CHAPTER XXXVI.

1843.

A BLOODY WAR PREDICTED--THE PROPHET'S INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS--A PROPHECY--THE CELESTIAL ORDER OF MARRIAGE--JOSEPH KIDNAPPED AND ABUSED--HE ENTERTAINS THE MEN WHO SOUGHT TO TAKE HIS LIFE.

When Judge Pope declared that Joseph was a free man again after the trial at Springfield, on the fifth of January, 1843, a few months of peace followed his long hiding. It was a happy, busy time for the Prophet--a time when many prophecies were uttered by him and much precious truth given to the Saints. In the early part of this year there was a great stir made about the prophecy of a man named Miller who said that Jesus and the day of judgment were to come on April 3rd. A committee of young men came from New York to see Joseph about this, and he said positively that the Lord would not come in the year 1843 to reign in this world. At a later time in a conference, he declared to the Saints that Jesus would not come before he, Joseph, was eighty-five years old.

Orrin P. Rockwell was captured by the Missourians and thrown into prison in the month of March, and when the Prophet heard it, he prophesied in the most positive terms that Brother Rockwell would get away honorably from his captors.

One night about the same time Joseph, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards saw a great streak of light in the sky in the shape of a sword with the hilt downward. The Prophet told them that as sure as God sits on a throne in heaven, so sure would there be a bloody war, and the flaming sword was a certain sign thereof. A short time after this he repeated the prophecy that the bloodshed should begin in South Carolina.

On the eighteenth of May, Joseph passed through Quincy, and on the invitation of Stephen A. Douglas, stopped and dined with him. Judge Douglas asked for an account of the Missouri persecutions, and when Joseph finished it, Douglas spoke in the strongest terms against Boggs and the other officials and said that they should be punished. After dinner Joseph said to his host:

Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States, and if you ever turn your hand against the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you, for the conversation of this day will be with you through life.

The prophecy was fulfilled. Douglas did turn his hand against the Latter-day Saints, in the hope of winning favor thereby, and when he ran for president against Abraham Lincoln in the fall of 1860, he was defeated, and soon after died.

A great trial came to the Prophet in the latter part of his life and a very severe test was made of his willingness to obey the word of God unto him. The Lord revealed that He wished his faithful servants to take more than one wife, as did the patriarchs and righteous men of old. This was so new and strange a practice that the Prophet hesitated and did not at once obey. He put it off from time to time until at length an angel of God appeared before him with a drawn sword, and said that unless he obeyed the command to teach this doctrine and establish it his priesthood would be taken from him and he would be destroyed.

Of course two warnings of this kind were not needed, and Joseph at once began to teach Hyrum and other faithful, true men the will of the Lord. He told Emma, his wife, but at first she looked at it as he had done. After a struggle she consented that her husband take other wives and she herself gave them unto him. Even then Joseph did not think it wise to make the revelation public, and not until the twelfth day of July was it written down. Just one month later it was read before the High Council at Nauvoo, by Hyrum Smith. In speaking on the principle Hyrum declared that those who accepted it would be blessed with the Spirit of God and the confidence of the Saints, while those who rejected it should lose their faith and power, and this proved true.

The Prophet was not engaged entirely in spiritual matters during the first half of 1843. He had been elected mayor of Nauvoo, and gave much attention to his various duties. He was full of life and vigor and kept up his athletic practices. It was during this time that he met William Wall, a champion wrestler of Ramus, Illinois, and had a friendly bout with him. It must have been a fine thing to see those two powerful men struggling with all the skill they had for the mastery, but Wall had met a match and Joseph came off victor.

In the month of June a plot was laid for Bennett, the apostate, and Samuel Owens, the old leader of the Jackson county mobs, to bring Joseph back to Missouri. They worked upon Governors Reynolds and Ford; and two men, Sheriff Reynolds of Jackson county and Sheriff Wilson of Hancock county, were sent to capture him. The Prophet was visiting near Dixon, about one hundred and fifty miles from Nauvoo, when the two officers, disguised as Mormon missionaries, came to the house where he was staying and said, "We want to see Brother Joseph." As soon as he came to the door they drew their pistols and threatened, with many curses, to kill him. He told them to shoot, he was not afraid to die, but he demanded that they show some writ on which they made the arrest.

