Part 20 (2/2)

”Gentlemen, you whose names are not attached to this list of names, will now have the privilege of going to your fields and of providing corn, wood, etc., for your families. Those who are now taken will go from this to prison, be tried and receive the due demerit of their crimes. But you (excepting such as charges may be hereafter preferred against) are at liberty as soon as the troops are removed that now guard the place, which I shall cause to be done immediately. It now devolves upon you to fulfill the treaty that you have entered into, the leading items of which I shall now lay before you.

”The first requires that your leading men be given up to be tried according to law; this you have complied with.

”The second is that you deliver up your arms--this has also been attended to. The third stipulation is that you sign over your properties to defray the expenses that have been incurred on your account; this you have also done. Another article yet remains for you to comply with, and that is, that you leave the State forthwith; and whatever may be your feelings concerning this, or whatever your innocence is, it is nothing to me. General Lucas (whose military rank is equal to mine) has made this treaty with you, and I approve of it. I should have done the same had I been here, and am therefore determined to see it executed.

”The character of this State has suffered almost beyond redemption, from the character, conduct and influence that you have exerted; and we deem it an act of justice to restore her character by every proper means.

”The order of the Governor to me was that _you should be exterminated_, and not allowed to remain in the State. And had not your leaders been given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with before this time, _your families would have been destroyed and your houses in ashes_.

”There is a discretionary power vested in my hands, which, considering your circ.u.mstances, I shall exercise for a season. You are indebted to me for this clemency. I do not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in any crops; for the moment you do this the citizens will be upon you; and if I am called here again, in case of non-compliance with the treaty made, do not think I shall act as I have done now. You need not expect any mercy, but _extermination, for I am determined the Governor's order shall be executed_.

”As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter your minds that they will be delivered and restored to you again, for their _fate is fixed, the die is cast, their doom is sealed_.

”I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so many apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are; and oh! if I could invoke that great Spirit of the unknown G.o.d to rest upon and deliver you from that awful chain of superst.i.tion, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound--that you no longer do homage to a man.

”I would advise you to scatter abroad and never again organize yourselves with Bishops, Priests, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you.

”You have always been the aggressors, you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties, by being disaffected, and not being subject to rule, and my advice is, that you become as other citizens, lest by a recurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable ruin.”

”He also said: 'You must not be seen as many as five together, if you are, the citizens will be upon you and destroy you, but you should flee immediately out of the state. There is no alternative for you but to flee, you need not expect any redress; there is none for you.'”

”I was present,” continues Heber, ”when that speech was delivered, and I can truly say 'he is a liar and the truth is not in him,' for not one of us had made any such agreement with Lucas, or any other person; what we did was by compulsion in every sense of the word, and as for Gen. Clark and his 'unknown G.o.d,' they had nothing to do with our deliverance, but it was our Father in heaven, the G.o.d of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, in whom we trust, who liveth and dwelleth in the heavens, and the day will come when our G.o.d will hold him in derision with all his coadjutors.”

”Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight, Amasa Lyman and George W. Robinson were marched off for Independence, Jackson County. It was rumored that all of the men who were in the Crooked River battle would be taken prisoners, therefore many of them fled to the north, before the guards were placed around the city.

”I have no doubt that I would also have been taken a prisoner, for every means was adopted by Hinkle to have me taken, but he could not remember me. The mob had not become acquainted with Brother Brigham, as he lived three or four miles from the city on Mill Creek; and I had not been there over three weeks when the mobbing commenced, and was only known by the brethren, and many of them I had not seen since my arrival.”

Heber's wonderful influence over men, that power of controlling and subduing their pa.s.sions which won for him from the Prophet Joseph the surname of ”peace-maker,” here found an opportunity for its exercise.

”One afternoon,” says he, ”I sent my son William on an errand, a short distance, when one of the guards drew up his rifle and threatened to blow out his brains if he stepped one inch further towards the house.

Through the agency of some of my brethren I was notified of it. I went to the man and spoke to him in a friendly manner, and conversed with him about the beautiful country, it being more beautiful than England and the nations I had been traveling in. He became very much interested; in a short time I pointed out my son William; says I, 'that is my son.' He said, 'if that is one of your sons, he may pa.s.s, he may go home;' afterwards the man came to my house several times and became very friendly.

”I merely mention this, to show the perils we were in, men, women and children; death and destruction waiting on us; and this spirit aroused by apostates such as Hinkle, who sold Joseph and his brethren, and actually received money for betraying them.

”The murders, house-burnings, robberies, rapes, drivings, whippings, imprisonments, and other sufferings and cruelties inflicted upon the people of G.o.d, under the illegal orders of Missouri's Executive, have only in part been laid before the world, and form a page in history unsurpa.s.sed and unparalleled in the history of religious persecution--that foulest of all crimes. This historic page alone can credit Lilburn W. Boggs and his minions with feeding the ministers of the proscribed religion on the flesh of their murdered brethren; the odium of which is fully shared by the ministers of different denominations who partic.i.p.ated in these vile atrocities. If h.e.l.l can furnish a parallel where is it?

”I have not the ability to write what I saw and felt and realized, but will leave it to eternity to reveal the scenes of those days. I can say before G.o.d, angels, heaven and earth, that I am innocent of violating any law of the state of Missouri, and my brethren are equally innocent and virtuous, true to their G.o.d and their country.

”The measure they meted to the Latter-day Saints shall be measured to them again, and upon all those who had a hand in our persecution and expulsion, and those who consented to it, four-fold, full, running over, and pressed down; and AS THE LORD G.o.d ALMIGHTY LIVETH, I SHALL LIVE TO SEE IT COME TO Pa.s.s![A]

[Footnote A: During the great Civil War (1861-65) this region was literally baptized in fire and blood.]

”After the mob departed, I accompanied Brother Brigham to Richmond jail, to see our brethren. We found Joseph, Hyrum, Sidney and others chained together in one room, and others confined in other places, amongst the most dissolute a.s.sociations. We scarcely had the privilege of speaking to our brethren more than to say, 'how do you do,' every eye being upon us in suspicion. We put up at a public house for the night, and I bear testimony, from our feelings and the spirit manifested in that house, that there were legions of devils present; I do not remember that either of us slept any that night.

”November 29th, the brethren were removed to Liberty Jail, in Clay County, and put in close confinement.”

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