and plead with her strong ones, and chasten her, until she overcomes and is clean before me, for she shall not be removed out of her place. I the Lord have spoken it. Amen." On the same day Joseph "laid his hands on Brothers Sidney and Frederick, and ordained them to take part with him in holding the keys of the last kingdom, and to assist in the presidency of the high priesthood as his councillors. After which he exhorted the brethren to faithfulness and diligence in keeping the commandments of God; and gave much instruction for the benefit of the Saints, with a promise that the pure in heart should see a heavenly vision, and after remaining a short time in secret prayer, the promise was verified. He then blessed the bread and wine, and distributed a portion to each, after which many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the Saviour and concourses of angels, and many other things."

But although the dissensions in the church were apparently healed by the judicious step thus taken, the old settlers of Missouri caused Joseph much alarm by the daily increasing hostility they expressed against the whole sect.

"In the month of April," says Joseph in his Autobiography, "the first regular mob rushed together, in Independence (Zion), to consult upon a plan for the removal, or immediate destruction, of the church in Jackson county. The number of the mob was about three hundred. A few of the first elders met in secret, and prayed to Him who said to the wind 'Be still,' to frustrate them in their wicked design. They therefore, after spending the day in a fruitless endeavour, to unite upon a general scheme for moving the Mormons out of their diggings,' as they asserted, and becoming a little the worse for liquor, broke up in a regular Missouri 'row,' showing a determined resolution that every man would carry his own head.'"

6

66

The Mormon paper of June, 1833, published an article entitled "Free people of colour," which roused against the sect the hostility of · the whole pro-slavery party-then, as now, peculiarly sensitive upon the question of Abolition. The anti-Mormon press contained at the same time an article entitled "Beware of false prophets," written by a person whom Joseph called "a black rod in the hand of Satan." This article was distributed from house to house in Independence and its neighbourhood, and contained many false charges against Smith and his associates, reiterating the calumny about the community of goods and wives. The Mormons were insulted and sometimes beaten in the streets and highways, and quarrels and fights were of frequent occurrence. In the beginning of April, a meeting of three hundred people, enemies of the Mormons, was held in Independence, or “ Zion,” itself, at which the resolution referred to by Joseph, "that the Mormons should be removed out of their diggings," was unanimously passed. After the publication of these two articles, other meetings were held in various parts of Jackson county, at which still more violent resolutions were agreed to. A general meeting of the citizens of Jackson county, expressly convened, as the requisition stated, "for the purpose of adopting measures to rid themselves of the sect of fanatics called Mormons," was held on the 20th of July. Between four and five hundred people attended from every part of the county, and an address to the public was agreed upon. The address stated that little more than two years previously, "some two or three of these people made their appearance in Missouri; that they now numbered upwards of 1,200; that each successive autumn and spring poured forth a new swarm of them into the country, as if the places from which they came were flooding Missouri with the very dregs of their composition; that they were but little

above the condition of the blacks in regard to property and education; and that, in addition to other causes of scandal and offence, they exercised a corrupting influence over the slaves." The sanguine boast and sincere belief of the Mormons, that the whole country of Missouri was their destined inheritance, and that all the "Gentiles," or unbelievers in Joseph Smith, were to be cut off in the Lord's good time, was not forgotten. The address concluded

"Of their pretended revelations from heaven-their personal intercourse with God and his angels -the maladies they pretend to heal by the laying on of hands—and the contemptible gibberish with which they habitually profane the Sabbath, and which they dignify with the appellation of unknown tongues, we have nothing to say: vengeance belongs to God alone. But as to the other matters set forth in this paper, we feel called on, by every consideration of self-preservation, good society, public morals, and the fair prospects that, ' if they are not blasted in the germ, await this young and beautiful country, at once to declare, and we do hereby most solemnly declare

"That no Mormon shall in future move and settle in this country.

"That those now here, who shall give a definite pledge of their intention within a reasonable time to remove out of the country, shall be allowed to remain unmolested until they have sufficient time to sell their property and close their business without any material sacrifice.

"That the editor of the Star be required forthwith to close his office, and discontinue the business of printing in this country; and, as to all other stores and shops belonging to the sect, their owners must in every case comply with the terms of the second article of this declaration, and upon failure prompt and efficient measures will be taken to close the same.

"That the Mormon leaders here, are required to use their influence in preventing any further emigration of their distant brethren to this country, and to council and advise their brethren here to comply with the above requisitions.

"That those who fail to comply with these requisitions be referred to those of their brethren who have the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, to inform them of the lot that awaits them."

This sarcastic, but very earnest and emphatic, address, was unanimously adopted. The meeting adjourned for two hours, and a deputation waited upon Mr. Phelps, the Mormon editor, upon Mr. Partridge, the bishop, and upon the keeper of the Mormon store, and urged upon them the expediency of complying with these terms. The deputation reported to the meeting that they could not procure any direct answer, and that the Mormons wished an unreasonable time for consultation upon the matter, not only among themselves in Independence, but with Joseph Smith, their prophet, in Kirtland. It was therefore resolved, nem. con., that the Star printing-office should be immediately razed to the ground, and the types and presses secured.