Judge Douglas aspired, as stated, to the Presidency of the United States, and was nominated for that position on June 23d, 1860, at the Democratic convention held in Charleston. When he thus aspired he was a popular man, eloquent and gifted, and no one seemed to have brighter hopes of success. However, in his mistaken effort to win popular approval, in a speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois, June 12th, 1857, he, in defiance of his own knowledge of the Latter-day Saints and their character, said: "The knife must be applied to this pestiferous, body politic. It must be cut out by the roots and seared over by the red-hot iron of stern and unflinching law." Much more he uttered against the Latter-day Saints, in harmony with misguided public sentiment. When the election came Douglas was badly defeated. Of the electoral votes he had but twelve. He carried but one state. Feeling "the weight of the hand of the Almighty upon him," he died a disappointed, heart-broken man, in less than a year, in the prime of life, being but forty-eight years of age. Thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled with terrible accuracy. Again Joseph said: "I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains; many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure and disease; and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains." (_Mill. Star_, Vol. xix., page 630.) The Saints did continue to suffer much persecution, some did apostatize, others did die of exposure, disease and privation. Others were put to death by persecutors; some lived to go to the Rocky Mountains. They have assisted there in building cities, towns and temples, in making a great commonwealth, and the Saints have become a mighty people in the midst of these mountains. They attract the attention of the world. "A city set on a hill cannot be hid." These prophecies, uttered by Joseph Smith, have come to pass, as have many others, and that, too, contrary to all human prospects. All his prophecies not yet verified relate to future times, and will come to pass as literally and exactly as those of the past or those of any other prophet since the world began, for God inspired and Joseph spoke.