of Fifty. Galland's suggestion about a college received practical shape in the incorporation of a university, in whose board of regents the leading men of the church, including Galland himself, found places. The faculty consisted of James Keeley, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as president; Orson Pratt as professor of mathematics and English literature; Orson Spencer, a graduate of Union College and the Baptist Theological Seminary in New York, as professor of languages; and Sidney Rigdon as professor of church history. The tuition fee was $5 per quarter.

CHAPTER V

THE MORMONS IN POLITICS - MISSOURI REQUISITIONS FOR SMITH

THE Mormons were now equipped in their new home with large landed possessions, a capital city that exhibited a phenomenal growth, and a form of local government which made Nauvoo a little independency of itself; their prophet wielding as much authority and receiving as much submission as ever; a Temple under way which would excel anything that had been designed in Ohio or Missouri, and a stream of immigration pouring in which gaveassurance of continued numerical increase. What were the causes of the complete overthrow of this apparent prosperity which so speedily followed? These causes were of a twofold character political and social. The two were interwoven in many ways, but we can best trace them separately.

We have seen that a Democratic organization gave the first welcome to the Mormon refugees at Quincy. In the presidential campaign of 1836 the vote of Illinois had been: Democratic, 17,275, Whig, 14,292; that of Hancock County, Democratic, 260, Whig, 340. The closeness of this vote explained the welcome that was extended to the new-comers.

It does not appear that Smith had any original party predilections. But he was not pleased with questions which President Van Buren asked him when he was in Washington (from November, 1839, to February, 1840) seeking federal aid to secure redress from Missouri, and he wrote to the High Council from that city, "We do not say the Saints shall not vote for him, but we do say boldly (though it need not be published in the streets of Nauvoo, neither among the daughters of the Gentiles), that we do not intend he shall have our votes." "1

1 Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p. 452.

On his return to Illinois Smith was toadied to by the workers of both parties. He candidly told them that he had no faith in either; but the Whigs secured his influence, and, by an intimation that there was divine authority for their course, the Mormon vote was cast for Harrison, giving him a majority of 752 in Hancock County. In order to keep the Democrats in good humor, the Mormons scratched the last name on the Whig electoral ticket (Abraham Lincoln)1 and substituted that of a Democrat. This demonstration of their political weight made the Mormons an object of consideration at the state capital, and was the direct cause of the success of the petition which they sent there, signed by some thousands of names, asking for a charter for Nauvoo. The representatives of both parties were eager to show them favor. Bennett, in a letter to the Times and Seasons from Springfield, spoke of the readiness of all the members to vote for what the Mormons wanted, adding that "Lincoln had the magnanimity to vote for our act, and came forward after the final vote and congratulated me on its passage."

In the gubernatorial campaign of 1841-1842 Smith swung the Mormon vote back to the Democrats, giving them a majority of more than one thousand in the county. This was done publicly, in a letter addressed "To my friends in Illinois," dated December 20, 1841, in which the prophet, after pointing out that no persons at the state capital were more efficient in securing the passage of the Nauvoo charter than the heads of the present Democratic ticket, made this declaration:

"The partisans in this county who expect to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will find themselves mistaken. We care not a fig for Whig or Democrat; they are both alike to us; but we shall go for our friends, OUR TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of human liberty which is the cause of God. . . Snyder and Moore are known to be our friends. We will never be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude, - they have served us, and we will serve them."

If Smith had been a man possessing any judgment, he would have realized that the political course which he was pursuing, instead of making friends in either party, would certainly soon

1 This is mentioned in "Joab's" (Bennett's) letter, Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 267. * Times and Seasons, Vol. III, p. 651.

arraign both parties against him and his followers. The Mormons announced themselves distinctly to be a church, and they were now exhibiting themselves as a religious body already numerically strong and increasing in numbers, which stood ready to obey the political mandate of one man, or at least of one controlling authority. The natural consequence of this soon manifested itself.

