Part 38 (1/2)

But there were men at Nauvoo above the average of the Mormon convert as regards intelligence and wealth, who refused to follow the prophet in his new doctrine regarding marriage, and whose opposition took the very practical shape of the establishment of a newspaper in the Mormon city to expose him and to defend themselves.

In his testimony in the Higbee trial Smith had accused a prominent Mormon, Dr. R. D. Foster, of stealing and of gross insults to women. Dr.

Foster, according to current report, had found Smith at his house, and had received from his wife a confession that Smith had been persuading her to become one of his spiritual wives.*

* ”At the May, 1844, term of the Hanc.o.c.k Circuit Court two indictments were found against Smith by the grand jury--one for adultery and one for perjury. To the surprise of all, on the Monday following, the Prophet appeared in court and demanded that he be tried on the last-named indictment. The prosecutor not being ready, a continuance was entered to the next term.”--GREGG, ”History of Hanc.o.c.k County,” p. 301.

Among the leading members of the church at Nauvoo at this time were two brothers, William and Wilson Law. They were Canadians, and had brought considerable property with them, and in the ”revelation” of January 19, 1841, William Law was among those who were directed to take stock in Nauvoo House, and was named as one of the First Presidency, and was made registrar of the University. Wilson Law was a regent of the University and a major general of the Legion. General Law had been an especial favorite of Smith. In writing to him while in hiding from the Missouri authorities in 1842, Smith says, ”I love that soul that is so n.o.bly established in that clay of yours.” * At the conference of April, 1844, Hyrum Smith said: ”I wish to speak about Messrs. Law's steam mill. There has been a great deal of bickering about it. The mill has been a great benefit to the city. It has brought in thousands who would not have come here. The Messrs. Law have sunk their capital and done a great deal of good. It is out of character to cast any aspersions on the Messrs. Law.”

* Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 695.

Dr. Foster, the Laws, and Counsellor Sylvester Emmons became greatly stirred up about the spiritual wife doctrine, and the effort of Smith and those in his confidence to teach and enforce the doctrine of plural wives; and they finally decided to establish in Nauvoo a newspaper that would openly attack the new order of things. The name chosen for this newspaper was the Expositor, and Emmons was its editor.* Its motto was: ”The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth,” and its prospectus announced as its purpose, ”Unconditional repeal of the city charter--to correct the abuses of the unit power--to advocate disobedience to political revelations.” Only one number of this newspaper was ever issued, but that number was almost directly the cause of the prophet's death.

* Emmons went direct to Beardstown, Illinois, after the destruction of the paper, and lived there till the day of his death, a leading citizen. He established the first newspaper published in Beardstown, and was for sixteen years the mayor of the city.

The most important feature of the Expositor (which bore date of June 7, 1844) was a ”preamble” and resolutions of ”seceders from the church at Nauvoo,” and affidavits by Mr. and Mrs. William Law and Austin Cowles setting forth that Hyrum Smith had read the ”revelation” concerning polygamy to William Law and to the High Council, and that Mrs. Law had read it.*

* These were the only affidavits printed in the Expositor. More than one description of the paper has stated that it contained many more. Thus, Appleton's ”American Encyclopedia,” under ”Mormons,” says, ”In the first number (there was only one) they printed the affidavits of sixteen women to the effect that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon and others had endeavored to convert them to the spiritual wife doctrine.”

The ”preamble” affirmed the belief of the seceders in the Mormon Bible and the ”Book of Doctrine and Covenants,” but declared their intention to ”explode the vicious principles of Joseph Smith,” adding, ”We are aware, however, that we are hazarding every earthly blessing, particularly property, and probably life itself, in striking this blow at tyranny and oppression.” Many of them, it was explained, had sought a reformation of the church without any public exposure, but they had been spurned, ”particularly by Joseph, who would state that, if he had been or was guilty of the charges we would charge him with, he would not make acknowledgment, but would rather be d.a.m.ned, for it would detract from his dignity and would consequently prove the overthrow of the church.

We would ask him, on the other hand, if the overthrow of the church were not inevitable; to which he often replied that we would all go to h.e.l.l together and convert it into a heaven by casting the devil out; and, says he, h.e.l.l is by no means the place this world of fools supposes it to be, but, on the contrary, it is quite an agreeable place.”

The ”preamble” further set forth the methods employed by Smith to induce women from other countries, who had joined the Mormons in Nauvoo, to become his spiritual wives, reciting the arguments advanced, and thus summing up the general result: ”She is thunderstruck, faints, recovers and refuses. The prophet d.a.m.ns her if she rejects. She thinks of the great sacrifice, and of the many thousand miles she has travelled over sea and land that she might save her soul from pending ruin, and replies, 'G.o.d's will be done and not mine.' The prophet and his devotees in this way are gratified.” Smith's political aspirations were condemned as preposterous, and the false ”doctrine of many G.o.ds” was called blasphemy.

