CHAPTER 20.
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOSEPH AND HYRUM, 1844.
Mission of the Apostles to the East.--A Warning to W. W.--A Sad Parting.--Political News of the Prophet Published.--W. W. Arrives in Boston, June 26.--The Martyrdom.--Its Announcement Reaches W. W. in Portland, Maine.--His Return to Boston.--an Epistle to the Elders and Saints in the World.--W. W. Visits His Old Home.--Return to Nauvoo.--Conditions in That City.
The fourth of March, 1844, brought to Elder Woodruff's life the satisfaction that comes to those who esteem it a divinely appointed joy to sit beneath their own vine and fig tree. He moved on that day to the new home he had erected in Illinois; and for the first time he could leave his family, while abroad preaching the gospel, in some measure of comfort and independence. He felt now, more than ever, from a material point of view, that he had prepared for the missionary service which belonged to his calling.
The opportunity for missionary service soon came. The Laws, Higbees, Fosters, Blakesley, and others came out in open rebellion against the Prophet of God, who now felt a foreboding of evil days to come. The Prophet, therefore, made a call upon the Twelve to take a mission to the Eastern States. He would not have their lives jeopardized by the enmity which was intensifying about him. Upon the Twelve rested the responsibility of the Kingdom, should he be called to lay down his life. Elder Woodruff left Nauvoo in company with George A. Smith, J. M. Grant, Ezra Thayer, and the latter's son. Of this circumstance he writes, "This was the last mission the Prophet ever gave to the Twelve Apostles in this dispensation. He wished none of us to remain by him except Willard Richards. Apostle John Taylor was later required to remain and take charge of the printing and publications. The Prophet then turned to me and said: 'Brother Woodruff, I want you to go, and if you do not you will die.' His words rested with mighty weight upon me when he spoke, and I have often thought since, in contemplation of the awful tragedy of his and Hyrum's martyrdom, how truly his {205} words would have been verified had I remained. Elder Taylor barely escaped. Willard Richards escaped the bullets altogether. He escaped, as was written of him later, 'without even a hole in his robe.' I took the parting hand of Hyrum and Joseph, at their own dwellings. Joseph stood in the entry of his door when I took his hand to bid him farewell. Brother J. M. Grant was with me. As he took me by the hand, he said: 'Brother Woodruff, you are about to start upon your mission.' I answered, 'Yes.' He looked me steadily in the eye for a time without speaking a word; he looked as though he would penetrate my very soul, and at the same time seemed unspeakably sorrowful as if weighed down by a foreboding of something dreadful. He finally spoke in a mournful voice: 'God bless you, Brother Woodruff; go in peace.' I turned and left him with a sorrowful heart, partaking of the same spirit which rested upon him. This was the last time I ever saw his face or heard his voice again--in the flesh. Sad were the last months of the Prophet's life. They were like the last days of Him who died on Calvary for the redemption of a fallen world. The Apostles of this dispensation, while not aware of the coming events in all their fullness, were yet more fully prepared for the sad event than were the Apostles of Jerusalem. Those of the latter days had been endowed with power from on high, and they did not slumber while their Prophet suffered, as did those 'in the Garden of Gethsemane.'"
After departing upon his mission, Elder Woodruff and others passed the first week in holding public meetings, and on the 18th of May held their first conference in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois. With him at this conference was George A. Smith of the Twelve. At its close they were joined by Elders Charles C. Rich, David Fulmer, and Henry Jacobs from Nauvoo. The evening following they held a political meeting over which Wilford Woodruff presided. Henry Jacobs read the views of Joseph Smith on the policy and powers of the general government. Spirited addresses were made by David Fulmer, Wilford Woodruff, and George A. Smith. The day following they rode thirty miles to Joliet, where a similar meeting was held, and where a good impression was made upon the minds of the people. In his journal he says: "We continued from place to place, holding forth in public assemblage upon political subjects, reading the {206} views of Joseph Smith and placing him before the public as a fit candidate for the presidency of the United States.
"On the first of June we held conference in Comstock, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. There were present two of the Quorum, myself and George A. Smith. There were eight high priests; S. Bent, Charles C. Richor, David Fulmer, H. Green, Z. Coltrin, Moses Smith, Ezra Thayer, and G. Coltrin; eight seventies and fourteen elders; two priests and one deacon. Charles C. Rich, in council with the officers, appointed the elders to their respective stations in the several counties of the state, and he manifested much wisdom in arranging to carry out his work both in politics and religion in the state of Michigan."
On the eighth day they held a conference in Pleasant Valley, and another in Franklin on the fifteenth. Soon after this Elder Woodruff proceeded to Boston, where he arrived on the 26th of June. On the 27th, the most sorrowful day of this dispensation, he was in company with President Brigham Young. Of this day he subsequently wrote: "The day of the martyrdom, Brigham Young and myself were seated in the railroad station at the time Joseph and Hyrum were assassinated. This was June the 27th, at quarter past five in the evening, at Carthage, Illinois. It was half-past six in Boston. As we sat in the station, Brigham was very sorrowful and depressed in spirit, not knowing the cause. This was the time when Satan struck the heaviest blow he had struck since the Son of God was crucified. We well knew afterwards why all the Twelve, wherever they were on that day and at that time, were, like the president of our Quorum, sorrowful, and burdened in spirit without knowing why."