A congressional and a county election were approaching, and a mass meeting, made up of both Whigs and Democrats of Hancock County, was held to place in the field a non-Mormon county ticket. The fusion was not accomplished without heart-burnings on the part of some unsuccessful aspirants for nominations. A few of these went over to Smith, and the election resulted in the success of the state Democratic and the Mormon local ticket, legislative and county, Smith's brother William being elected to the House. It is easy to realize that this victory did not lessen Smith's aggressive egotism.

Some important matters were involved in the next political contest, the congressional election of August, 1843. The Whigs nominated Cyrus Walker, a lawyer of reputation living in McDonough County, and the Democrats J. P. Hoge, also a lawyer, but a weaker candidate at the polls. Every one conceded that Smith's dictum would decide the contest.

On May 6, 1842, Governor Boggs of Missouri, while sitting near a window in his house in Independence, was fired at, and wounded so severely that his recovery was for some days in doubt. The crime was naturally charged to his Mormon enemies,1 and was finally narrowed down to O. P. Rockwell, a Mormon living

1 The hatred felt toward Governor Boggs by the Mormon leaders was not concealed. Thus, an editorial in the Times and Seasons of January 1, 1841, headed "Lilburn W. Boggs," began, "The THING whose name stands at the head of this article," etc. Referring to the ending of his term of office, the article said, "Lilburn has gone down to the dark and dreary abode of his brother and prototype, Nero, there to associate with kindred spirits and partake of the dainties of his father's, the devil's, table."

Bennett afterward stated that he heard Joseph Smith say, on July 10, 1842, that Governor Boggs, "the exterminator, should be exterminated," and that the Destroying Angels (Danites) should do it; also that in the spring of that year he heard Smith, at a meeting of Danites, offer to pay any man $500 who would secretly assassinate the govBennett's statement is only cited for what it may be worth; that some Mormon fired the shot is within the limit of strict probability.

ernor.

2 Rockwell, who, in his latter days, was employed by General Connor to guard stock in California, told the general that he fired the shot at Governor Boggs, and was sorry it did not kill him. 66 Mormon Portraits," p. 255.

in Nauvoo, as the agent, and Joseph Smith, Jr., as the instigator. Indictments were found against both of them in Missouri, and a requisition for Smith's surrender was made by the governor of that state on the governor of Illinois. Smith was arrested under

the governor's warrant. Now came an illustration of the value to him of the form of government provided by the Nauvoo charter. Taken before his own municipal court, he was released at once on a writ of habeas corpus. This assumption of power by a local court aroused the indignation of non-Mormons throughout the state. Governor Carlin characterized it somewhat later, in a letter to Smith's wife, as "most absurd and ridiculous; to attempt to exercise it is a gross usurpation of power that cannot be tolerated." 1

Notwithstanding his release, Smith thought it best to remain in hiding for some time to escape another arrest, for which the governor ordered a reward of $200. About the middle of August his associates in Nauvoo concluded that the outlook for him was so bad, notwithstanding the protection which his city court was ready to afford, that it might be best for him to flee to the pine woods of the North country. Smith incorporates in his autobiography a long letter which he wrote to his wife at this time,2 giving her directions about this flight if it should become necessary. Their goods were to be loaded on a boat manned by twenty of the best men who could be selected, and who would meet them at Prairie du Chien: "And from thence we will wend our way like larks up the Mississippi, until the towering mountains and rocks shall remind us of the places of our nativity, and shall look like safety and home; and there we will bid defiance to Carlin, Boggs, Bennett, and all their whorish whores and motley clan, that follow in their wake, Missouri not excepted, and until the damnation of Hell rolls upon them by the voice and dread thunders and trump of the eternal God."

In October Rigdon obtained from Justin Butterfield, United States attorney for Illinois, an opinion that Smith could not be held on a Missouri requisition for a crime committed in that state when he was in Illinois. In December, 1842, Smith was placed under arrest and taken before the United States District Court at Springfield, Illinois, under a writ of habeas corpus issued by 2 Ibid., pp. 693-695.

1 Millennial Star, Vol. XX, p. 23.