the pledge for the poor saints in missouri—brigham young driven forth—efforts to secure the prophet's release—removal to gallatin— examination of the case by a drunken jury—wholesale indictment—change of venue to boone—escape from missouri to illinois.
with the dawn of 1839, a pledge was given by many of the brethren in missouri that they would assist each other and assist the poor to escape from the state; and the promise was sacredly redeemed.
but the persecution did not cease. brigham young who had been chosen president of the twelve in place of thomas b. marsh, an apostate, was driven out of far west by mobs that sought his life. he with other fugitive saints went to illinois, and the charitable people of quincy, adams county, extended to the persecuted people a hand of kindness.
in january, heber c. kimball and alanson ripley went to liberty and began to importune at the feet of judges for relief for their suffering prophet and brethren in prison. one judge hughes believed that they were pleading the cause of the innocent and wanted the captives admitted to bail; but his associates were hardened and would not consent. the two supplicants were soon compelled, by mob fury, to desist from their importunities and were driven away from liberty.
a writ of habeas corpus was secured about the close of january to bring the prisoners before judge turnham. an examination was held, but it was a farce. nearly all the officers of the law, if not in league with the mob, were in terror of its power. sidney rigdon alone was released at the hearing upon the writ; but he had to return to jail because the rabble swore they would kill him if he were turned loose. a little later sidney was let out of the prison secretly in the night by a friendly jailor, and he escaped to quincy.
the families of joseph, hyrum and the other captive brethren gathered up to quincy after undergoing the most appalling privations. it was stephen markham who escorted emma, joseph's wife, and their children from far west, through all the dangers of missouri and to a place of safety. the saints were arriving there in large numbers during the winter and early spring, but were not decided yet where to settle.
on the 15th day of march the prophet and the other brethren in liberty jail made petitions to the judges of the supreme court for writs of habeas corpus, by which they hoped to have the proceedings of their imprisonment examined; but they were obstructed by the hatred against them. it was evident that the purpose of their enemies was to withhold judicial hearing until after the brethren had suffered death in prison. and their efforts from this time on during their captivity were continuous to secure such hearing.
a conference was held at quincy on the 17th of march, 1839, over which brigham young presided as the head of the twelve. thomas b. marsh and several other persons of some prominence were excommunicated from the church.
a gathering place for the saints was necessary. this the prophet felt every hour. while he was in prison in liberty the brethren had friendly communication with one dr. isaac galland upon the subject of settlement by the saints in iowa territory and at commerce, illinois. from his dungeon the prophet pressed the elders to make a close examination of this matter, as the springtime was at hand and the crops for the year must be planted.
in prison, joseph was in constant communion with the heavens and he received revelations, without which he and his brethren must have been cast down and without hope. he also sent epistles full of instruction and hope to leading men among the saints. and his cheerful courage under the most trying circumstances of his life was very helpful in animating the banished people to pursue their migration with energy and fortitude.
while the prophet and companions were still in liberty jail, and after having repeatedly and vainly sought release by law, they thought they saw an opportunity to escape. at hyrum's instance joseph prayed to the lord and asked if it were his will that they should depart from prison. the answer came to the prophet that if they were all agreed in faith and purpose they might escape that night. when this response was made known, all of the brethren except lyman wight coincided in the opinion that they should seize their liberty, for they relied implicitly upon the promise given. but lyman trembled, hesitated; and, as his companions would not resolve to leave him and as the promise of the lord was based upon their unanimity, they resolved to wait until the next night as lyman wight agreed to then accompany them. the delay was fatal; they broke the conditions of the promise and remained in durance. on the night for which the promise was given the jailer came in alone with their suppers and left the doors wide open, so that they might easily have escaped. the next night he brought a double guard with him and also six visiting brethren. as the jailor was leaving their dungeon some of them attempted to follow him; but they were foiled. the guards were so enraged at the effort, although it had been a vain one, that they locked up the visiting brethren and made threats against their persons and property. the attempt to escape created great excitement; and the people of the town swarmed around the jail proposing various plans to destroy joseph and all his companions. but the prophet told his brethren to have no fear; not a hair of their heads should be harmed, and the brethren who had come in to comfort them should not lose any of their personal belongings—not even a horse or a saddle. he told them that they had risked their lives to bring joy to himself and companions and the lord would bless them. these promises were fulfilled to the letter.
