The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt: One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry, and TravelsPratt, Parley P. (Parley Parker)
Religion
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt: One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry, and Travels
Pratt, Parley P. (Parley Parker)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Apostles -- Biography; Pratt, Parley P. (Parley Parker), 1807-1857
The next morning after our dialogue with General Clark he again
entered our prison and informed us that he had concluded to deliver
us over to the civil authorities for an examining trial. He was
then asked why he did not do away with the unlawful decree of
_banishment_, which was first ordered by General Lucas, in
compliance with the Governor's order, and which compelled thousands
of citizens to leave the State. Or upon what principle the military
power aided the civil law against us, while at the same time it
caused our families and friends to be murdered, plundered and
driven, contrary to all law?
He replied that he approved of all the proceedings of General
Lucas, and should not alter them. I make this statement because
some writers have commended Clark for his heroic, merciful, and
prudent conduct towards our society, and have endeavored to make it
appear that Clark was not to be blamed for any of the measures of
Lucas.
The Court of Inquiry now commenced, before Judge Austin A. King.
This continued from the 11th to 28th of November, and our brethren,
some fifty in number, were penned up in the cold, dreary court
house. It was a very severe time of snow and winter weather, and we
suffered much. During this time Elder Rigdon was taken very sick,
from hardship and exposure, and finally lost his reason; but still
he was kept in a miserable, noisy and cold room, and compelled to
sleep on the floor with a chain and padlock round his ankle, and
fastened to six others. Here he endured the constant noise and
confusion of an unruly guard, the officer of which was Colonel
Sterling Price, since Governor of the State.
These guards were composed generally of the most noisy, foul
mouthed, vulgar, disgraceful rabble that ever defiled the earth.
While he lay in this situation his son-in-law, George W. Robinson,
the only male member of his family, was chained by his side. Thus
Mrs. Rigdon and her daughters were left entirely destitute and
unprotected. One of his daughters, Mrs. Robinson, a young and
delicate female, with her little infant, came down to see her
husband, and to comfort and take care of her father in his
sickness. When she first entered the room, amid the clank of chains
and the rattle of weapons, and cast her eyes on her sick and
dejected parent and sorrow worn husband, she was speechless, and
only gave vent to her feelings in a flood of tears. This faithful
lady, with her little infant, continued by the side of her father
till he recovered from his sickness, and till his fevered and
disordered mind resumed its wonted powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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