They had no writ to show, but they struck him with their pistols, dragged him to the wagon and tried to drive away. Stephen Markham, however, held the horses although the officers swore they would shoot him, until Emma brought Joseph's coat and hat. It was eight miles to Dixon, and on the way these bad men kept striking him and punching him in the sides with their pistols. When they reached the tavern, where they changed horses, the Prophet was almost fainting. A great spot on each side was black and blue from their blows.

Brother Markham had followed the kidnappers on horseback to Dixon, and before they could get away, he told the story of the outrage and secured a lawyer. The brutal officers were arrested and placed in charge of Sheriff Campbell and Joseph was given a writ of habeas corpus, which permitted him to have a hearing before the circuit court at Ottowa.

Next day Joseph, in the hands of Reynolds and Wilson, and they in the hands of Sheriff Campbell, started out. They stopped at night at Papaw grove, where the Prophet was asked to preach. Reynolds jumped up and yelled that the people must disperse, but an old man with a thick cane walked up and said to the Missourian:

"You damned infernal puke, we'll learn you to come here and interrupt our gentlemen. Sit down there, and sit still. Don't you open your head until General Smith gets through talking. If you never learned manners in Missouri, we'll teach you that gentlemen are not to be imposed upon by a nigger-driver. You cannot kidnap men here."

Reynolds knew that he would be lynched if he did not behave, and he sat down very quietly. The Prophet spoke for an hour and a half on marriage, the subject called for by the audience.

Judge Caton of the circuit court was found to be in New York. A new writ was made out and the party started for Quincy to have the trial before Judge Douglas. Stephen Markham rode quickly on horseback toward Nauvoo, but on the way met one hundred and seventy-five men, who, hearing that the Prophet was being kidnapped, had come to rescue him.

When they met him some of them burst into tears and threw their arms about him. Joseph said to Reynolds and Wilson, "I think I will not go to Missouri this time, gentlemen, these are my boys." The two sheriffs were frightened nearly to death, thinking they were going to be punished at once, and Reynolds asked, "Is Jem Flack in the crowd?" Some one answered that the Missourian would see him the next day. With a doleful look Reynolds whined, "Then I am a dead man, for I know him of old." The Prophet, however, gave the officers his pledge that no harm should be done them.

It was decided by Joseph's lawyers and the others that the trial might be held at Nauvoo instead of Quincy and this was very pleasing to the Prophet. Reynolds and Wilson, however, kept plotting to get Joseph into the hands of his enemies. They wished to take him to the mouth of Rock river, which flowed into the Mississippi, where a band of their friends were waiting to help them, but Sheriff Campbell, who had them under arrest, took away their arms and kept them from again running away with the Prophet.

Before they reached Nauvoo one of the lawyers for the kidnappers challenged any of the party to wrestle at side-hold for a wager. Stephen Markham offered to wrestle him for fun and the lawyer threw him. Joseph's enemies, lacking the spirit of true sport, began making fun of Brother Markham and his friends. The Prophet turned to Philemon C. Merrill, a young man, and said, "Get up and throw that man."

Brother Merrill was not a side-hold wrestler and he hesitated, but Joseph again commanded him in such a tone that the young man waited to offer no excuse. He stood up, held up his arms and told the lawyer to choose his hold. He did not object when his opponent put his right arm under. The Prophet said: "Philemon, when I count three, throw him." As soon as the signal was given, Brother Merrill swung the lawyer over his shoulder and threw him, head downward, to the ground. All who saw the act were filled with awe.

At Nauvoo all was gladness at the Prophet's safe return. Hyrum took his brother in his arms and wept for joy. A feast was prepared at the Prophet's house and Reynolds and Wilson with about fifty others sat down at the table. Emma entertained these men who had tried to kidnap and murder her husband, as if they were guests of honor, but so brutal had they become that when they left Nauvoo they went to Carthage and tried to raise the militia to come upon the city of the Saints. This Governor Ford was wise enough to refuse. Joseph was set free by the court at Nauvoo, and for a time his troubles were at an end.