when the visiting brethren were called for trial, brother erastus snow, who was one of them, plead their cause as he had been counseled by joseph. he did so in such a forcible and eloquent manner that orders of discharge in some cases and orders for bail in the others were immediately entered. elder snow's argument had been so strong and logical in its legal deductions that the lawyers who heard him supposed that he was a trained attorney.
many enemies of the prophet were permitted by the guard to visit and insult him in prison. it was their habit to charge him with murder. several different men accused him of having killed their sons at the battle of crooked river; several more, who were no kin to each other, charged him with having killed their brothers in the same battle. and this was the texture of the accusations made against him in and out of court. it had been alleged that only one man was killed at the battle of crooked river, so it was impossible for several different men to lose sons and brothers there; and joseph was not near the scene of that contest.
on one occasion a company under the leadership of william bowman made solemn oath that they would never eat or drink more until they had taken the life of joseph smith. bowman himself went to one of the elders and made this boast:
after i once lay eyes on your prophet i will never taste food or drink until i have killed him.
as these men all saw the prophet soon afterward, and as he lived more than five years from that time, they either broke their oath or endured a long fast.
before brigham young was driven out of missouri into illinois he went with elders heber c. kimball and george a. smith to see the prophet in prison. joseph enjoyed two visits with them; and when they left him they were much affected and were determined to do something further for his release. in the latter part of march, elders heber c. kimball and theodore turley, carrying with them the papers in the case, went to see the governor. as boggs was absent from the capital the secretary of state reviewed the documents; and he was amazed that any man should be held in custody upon such papers, for they were in every sense illegal, insufficient and absurd. however, nothing was done from the executive office to relieve them; and elders kimball and turley then applied to the supreme court judges for a writ of habeas corpus but without avail. when these devoted men returned to liberty and reported the failure of their mission, the prophet bade them be of good cheer and said:
we shall be delivered; but no arm but that of god can save us now. tell the brethren to be of good cheer and to get the saints away from missouri as soon as possible.
on saturday, the 6th day of april, 1839, judge king ordered the prophet and his fellow-prisoners off to gallatin, daviess county. this judicial autocrat feared a change of venue or some movement from a superior tribunal to secure the release of the prisoners or their removal from his personal power, and he determined to carry them away from liberty. he sent them under a guard of ten men, promising the brethren that they should be permitted to go through far west to see their friends, as that place was directly on their route. instead, however, of fulfilling his promise, the guards carried the captives eighteen miles out of the direct course to avoid the city, dragging them through a dangerous country, apparently in the hope that some of their sworn enemies would fall upon and massacre them.
the journey to gallatin was very painful, for joseph and his brethren had been greatly enfeebled by their long confinement and the privations which they had endured while enchained in liberty dungeon. before they had started on this journey, some of the captive brethren had desired to have a party of friends to accompany them for protection. but as they never did anything without asking the prophet, they consulted him upon this point. he responded:
in the name of the lord, if we put our trust in him alone we shall be saved and no harm shall befall us, and we shall be better treated than ever before since we have been prisoners.
although this surprised the brethren, it satisfied them. but when they arrived at the place where the court was to be held at gallatin, they began to think the prophet had been mistaken for once, for the rabble rushed out upon them shrieking, "kill them; ———— ———— them, kill them!" there was apparently no chance for escape except to fight, and they were unarmed. at this instant the prophet rose to his feet and said:
we are in your hands; if we are guilty, we do not refuse to be punished by the law.
some of the bitterest mobocrats hearing these words and being impressed by the power with which they were uttered, warned the blood-thirsty rabble back and quieted the storm. during the time of their stay in gallatin the prophet's promise was fulfilled; for they enjoyed all the comforts and some of the luxuries of life, tendered them by men who sympathized with their long-suffering and patient endurance. the day after their arrival at gallatin, an examination of their case commenced before a drunken jury. austin a. king, who acted here as the presiding judge, was as drunk as the jurymen. the same perjured testimony was invoked at this time as on previous occasions. everything which was prejudicial to the prisoners, even when it was a patent falsehood, and even when, if true, it could have had no relevancy to the case, was eagerly seized and applauded. stephen markham desired to testify to some facts which were favorable to the defendants. he had reached gallatin on the afternoon of the 9th, having hastened from far west, swimming several streams by the way, to bring money and comfort to the prophet and his companions. at his request his testimony was received. it did not suit the mobocratic guards, and they attempted to kill him. the notorious colonel william p. peniston was one of their number. judge king and all the members of the grand jury saw the attack upon markham, and the threats against his life, but they took no cognizance of these outrages.