On the 29th of June the Twelve held a conference with the Saints in Boston. They met in Franklin Hall. There were present Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, William Smith, and Lyman Wight. President Young presided. It occupied two days. The conference was well attended, and every effort was made to present the views of the Prophet and explain the character of the Latter-day Saints. The conference also received instructions in political matters.
July first, by previous appointment, a convention was held in {207} Melodian Hall. Brigham Young of Nauvoo presided. William Smith and Lyman Wight were vice presidents. Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and A. McAllister of Boston, and N. H. Felt of Salem were secretaries. Resolutions were passed and proceedings of the meeting were published in the "Boston Times" of July 2nd, 1844. An evening session of the convention was held. A number of rowdies made their appearance in the galleries. While President Young was speaking, a woman by the name of Folsom, arose and began to harangue the audience; then a rowdy, supported by a large number of kindred spirits, made such a disturbance that the police came in to quell those creating the confusion. The police, however, were overpowered by the rough element and the meeting was broken up. The convention, however, adjourned until 4 p. m. the following day, to meet at Bunker Hill. Here Heber C. Kimball and George B. Wallace were elected delegates to attend the Baltimore National Convention.
On July 2nd the Twelve met in council and made their plans to support and attend the several conferences in the various states. Elder Woodruff and his old-time friend, Milton Holmes, whom he had not seen for five years, went into Maine. "We left Boston," he says, "at seven p. m. on the 2nd and arrived at Father Carter's home in Scarboro early the next afternoon. I found my wife's father and mother and Brother Fabyan and family all well." A Brother Stoddard had already made the appointment for their conference on the 6th and 7th at Scarboro, in a Presbyterian chapel. About six hundred people assembled. There were present besides himself S. B. Stoddard, Milton Holmes, Elbridge Tufts, and Samuel Parker.
On the 9th, in company with Milton Holmes and Father Carter, Elder Woodruff visited Portland, and dined with his brother-in-law, Ezra Carter. While there he saw for the first time the announcement in the press of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It was published in the "Boston Times." In consequence of the shocking news, he repaired at once to Boston, and the day following his arrival there he met with the Saints and gave them counsel and comfort in the hour of their bereavement. "The next day," he says in his journal, "I wrote a letter to the editor of the "Prophet," published in New York, giving a word of exhortation {208} to the Saints abroad to maintain their integrity, and to keep the faith and endurance of the Saints even unto death. The following morning we obtained information from Quincy, giving full account of the horrible affair at Carthage and the great loss which the Church had sustained.
"The governor himself acknowledged the death of Joseph and Hyrum to be a wanton murder. The state of Illinois was in commotion, and Governor Ford made Quincy his headquarters and issued a proclamation to the citizens of the state. The news of the day stated that the Mormon leaders in Nauvoo had done all they could to restrain the disciples of the martyred Prophet from vengeance. Still there was evidently a disposition on the part of the people and the troops to destroy Nauvoo, lest the Mormons should hold a fearful reckoning with the mobocratic element in desperation over the assassination of their Prophet and Patriarch. 'The wicked flee when no man pursueth.'"
On Sunday, the 14th, Elder Woodruff preached twice to the Saints in Boston, he being the only one of the Twelve then in that city. On the morning of the 16th of July he received a letter from Erastus Snow and one from John E. Page, both confirming the report of the martyrdom. The same day he received the first letter he had obtained from his wife since leaving Nauvoo. This letter contained the narration of a dream given to the Prophet Joseph a few days before his death. In the dream there was clearly indicated to him the conspiracy and treachery of William and Wilson Law, and the fact, too, that they would yet cry unto Joseph to deliver them from the grasp of the monster into whose hands they had wilfully placed themselves; and that his power to help them would be like that of Lazarus, to whom the rich man appealed. There was a gulf between them.
On the 17th of July he says, in his journal: "Elder Brigham Young arrived in Boston. I walked with him to No. 57 Temple Street and called upon Sister Vose. Brother Young took the bed and I the armchair, and then we veiled our faces and gave vent to our grief. Until now I had not shed a tear since the death of the Prophet. My soul had been nerved up like steel. After giving vent to our grief in tears we felt more composed. Brother Brigham left the city the same day, but soon returned. Elders {209} Kimball, Hyde, and Orson Pratt also came. We held a council and I was directed to write a letter to the "Prophet," edited in New York, advising the elders who had families in Nauvoo to go immediately to them, and all the elders of the Church to assemble forthwith at Nauvoo for a council. It was signed by order of the quorum of the Twelve, Brigham Young, president, and Wilford Woodruff, clerk. This order of the quorum was subsequently published in the "News,"