"My brethren!" he exclaimed, in a loud voice, "this day is a happy one to me, to us all, who venerate the great and only faith. The truth of our great and blessed doctrine will now be proved before the thousands I see around me. You have asked me to prove by a miracle that the power of the prophets of old has been given to me. I say unto you, not only to me, but to all who have faith. I have faith, and can perform miracles --that faith empowers me to walk across the broad surface of that mighty river without wetting the soles of my unworthy feet; but if ye are to _see_ this miracle performed, it is necessary that ye have faith also, not only in yourselves, but in me. Have ye this faith in yourselves?" "We have, we have!" roared the crowd. "Have ye the faith in me, that ye believe I can perform this miracle?" "We have, we have!" roared the crowd. "Then," said Joe Smith, coolly walking away, "with such faith do ye know well that I could, but it boots not that I _should_, do it; therefore, my brethren, doubt no more"--and Joe put on his boots and disappeared. Being again compelled to emigrate, the Mormons proceeded into the state of Illinois, where, in a beautiful situation, they founded the new Jerusalem, which, it had been declared by the prophet Mormon, should rise out of the wilderness of the west, and where the chosen people should be collected under one church, and governed by the elders after a "spiritual fashion." The city of Nauvoo soon became a large and imposing settlement. An enormous building, called the Temple of Zion, was erected, half church, half hotel, in which Joe Smith and the other prophets resided--and large store-houses were connected with it, in which the goods and chattels belonging to the community were kept for the common good. However, here, as everywhere else, they were continually quarreling with their neighbors; and as their numbers increased, so did their audacity. A regular Mormon militia was again organized and armed, under the command of experienced officers who had joined the sect; and now the authority of the state government was openly defied. In consequence, the executive took measures to put down the nuisance, and a regular war commenced, and was carried on for some time, with no little bloodshed on both sides; and this armed movement is known in the United States as the Mormon war. The Mormons, however, who, it seemed, were much better skilled in the use of the tongue than the rifle, succumbed: the city of Nauvoo was taken, Joe Smith and other ring-leading prophets captured; and the former, in an attempt to escape from his place of confinement, was seized and shot. The Mormons declare he had long foretold his own fate; and that when the rifles of the firing party who were his executioners were leveled at the prophet's breast, a flash of lightning struck the weapons from their hands, and blinded for a time the eyes of the sacrilegious soldiers.