Fifteen resolutions followed. They declared against the evils named, and also condemned the order to the Saints to gather in haste at Nauvoo, explaining that the purpose of this command was to enable the men in control of the church to sell property at exorbitant prices, ”and thus the wealth that is brought into the place is swallowed up by the one great throat, from whence there is no return.” The seceders a.s.serted that, although they had an intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the church, they did not know of any property belonging to it except the Temple. Finally, as speaking for the true church, they ordered all preachers to cease to teach the doctrine of plural G.o.ds, a plurality of wives, sealing, etc., and directed offenders in this respect to report and have their licenses renewed. Another feature of the issue was a column address signed by Francis M. Higbee, advising the citizens of Hanc.o.c.k County not to send Hyrum Smith to the legislature, since to support him was to support Joseph, ”a man who contends all governments are to be put down, and one established upon its ruins.”

The appearance of this sheet created the greatest excitement among the Mormon leaders that they had experienced since leaving Missouri.

They recognized in it immediately a mouthpiece of men who were better informed than Bennett, and who were ready to address an audience composed both of their own flock and of their outlying non-Mormon neighbors, whose antipathy to them was already manifesting itself aggressively. To permit the continued publication of this sheet meant one of those surrenders which Smith had never made.

The prophet therefore took just such action as would have been expected of him in the circ.u.mstances. Calling a meeting of the City Council, he proceeded to put the Expositor and its editors on trial, as if that body was of a judicial instead of a legislative character. The minutes of this trial, which lasted all of Sat.u.r.day, June 8, and a part of Monday, June l0, 1844, can be found in the Neighbor of June 19, of that year, filling six columns. The prophet-mayor occupied the chair, and the defendants were absent.

The testimony introduced aimed at the start to break down the characters of Dr. Foster, Higbee, and the Laws. A mechanic testified that the Laws had bought ”bogus”--(counterfeit) dies of him. The prophet told how William Law had ”pursued” him to recover $40,000 that Smith owed him.

Hyrum Smith alleged that William Law had offered to give a man $500 if he would kill Hyrum, and had confessed adultery to him, making a still more heinous charge against Higbee. Hyrum referred ”to the revelation of the High Council of the church, which has caused so much talk about a multiplicity of wives,” and declared that it ”concerned things which transpired in former days, and had no reference to the present time.”

Testimony was also given to show that the Laws were not liberal to the poor, and that William's motto with his fellow-churchmen who owed him was, ”Punctuality, punctuality.”* This was naturally a serious offence in the eyes of the Smiths.

* The Expositor contained this advertis.e.m.e.nt: ”The subscribers wish to inform all those who, through sickness or other misfortunes, are much limited is their means of procuring bread for their families, that we have allotted Thursday of every week to grind toll free for them, till grain becomes plentiful after harvest.--W. & W. Law.”

The prophet declared that the conduct of such men, and of such papers as the Expositor, was calculated to destroy the peace of the city. He unblus.h.i.+ngly a.s.serted that what he had preached about marriage only showed the order in ancient days, having nothing to do with the present time. In regard to the alleged revelation about polygamy he explained that, on inquiring of the Lord concerning the Scriptural teaching that ”they neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven,” he received a reply to the effect that men in this life must marry in one of eternity, otherwise they must remain as angels, or be single in heaven.

Smith then proposed that the Council make some provision for putting down the Expositor, declaring its allegations to be ”treasonable against all chartered rights and privileges.” He read from the federal and state const.i.tutions to define his idea of the rights of the press, and quoted Blackstone on private wrongs. Hyrum openly advocated smas.h.i.+ng the press and pieing the type. One councillor alone raised his voice for moderation, proposing to give the offenders a few days' notice, and to a.s.sess a fine of $300 for every libel. W. W. Phelps (who was back in the fold again) held that the city charter gave them power to declare the newspaper a nuisance, and cited the spilling of the tea in Boston harbor as a precedent for an attack on the Expositor office. Finally, on June 10, this resolution was pa.s.sed unanimously:--

”Resolved by the City Council of the City of Nauvoo that the printing office from whence issues the Nauvoo Expositor is a public nuisance, and also all of said Nauvoo Expositors which may be or exist in said establishment; and the mayor is instructed to cause said printing establishment and papers to be removed without delay, in such manner as he shall direct.”