The persecutions of the Saints in Missouri soon began to be re-enacted in Illinois, where large numbers of our people had settled and built up the beautiful city of Nauvoo. Our enemies of the former place would not allow us to enjoy peace in the latter, but did everything in their power to arouse public indignation against us. Men who professed to be members of the Church also turned away from the truth and sought to injure the work. Notable among this latter class was John C. Bennett. He came to Nauvoo and joined the Church; with considerable ostentation he brought himself before the people, and seemed to enter into the work with a whole-heartedness which was quite commendable. He was instrumental in obtaining the charter for Nauvoo, the legion and the university; was elected mayor of the city, major general of the legion, and chancelor of the university. He defended the Prophet Joseph by writing over the _non de plume_ of "Joab, general in Israel," and was altogether a popular man, and run a rapid race. But he was only an adventurer, and his deeds of evil were eventually brought to light; for no sooner had he attained to these responsible positions than he sought to use the influence they gave him to accomplish his evil designs, and gave himself up to practices, not only diabolical in themselves but ruinous to the souls of those he entrapped. Thus he brought great scandal upon the Church, by seeking to destroy the innocent and virtuous; and when his acts were questioned by his intended victims he asserted that Joseph taught and sanctioned such doings. If his own assertions were not sufficient then he called on some of his tools--men he had in league with him--to bear testimony to his base lies. In this manner his deeds were brought to light, and then he used all his power to injure those whom he had before defended, and sought to bring about a renewal of the persecutions.