on the 11th of april, 1839, the grand jury brought in a bill against joseph smith, hyrum smith, alexander mcrae, caleb baldwin and lyman wight for "murder, treason, burglary, arson, larceny, theft and stealing." all of these counts were embodied in one indictment, and not one of them was sustained by any specific statement of circumstances. the language of the bill proves that the grand jury, like general clark, had failed to find a definite charge which they could substantiate, and so included everything which they could think of. that night elder markham stayed with the brethren and while he slept a vision came to joseph, showing him that his beloved brother markham was in peril of his life, at the same time showing him that his own deliverance and that of his captive companions, was nigh. the prophet aroused stephen and told him to hasten away from gallatin, because if he waited until broad day—according to his expectation for the purpose of meeting the lawyers—he would be waylaid by a mob which intended to assassinate him. stephen knew that the warning was from the lord and he fled, thereby baffling the mobocrats who, as shown to joseph in the vision, had really made their plot to kill stephen. after he was gone, an armed party pursued him a long distance on the road to far west; but they were unable to overtake him.
elder alexander mcrae, who was a prisoner with joseph at this time, says that it was the prophet's characteristic to always defend his companions no matter how unpopular it might be to speak in their favor. he was much more solicitous for them than for himself. and as an illustration brother mcrae says that while they were at gallatin, peniston began to insult one of the captive brethren. joseph darted a glance of lightning upon the wretch and said in tones of thunder: "your heart is as black as your whiskers."
peniston threw his hand over his beard, which was as black as a crow and rushed from the room quaking in every limb.
elder markham had left with the brethren a recent statute which enabled them to secure a change of venue upon their own affidavit; and after the mock examination in gallatin the prophet and his companions procured a change of venue to boone county, for which place they departed on the 15th day of april, 1839, under charge of a strong guard. on the evening of the 16th, while pursuing their journey, all of the guards became intoxicated. it was a favorable moment for an escape, and the brethren seized the opportunity. the prophet's reasons for consenting to this escape were stated by him at the time in the following language:
knowing the only object of our enemies was our destruction, * * * we thought that [escape] was necessary for us, inasmuch as we love our lives, and did not wish to die by the hands of murderers and assassins; and inasmuch as we love our families and friends.
by this act the brethren took their change of venue from the state of missouri to the state of illinois. after indescribable hardships, traveling by night and suffering all manner of privations, they arrived in quincy, illinois, and met the congratulations of their friends and the embraces of their families.
reviewing the awful experience through which he and his fellow captives had passed, joseph wrote on the day of his arrival at quincy as follows:
we were in their hands, as prisoners, about six months; but notwithstanding their determination to destroy us, * * and although at three different times (as we were informed) we were sentenced to be shot, without the least shadow of law (as we were not military men) and had the time and place appointed for that purpose, yet through the mercy of god, in answer to the prayers of the saints, we have been preserved and delivered out of their hands, and can again enjoy the society of our friends and brethren, whom we love and to whom we feel united in bonds that are stronger than death, and in a state where we believe the laws are respected, and whose citizens are humane and charitable.
during the time we were in the hands of our enemies, we must say that although we felt anxiety respecting our families and friends, who were so inhumanly treated and abused, and who had to mourn the loss of their * * * slain, and, after having been robbed of nearly all that they possessed, be driven from their homes, and forced to wander as strangers in a strange country, in order that they might save themselves and their little ones from the destruction they were threatened with in missouri, yet as far as we were concerned, we felt perfectly calm, and resigned to the will of our heavenly father. we knew our innocency, as well as that of the saints, and that we had done nothing to deserve such treatment from the hands of our oppressors. consequently, we could look to that god who has the hearts of all men in his hands, and who has saved us frequently from the gates of death, for deliverance; and notwithstanding that every avenue of escape seemed to be entirely closed, and death stared us in the face, and that our destruction was determined upon, as far as man was concerned, yet from our first entrance into the camp, we felt an assurance that we, with our families, should be delivered. yes, that still small voice, which had so often whispered consolation to our souls, in the depths of sorrow and distress, bade us be of good cheer, and promised deliverance, which gave us great comfort. and although the heathen raged, and the people imagined vain things, yet the lord of hosts, the god of jacob, was our refuge, and when we cried unto him in the day of trouble, he delivered us; for which we call upon our souls to bless and praise his holy name. for although we were troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
